John Tolkin (left) celebrates his goal during Wednesday’s 5-2 victory over Charlotte FC (Photo courtesy of New York Red Bulls)
HARRISON, N.J. — The most glaring weakness through most of the New York Red Bulls’ 2023 season was that they couldn’t consistently find the back of the net.
Without their leading scorer from last year, Lewis Morgan, who is sidelined who sidelined most of the year with a hip injury, one of Major League Soccer’s best defenses had little support. In their first 29 MLS matches of the season, which included the exit of head coach Gerhard Struber and the promotion of Troy Lesesne in May, New York scored just 25 times — that’s 0.86 goals per game.
Call it desperation, chalk it up to things finally settling in with Lesesne at the helm, but something since then has clicked.
With their playoff hopes on life support, the Red Bulls’ attack woke up. They hung five on DC United on Sept. 23 to spark a furious rally of four wins in their last five matches to grab the No. 8 seed and top Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, scoring 11 goals in those victories.
In Wednesday night’s Wild Card match against Charlotte FC, the offense exploded once again in a 5-2 victory, sparked by Elias Manoel’s hat trick — the first-ever in Red Bulls postseason franchise history and just the sixth in league history — to clinch a first-round best-of-three matchup with the East’s No. 1 seed, FC Cincinnati.
That makes 16 goals in their last six MLS matches. They scored 15 goals in their previous 15 matches leading up to this recent stretch.
“We feel more focused,” Manoel said. “We know that we want to do on those finals that are coming because every single game is a final now, right? We are focused on these now.”
They hung three in the first half alone. Manoel was played in twice by perfectly placed passes into the Charlotte box to set up the chances. His clinical open-play finishes sandwiched a brilliant free-kick tally from…
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