Since its inception in 1994, New York Red Bulls (formerly New York/New Jersey Metrostars) has competed as one of the 20 teams in Major League Soccer (MLS). Apart from having the most popular soccer-specific stadium (named Red Bull Arena) in North America, it boasts of maintaining one of the country’s best youth academies by providing a professional soccer training environment for youth players within the New York metropolis.
The club is known for its blend of homegrown and international, usually numbering five and 12, respectively. Though the club was poised to become the dominant team in the league, it never saw the light of the day. For instance, it could not enter the Championship in the previous 19 seasons, making the period the club’s long winless streak. Notwithstanding, it was able to win its first trophy in 2015.
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The team’s leadership overhauled
Prior to the takeover of MetroStars by Red Bull in 2006, it has never won any trophy. Immediately Red Bull took over to add it to its existing teams, it carried out a total overhauling of the team’s leadership. It hired Bruce Arena, who led D.C. United to the first dynasty in the 1990s, as a coach, then Juan Carlos Osorio from Chicago Fire and Hans Backe, a veteran Swedish manager, all within the space of six years.
Under the leadership of Backe as the head coach, new players were added to the team. Some of them include Estonian international midfielder Joel Lindpere, legendary French forward Thierry Henry, Mexican international defender Rafael Márquez, Luke Rodgers, and Jan Gunnar Solli. The moves translated into great improvement of the team, making it finish with 51 points as against the 21 points it finished with, in the previous season.
In 2013, the club hired MetroStars legend Mike Petke (Backe’s assistant), under whose leadership the team won its first piece of silverware by claiming the Supporters’ Shield. Unfortunately, he was fired by the team in 2015, a move that enraged the fans, making them express their concerns to the new Sporting Director, Ali Curtis, who eventually took over the operations of the club. The reason for the outrage was partly due to their love for Petke and for the fact that it came in the same year Thierry Henry retired from his career.
In the same year, Curtis reeled out a 300-page plan that would serve as the headlight for the club. The vision captured in the plan revolves around the development of the academy and the team’s mode of playing. In short, it is to implement a consequent pressing style on the pitch, in the team, when transferring players, and in the academy. Jesse Marsch, another former U.S. international, was hired to fill the vacuum left by the removal of Petke.
A new dawn witnessed
The decision to hire Jesse Marsch again was met with fierce disapproval from the team’s fans for fear of plunging the team back into its former rot. The sales department, also caught up in the fear of losing their fanbase, engaged in a lot of discussions. However, the unexpected happened! It was obvious the team got it right with their choice of Marsch. He led the team to the most successful and phenomenal period of its history. The team’s fans had to apologize to the coach in the Question/Answer session of the town hall meeting held in 2016.
He was able to achieve this feat by implementing a high-pressure tactical system built around the talents of players – such as Sacha Kljestan, Bradley Wright-Phillips, and Mike Grella – that were recently signed. Following this structural overhaul, the team qualified for the 2015 MLS playoffs and reached the Eastern Conference Final where they would be defeated by the Columbus Crew. It was also their first ever CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series.
The reality is that there will be no optimism from a team’s fans if it continues to disappoint them. The trust lost in that regard could only be regained if such a club displays a sign of direction for the future, as done by New York Red Bulls. Even though the club’s fans weren’t comfortable with the new move, it turned out to be the one that transformed the club.
With one Supporters’ Shield, topping the Eastern Conference two times, and runners up in the US Open Cup, Marsch left the club in 2018 as the most successful in franchise history. The winnings also continued under Chris Armas who replaced Marsch. He was, however, released from his contract in 2020, following his rough start to the 2020 campaign. Bradley Carnell was named as interim manager afterwards.
Academy-to-the-first-team path
One of the prospects for the team’s future performance lies in the plan created by the Sporting Director, Ali Curtis. In addition to the team’s possession of an academy, a U-23 team, and a reserve side, its players are also advancing through the various teams. Unlike other teams who only saw a limited number of players advance through the first team, New York Red Bulls boasts of advancement of regulars, such as Tyler Adams, Tim Ream, Juan Agudelo, Matt Miazga, and Sean Davis made their way from the academy to the first team. Not only that, they also constitute important aspects of the club’s success in MLS.
Beyond those that had already found their way into the first team, there are other young players that the team’s supporters might need to keep an eye for in the future. Some of them include Serge Ngoma, one of the academy’s top scorers and highest rated attackers; Diogo Rebelo, an attacking midfielder with a ruthless eye for goal, having scored eight goals of his 11 matches; Caden Clark, a 5-star-rated prospect and creative midfielder with stellar passing range; Liam Winograd, “a strong tackler who throws his body around to win the ball;” Joey Zalinsky, a TopDrawerSoccer three-star prospect; among others.
