Bradley Wright-Phillips was so sick, burning up with a fever he couldn’t practice Tuesday. But the previously struggling striker was red hot Wednesday, his hat-trick leading the Red Bulls to a 4-0 emasculation of Houston.
Against the same Dynamo team that upset the Supporters’ Shield-winning Red Bulls in last year’s playoffs, Wright-Phillips was nothing short of dynamic. The English striker scored their first two goals, helped create Thierry Henry’s third and notched the fourth on an 86th-minute penalty kick.
“[Wednesday] I felt good. [Tuesday] I was in trouble,’’ said Wright-Phillips, who had just three goals since arriving last year, but doubled his MLS total in one breakout night before 13,278 at Red Bull Arena. “I’ve been getting in those areas some I should’ve scored some I was in unlucky. [Wednesday] they just went in.
“You have to be there to miss them, and score them. You take criticism for missing them and you get credit for scoring them, so I keep getting in there. … I think I owed Red Bull Arena a goal. I’ve had some chances and I felt I could’ve scored, so it was nice to score at home.’’
His hat trick — the Red Bulls’ first since Henry’s on March 31, 2012 versus Montreal — and keeper Luis Robles’ clean sheet helped the Red Bulls (2-2-4, 10 points) win their second straight game and vault from the bottom of the tightly packed Eastern Conference to third.
Wright-Phillips should be so sick when they play at Columbus on Saturday.
“I told him hopefully this Friday he’ll have the flu again,’’ said coach Mike Petke, who has seen his Red Bulls fight back from a six-game winless skid to open the season and finally show signs of playing the way they’re expected.
“It was obviously a great result, some of the best soccer we’ve played this year. … I have faith in my players and I believe in their ability. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say you show up now wondering which team is going to show up and [Wednesday] the team that showed up did exactly what we expect them to do.’’
What they did was beat Houston at its own game. Wide midfielders Lloyd Sam and Eric Alexander pinched in, fullbacks Roy Miller and Kosuke Kimura got up in the attack and the Red Bulls moved the ball both quickly and dangerously.
In the 12th minute, midfielder Dax McCarty one-touched a ball to Kimura running up the right flank. He released Henry down the channel and the French star got the ball to the byline and cut back in, driving a hard low cross that Wright-Phillips got a leg on to redirect home.
The striker added another 12 minutes later. Henry won a duel with Rico Clark in midfield, leaped over the prone Dynamo midfielder and released Miller down the left flank. Miller overpowered Warren Creavalle and Wright-Phillips put his low cross away for a 2-0 cushion.
But, unlike earlier in the year, rather than give the lead up, the Red Bulls went for the jugular. In the 65th minute, Henry played Wright-Phillips through and took off running. The English striker put a shot on that keeper Tally Hall parried, but Henry easily knocked in the rebound.
When Henry was brought down in the box in the waning minutes for a penalty, Wright-Phillips calmly put it away for the final margin.
“It takes a collective effort from everybody saying I’m going to do my job and then some,’’ McCarty said. “For the most part last year that was our motto, and for some reason this year we didn’t have that same fire, and we didn’t have that same commitment. Now we’re starting to see as we get deeper in the year we’re regaining that comfort level and we’re starting to trust guys a little more.’’