As his head coach and endorser Jesse Marsch received a multi-year extension Friday, Sacha Kljestan enters the second half of the season as the New York Red Bulls’ lynchpin and a possible MVP candidate.
Kljestan has two goals and an MLS-leading 10 assists in 14 appearances this season. He’s been on the scoresheet in six of the Red Bulls’ seven wins and averages a league-best 0.79 assists per 90 minutes going into New York's home match against the Seattle Sounders on Sunday (7:30 pm ET; FS1 in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
While his stats are wildly impressive, Kljestan’s teammates say they actually undersell just how important he’s been this year.
“It’s not always the stats that make the MVP,” said defender Connor Lade. “If you look at how big of a part he is on our team, it’s one of the things that you can’t put on paper that make him the player that he is. Whether he’s in that conversation or not, he’s in that category.”
During the Red Bulls’ first seven games, Kljestan recorded two assists. In the subsequent seven, he’s recorded eight to help New York improve from 1-6-0 to 6-7-1. Kljestan attributed part of the turnaround to constantly growing chemistry in the Red Bulls’ attack.
“The longer we play together, the better we’re going to get,” Kljestan said. “You can see after a year-and-a-half that Bradley [Wright-Phillips] and I have a very good relationship. I think that has shown in ending up with a lot of goals and assists. We were the highest scoring team in the league last year, I don’t think that happened by mistake.”
Through the ups and downs of the first part of the 2016 season, the Red Bulls’ lineup has been consistent. Kljestan has lined up at the center with Wright-Phillips in front, and Mike Grella and Lloyd Sam on the wings. They’ve played together in more than 40 league games since Kljestan joined the Red Bulls last offseason, and are looking to continue to grow to push New York forward in the second half.
“We’re still not in first place so we’re not taking anything for granted,” Kljestan said. “We had a bad start, we know that, but we’ve gotten past it. We’ve gotten four shutouts in a row, we’re moving on in the Open Cup but we’re still not where we want to be standings wise or as a club. We’re going to keep going.”
