Across his first four-plus MLS seasons, New York Red Bulls midfielder Frankie Amaya had scored a combined three goals in 96 matches.
In New York’s last three matches — just a two-week span — the 22-year-old Californian has scored three times, becoming the first Red Bulls player to score thrice in three games since club legend Bradley Wright-Phillips did so in October of 2014.
“For Frankie to be in the classification of BWP is something he should feel good about,” Red Bulls head coach Troy Lesesne said. “Bradley Wright-Phillips is someone that scored goals over a long period of time for this club and set the standard in that regard.”
Amaya’s goal-scoring spurt has come at the perfect time for a Red Bulls team in the thick of the postseason hunt.
After scoring just 11 goals in their first 17 MLS matches this season, they’ve reeled off nine in their last four with Amaya accounting for one-third of them. The Red Bulls have picked up at least a point in three of their last four games as they prepare for Wednesday’s matchup in Harrison, NJ with FC Cincinnati in a tie with 26 points for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with Montreal.
“It’s a good mark for him to do that in three matches,” Lesesne said. “He’s a top, top player in this league. The more he plays like he did in the last few matches, he’s going to put himself in a great position to go forward and lead this club.”
Amaya’s continued emergence has also cushioned the blow of losing fellow playmaking midfielder Cristian Casseres, who was officially sold to Tolouse in France’s Ligue 1 last week. But even he hadn’t scored at Amaya’s current clip.
“It’s hard to get center midfielders to score goals, especially with the type of demand they have,” Lesesne said. “[Amaya] is probably one of our best playmakers in terms of breaking lines. But similar to Cristian Casseres, he would produce goals from the central midfield role and when you have that it just relieves pressure a lot of times for everyone else…
“I hope it provides more confidence and relieves that pressure for our 10s and our 9s so they feel confident they can go and score goals as well which, the more we’re able to have multiple goal matches — which we’ve done often lately — I think the better chance we have to win.”
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