Fearless youngster Tyler Adams continues to impress New York Red Bulls

Fearless youngster Tyler Adams continues to impress New York Red Bulls


NEW YORK – They are the faces of their respective teams and two of the best strikers in Major League Soccer. Since arriving in the league, New York City FC captain David Villa and New York Red Bulls forward Bradley Wright-Phillips have been inextricably linked.

A year ago, Wright-Phillips scored 24 goals to edge out Villa by one for the MLS Golden Boot, while Villa took home the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award. Wright-Phillips finished second in the voting.

Wright-Phillips, though, would like the comparisons to end now.

“He’s David Villa. All the credit he gets he deserves,” Wright-Phillips said on Tuesday. “He’s a world-class striker. He’s won a World Cup, Champions League. Let me say this now, I don’t want to be mentioned in the same breath as him. He’s a different beast.”

Wright-Phillips, whose Red Bulls will host NYCFC in the first regular season edition of the Hudson River Derby on Saturday (1:30 pm ET, FOX in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada) said what separates Villa is “his hunger and appetite for the game.”

While Wright-Phillips might think Villa is in a class of his own, Spain’s all-time leading scorer had plenty of praise to heap on the two-time Golden Boot winner.

“I think he’s one of the best strikers, not only in the league at the moment, but in the history,” Villa said. “His numbers are big for him. He always scores minimum 15 goals in all the years he’s here. One year he scored [27], last year 24. He’s one of the best strikers in the league right now and in the history of MLS.”

Villa said he enjoys the “healthy rivalry” with Wright-Phillips and said the derby matches against the Red Bulls are “so good.”

However, the end goal for NYCFC is the same as it was last Saturday against Seattle and as it will be against Minnesota next Thursday.

“I think it’s more for before the game and after the game. But, finally it’s three points like the last game against Seattle,” Villa said. “We need to focus and do that. It’s important for us and our fans to give a victory on Saturday because in the past we have a lot of losses against Red Bulls. But focus on these three points which are important for us in the league.”

NYCFC is riding the high of a come-from-behind win against the defending MLS Cup champions Seattle – their second consecutive win in as many years against the Sound



NEW YORK – Watch Tyler Adams play and any number of his qualities might stand out, be it his impressive range, ability to deliver a crunching tackle, or solid skills with the ball.

The youngster’s most impressive attribute, however, might be his fearlessness.

Despite being just 18 years old, Adams has been one of MLS’s biggest revelations to this point in the season. A key ingredient in him shining for the New York Red Bulls through the first half of the campaign is his bold demeanor. The central midfielder has demonstrated a hard-nosed and fiery attitude rarely seen in teenagers still fairly new to the professional ranks, but those who have been around the Homegrown player know that Adams’ strong will isn’t a new personality trait.

It’s part of Adams’ DNA.

“The very first moment I trained with him I was saying, ‘How is this kid 16 years old? If I was 16 years old and I had this mindset, I’d be playing on a different level,” Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles said of his initial impression of Adams. “That’s what sticks out each and every day with Tyler. There’s a certain part that you just can’t teach and part of that is the tenacity, the fight. He doesn’t in any way expect to lose a ball, and there’s a fearlessness to him that’s impressive.

“It’s impressed upon me, it’s impressed upon other guys on the team, and as he continues to grow I hope that fearlessness refines itself into leadership. If that happens, then not only are we going to benefit, but the US men's national team will benefit.”

Where exactly does Adams’ audacious nature come from? Not from either of his parents, nor a sibling, nor his upbringing. Instead, it’s something he developed on his own while growing up and playing soccer.

“That’s kind of just self-originated,” said Adams. “That’s something that’s happened over the years. I’m just super competitive and that’s one of those things that really irks me, if we’re losing or if you give a bad pass away. I always get on myself about those kinds of things.”

Opposing MLS players have also caught first-hand glimpses of the 5-foot-9 Adams’ feistiness this year. One example is Bastian Schweinsteiger, who collided with Adams on a play earlier this season when the Red Bulls hosted the Chicago Fire. Schweinsteiger tried to give a hand to Adams immediately afterwards, but the peeved teenager ignored the World Cup-winning veterans’ gesture.

The sequence was a peak into Adams’ mentality. Respect your opponent, but not too much.

“Someone does me dirty on the field, obviously I’m not just going to show them the respect because of all the things that he’s accomplished,” said Adams. “Obviously he’s a great player and after the game I’m going to shake his hand just like everybody else, but on the field during the moment it’s game time.”

“It’s kind of like a switch in my head,” he added. “Once I step on the field, it doesn’t matter who is on the field, who I’m playing against or anything like that. I’m going to give it my all no matter what.”

Adams’ competitive mindset and skill set have plenty of fans, pundits, and scouts raving about his potential. He has not only looked mature beyond his years in his eight appearances in league play for the Red Bulls in 2017, but also for the US U-20 national team in both the CONCACAF U-20 Championship and recently-concluded U-20 World Cup.

The experiences gained from those tournaments, especially the latter, have admittedly helped Adams grow in confidence. Still, he knows there is plenty of room to evolve as both a person – he plans to start college courses in sports psychology on July 3 – and a player.

“I want to become more of a complete box-to-box midfielder and add more to the attack while doing more defensively as well,” said Adams, who’s said he models his game after Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante and RB Leipzig’s Naby Keita. “But I think that just takes time and as I mature a little bit I’ll figure certain things out like that.”

Adams’ next chance to impress will come on Saturday