Due to injuries and international call-ups, some stars were missing at Red Bull Arena. But Lewis Morgan didn’t get that memo.
With Inter Miami CF's Lionel Messi missing due to a hamstring injury and RBNY's Emil Forsberg out for international duty with Sweden, Morgan struck for a hat trick, the second of his MLS career, to lead the New York Red Bulls to a 4-0 win over the Herons on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon in Harrison, New Jersey.
Morgan, who missed nearly all of last season due to injury, opened the scoring in the 3rd minute with a low shot inside the far post from the edge of the 18-yard box. He added a second against his former club in the 51st minute with a first-time finish off a Dante Vanzeir layoff before finishing the hatty in the 70th minute, a tap-in off another Vanzeir feed.
"I’m always confident, confident in front of the goal. I think today was more about the players around me," said Morgan post-match. " ... My goals were just a combination of what the guys did and the hard work they put in."
Vanzeir assisted on all four Red Bulls goals, becoming the eighth player in league history and the first in club history to record four assists in a match.
Morgan is off to a blistering start in his third season with the Red Bulls, scoring five goals in five matches to take the early lead in the 2024 MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race.
RBNY's dominant win moves them to 10 points on the season (3W-1L-2D) and restores confidence after last week's 3-0 road humbling to the Columbus Crew. New York now join Columbus and Miami atop the Supporters' Shield table.
"The Columbus game was very disappointing, and we didn’t perform the way we wanted to," said Morgan. We also knew that we wouldn’t become a bad team overnight. We’ve done so many things so well in the first three games of the year and the manager was good at making sure we were reminded of those things.
"So, this week we focused on all the stuff we’d done well rather than dwell too much on the Columbus game. I think today we went out there and every single player stood up."
