Scoring your first MLS goal as a 16-year-old is a pretty special thing, but doing so to help your team earn a comeback draw on the road makes it even more special.
Julian Hall did just that on Wednesday night, scoring in the 88th minute to help the New York Red Bulls fight back against CF Montreal for a 2-2 draw. Hall, 16, became the first player his age to score an MLS goal since Freddy Adu did so with DC United in 2004, showing his immediate potential as a young talent in the league.
“It’s a surreal feeling, you know, getting a goal in a moment like that,” Hall said. “I’m just really proud. I got to score my first goal for the team.
“It’s an honor to hear my name and that sort of category,” Hall added when relayed that he joined Adu in the category of 16-year-old goalscorers. “And I’m just really thankful and I’m grateful for an opportunity like this.”
The Red Bulls faced a two-goal deficit at halftime but rallied in the second half to earn their seventh draw of the season, which is tied for the second-most in the Eastern Conference. 21-year-old Wikelman Carmona cut the deficit in half before Hall tied the match only one minute after entering the field as a late substitute.
A former Red Bulls academy talent, Hall now has five goals combined between the first and second teams since debuting last year.
“No, we don’t pressure to be honest, we have expectations,” Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz said about Hall’s impact as a young player. “This is clear and we want to improve him every day. This is the only pressure what we have with him to be honest. When you work so hard every day, then this is natural. Then the next step was that he scored and then he gets more minutes and it’s good. It’s good to see, it’s good for all the academy players that you have to work very hard every day in your team, the second team, under 17, under 15.
“When you start in the academy, this is what I said our identity is to improve all these players, not only the academy players, all our players,” Schwarz added. “What I said is the best transfer is to improve with highest consequence with my coaching staff and me as a head coach with the highest consequence to improve in every training session individual training video session and this is the best transfer to be honest so in this was very well to see with Julian today his development and this is then also a good feeling for striker to be ready in this moment.”
Hall is not only one young talent for Red Bull fans to watch for years to come, but also one for American fans to monitor. A former U.S. Under-15 boys national team player, Hall has scored four goals in nine appearances for his country to date and remains an option for the fellow youth national teams going forward.
The third-place Red Bulls provided Hall with only 28 minutes of playing time prior to Wednesday’s super-sub performance but expect that number to rise after he played the hero role in Montreal.
“Of course it’s a great confidence boost,” Hall said. “I think it was a really important goal for the team. But I mean, I’ll try to just you know carry this momentum going forward for both Red Bull II and the first team.
