Red Bulls celebrate BWP’s 101st MLS career goal. (Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports)
BRIDGEVIEW, ILL. — A win is a win is a win, not no matter it looks like.
That, essentially is what Bradley Wright-Phillips said after his Red Bulls grinded out a 1-0 victory at the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park Saturday night.
It might not have been the prettiest of results, but New York pocketed three road points.
“As I’ve said before, credit to a team that can win ugly,” said Wright-Phillips, who tallied the lone goal of the match. “They say that’s a good team. Today was not the most enjoyable game but the boys stuck with it and defended well. We kept them down to only a few chances and we came out with a win in a tough place.”
Goalkeeper Luis Robles agreed and apologized to whomever attended the match.
“Grinding is really the best word to describe that game,” he said. “I have to apologize to the spectators that watched that. At the end of the day it says something about a team that can win ugly. That’s what we were able to do tonight.”
The Red Bulls improved to 6-4-1 on the road, the second only to Atlanta United (7-2-2) for the most away wins.
“It helps when on other games on the road when it is getting tough you think back to games like this and what you’ve done to dig out of the hole,” Wright-Phillips said. “I think we can use this in the future with away games.”
BWP’s goal in the 55th minute turned out to be yet another milestone goal.
It was his 101st of his illustrious career, moving into a tie with former New England Revolution striker Taylor Twellman and into ninth place among Major League Soccer goal-scorers.
It also was Wright-Phillips’ 15th goal of the season, making him the lone player of the 23-year history of the league to score that many goals in a season five years in a row.
