SOME HOMEGROWN COOKING: Muyl stirs the pot, starts Red Bulls on way to victory

Alex Muyl celebrates his first goal of the season, which started the Red Bulls toward their win.  (Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports)

By Christian Arnold

FrontRowSoccer Writer

HARRISON, N.J. – When the Red Bulls needed a big goal on Saturday night Alex Muyl answered the call 40 seconds into second half of a scoreless game with D.C. United.

Sacha Kljestan fired a corner kick into the box and Muyl flew through the air, and out leaping Taylor Kemp, to send the ball into the back of the United net. The goal opened a dominant second- half performance by the Red Bulls, and was the icing on the cake of hard fought performance by the Red Bulls’ homegrown attacker.

“I think it’s taken a while for me to get comfortable and be ready to risk things,” Muyl said. “Not be afraid to make mistakes and that’s going to help. I’m still working, it’s still a process, but for young players it’s never easy. You don’t want to let the older guys down, but once you get through that it’s a learning curve and I think it just opens up the rest of it.”

Saturday was the 21-year-old striker’s sixth appearance for the Red Bulls and third start through the first seven games of the MLS campaign. The goal go-ahead goal in the 46th minute of New York’s 2-0 win over D.C. United was the third of his MLS career. And in a night that saw Muyl play a full 90-minute contest, the New York native led the team in shots on goal with three and was second in overall shots with four.

“Today he showed he was clean on the ball,” Bradley Wright-Phillips said. “He did work hard, because that’s what playing on our team requires and got he got a goal for his good play.”

Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch has noticed the confidence start to come as he expects to see more balls starting to find the net for the homegrown player.

“I know it’s only a matter of time,” Marsch said. “Sometimes with young attacking players they just need to get more into a comfort zone and more confident and then the final plays will start to come, and Alex I’d definitely put in that category, so I expect him to be much more productive from a goal scoring and assist perspective this year.”

Muyl is one of five homegrown players for New York that have been given at least one start through the first seven games. Sean Davis, Tyler Adams, Connor Lade and Derrick Etienne Jr. have been in the Starting XI at one point this year.

Adams also started Saturday and Etienne Jr. entered the match in the 70th minute. They are all part of a group of homegrown players that are starting to give the everyday players on the roster a reason to be worried about their starting spots.

“Once we get our full complement of guys I’m going to have some tough decisions,” Marsch said. “It’s not just performance in games, it’s what I see in training. I’ve got to figure out a way to kind of balance out giving opportunities and continuing to challenge different guys, and the good news is that can also give some of our more established and older players a little bit of rest at the right times.”