Alex Muyl (left) and Kemar Lawrence celebrate the Red Bulls midfielder’s goal Saturday night. (Noah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports)
Alex Muyl Monday was named FrontRowSoccer.com player of the week.
The Red Bulls midfielder was honored for the week end on Sunday, April 23.
Muyl scored the first goal of the Red Bulls’ 2-0 home win over the Columbus Crew at Red Bull Arena Saturday night.
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Here is how FrontRowSoccer.com writer Brian Trusdell described the goal in his game report:
The Red Bulls went ahead in the 11th minute – the earliest they have scored in their eight games this season.
Standing near the midfield stripe, Felipe Martins found Sacha Kljestan on the left side at the top of the Columbus defensive third with acres of space ahead of him. Kljestan sprinted toward goal and sent a short ball to an overlapping Kemar Lawrence.
Lawrence hit a low cross into the middle, where Muyl saw it deflect up off his foot and then his chest as Columbus goalkeeper slid low to block it. The bounding ball caromed around goalkeeper Zack Steffen, leaving Muyl an easy tap into an empty net from a yard away.
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“I think he put himself in a position to score that first goal,” Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch said. “You know, a little unlucky not to reward himself with the second. When the ball get wide, always trying to find ways to get our attacking players to commit to running hard in the box. And then, you know, also delivery. So Kemar put a really good ball in there that challenged their back line.”
The New York-born Muyl scored for the second consecutive match, having tallied in the victory over D.C. United the prior week.
He was denied a second goal by Steffen’s save and a subsequent blocked shot by Crew defender Alex Crognale in the 16th minute.
“He’s always been pretty good tactically, he’s always worked his butt off,” Kljestan said. “I think now it’s gotten to a point where maybe his confidence is rising and he trains a lot around the goal. He’s always one of the type of guys that stays with [assistant coach] Chris Armas and does shooting close-in, outside the eighteen and things like that. So, we always have a lot of young guys that are working on things like that and it’s nice to see him getting himself in the box and getting on the end of things.”
FrontRowSoccer.com player of the week winners
Week 1 (March 6) — Joseph Bendik (Orlando City SC)
Week 2 (March 13) — David Villa (New York City FC)
Week 3 (March 20) — Rodney Wallace (New York City FC)
Week 4 (March 27) — Vincent Bezecourt (New York Red Bulls II)
Week 5 (April 3) — Ronald Matarrita (New York City FC)
Week 6 (April 10) — Jimmy Maurer (New York Cosmos)
Week 7 (April 17) — Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls)
Week 8 (April 24) — Alex Muyl (New York Red Bulls)
