COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Bradley Wright-Phillips continued his hot scoring with the second-half equalizer and the New York Red Bulls rallied to tie Columbus 1-1 on Saturday.
He followed a three-goal game in a 4-0 win against Houston on Wednesday with his fifth goal of the season in the 66th minute. He settled a pass from Lloyd Sam on the left side of the box and put a shot through the legs of Crew defender Josh Williams and off the right post.
“I ended up getting a good touch on it and getting a good strike on goal because I let two in the first half get away so I wanted to get one on target,” Wright-Phillips said.
He understands that a goal streak like he’s on doesn’t come around often.
“Two weeks ago that probably would have got blocked and gone the other way on the attack,” he said. “That’s how football goes, especially for strikers. We score a few games then you don’t.”
Jairo Arrieta gave Columbus (3-1-3) the lead in the 39th minute with his first penalty kick attempt of his three-year Crew career after New York defender Kosuke Kimura fouled Justin Meram.
The Red Bulls (2-2-5) are 2-0-1 in their past three games.
“It’s a very good point for us,” Red Bulls coach Mike Petke said. “I was pleased with many aspects of the performance tonight. Obviously, after the first seven minutes we should have been up 2-0. There were two breakaways.”
The Crew is winless in four (0-1-3) including three straight draws, after opening the season with three consecutive victories under first-year coach Gregg Berhalter.
“It was a decent effort,” he said. “Heads were down in the locker room after the game because we couldn’t close it out; we couldn’t get the three points but there were a lot of positives.”
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