Red Bulls midfielder Valot back on scoresheet
It took less than five minutes at the MLS Is Back Tournament for Florian Valot to do something he hadn’t done in over two years.
Feel the joy of scoring. Valot’s fifth-minute strike proved to be the lone goal for the Red Bulls as they opened the returnto-play competition with a 1-0 victory over Atlanta United on Saturday night at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
A 27-year-old Frenchman who played college soccer at Rider University, Valot missed most of the last two seasons after tearing his ACL in both knees. He picked up a pair of assists the Red Bulls’ 3-2 opening-day win over FC Cincinnati in March, but the season was halted by the coronavirus pandemic and only resumed this past week.
“It’s been difficult for everybody, but I think it was important to score early and reward the team for the first five to 10 minutes we had and pushed really hard,” Valot said in the postgame press conference. “It’s really rewarding for myself with what I’ve been through the last two years, but it’s all credit for the team and I’m really happy to get the win.”
Valot played two seasons at Rider under coach Charlie Inverso where he scored 13 goals in 34 appearances before latching on with Red Bulls II. After impressing with the club’s reserve side, the Red Bulls signed him to a first-team contract and he debut during the 2018 season.
Valot’s 2018 season was cut short after he tore the ACL in his left knee just as he was making a real mark on the side. He suffered the same injury in his right knee two games into the 2019 season.
“So, you know, I’ve seen Flo’s journey, come with the injuries and he works really hard to come back,” Red Bulls coach Chris Armas said. “And that just to see him play well and produce it’s really special moments for Flo. He understands how we play with the ball, he’s really clean, brings ideas to our team, and he understands the system how to play, which is not an easy system when there’s only two 10s in there to understand the spaces and how to play against the ball. I think we see that he does a nice job.”
Inverso, who recruited Valot to help turn one of the worst programs in Division I men’s soccer into one that has made three of the last five NCAA Tournaments, beginning with
Valot’s senior season season in 2015, was thrilled for his former player.
“Flo scores for Red Bulls!” he texted minutes after the goal. “Same field where we won the MAAC.”
“It was tremendous, it was great,” Inverso said. “That’s pretty amazing what he’s come back from — ACL injuries in both knees. It’s impressive what he’s done. He had two very good games before the stoppage.”
Valot is one of of two former Rider University players to go on to play first division professional soccer. The great Bob Smith, who won 18 caps for the United States in the 1970s, is the other. Additionally, Smith played for four clubs in the old NASL, including on the Pele-led New York Cosmos, and had a loan spell with Dundalk in Ireland’s top flight.
The Red Bulls return to action on Wednesday against FC Cincinnati.