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| To some, an insurmountable obstacle. |
Born as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (and with a logo inspired by, yet embarrassing on, the bottom of a skateboard), aka, Red Bull New York, aka, New Jersey’s finest soccer team, has always been a weird one – e.g., the first time they reached MLS Cup (2008), they made it on a run through MLS’s Western Conference. Despite later, praiseworthy successes (wait for it), few things have defined the MetroStars/Red Bull franchise like their franchise-long failure to take that final, winning step; the once-famous saying, “that’s so Metro” was coined for real and persistent reasons. Their Red Bull/energy-drink era started, both on and off the field, with the 2006 season and, setting aside second slap from the Wooden Spoon in 2009 (the first came in 1999), the deeper pockets and connections have moved the team in a…broadly positive direction. Playing in the nation’s biggest media market obliged them to swing bigger than most when signing players, even before the rebrand, and they have signed some infamous egos, er, players including Rafa Marquez and Lothar Mattheus, as well as some high-profile signings that didn’t quite hit – e.g., Youri Djorkaeff and maybe famous U.S. internationals like Tab Ramos and Claudio Reyna. Going the other way, they have launched a dozen or so famous careers for domestic stars. One could build the short list a couple ways, but I’m going with Jozy Altidore, Michael “Coach’s Son” Bradley, Tim Howard, Tim Ream, Tyler Adams, and Luis Robles (here's their all-time roster, so you can name your own). Those players provided the foundation for the big signings to finally pay off and that combination allowed them to put together some of the most consistent teams in league history – and notice I used the word “consistent,” as opposed to successful. Their best seasons started with the signing of French legend Thierry Henry and continued with Bradley Wright-Phillips – notably, one of the two players, with Robles, who was present for all three of the Supporters’ Shields the Red Bulls won between 2013 and 2018 – leading the line. Yes, it was raining Shields (Hallelujah!) over New Jersey through the mid-2010s. All that star-power relied on getting the supporting cast right and their Austrian brain-trust did with with players like Tim Cahill, Dax McCarty, (too briefly) Sacha Kljestan, and even Joel Lindpere, Garrin Royer, even deeper cuts like Sean Davis. Churning out a succession of rugged, successful defenders like Aaron Long, Jeff Parke, and even Marquez bought a succession of attacking units time to win games the Red Bulls otherwise would have tied. And yet, for all that consistency and success, the Red Bulls have never won a cup final. No, not even the U.S. Open Cup (runners-up twice, the last attempt in 2017). All that has made the Red Bulls the team that MLS fans know today – i.e., the one that qualifies for the playoffs every season, give or take a couple (even if all of those recent “wild card” performances don’t count on the Joy Points Scale).
Total Joy Points: 39
How They Earned Them (& How This Is Calculated, for Reference)
Supporters’ Shield: 2013, 2015, 2018
MLS Cup Runner-Up: 2008, 2024
MLS Playoffs Semifinals: 2000, 2014, 2015, 2018
MLS Playoffs/Quarterfinals: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017
Wooden Spoon: 1999, 2009
CCL Semifinals: 2018
CCL Quarterfinals: 2017, 2019
U.S. Open Cup Runner-Up: 2003, 2017
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| Hear me out: have they even tried vodka? |
As noted above, the whole “energy-drink soccer” thing started when the energy-drink company bought them in 2006 – i.e., a high-pressing approach that demands they chase every ball, shut down nearly every player north of the goalkeeper for large stretches of every game they play, and generally ugly things up. It takes attacking talent to redeem all that darkness, something they had during those Shield seasons and something they have, generally, lacked since. For all that, they have scored over the league average for goals more often than not and, ugly as it can be to watch, that system of calculated frustration has a long track record of keeping the opposition off the board. Turning that formula into something that wins cups has continued to elude them, but it’s a smart system for a league format – at least as long as the team has the decisive attacking talent to make it payoff…very much related.
Their 2024 Season & Recent Trends
The Red Bulls haven’t had that since their glory seasons of 2013 and 2015. They owe the 2018 Shield to one of their all-time best defenses and, as if designed to prove the argument, it was one of their worst all-time attacks that limited them to a wild card spot (and no more) in the 2021 MLS Cup playoffs. 2024 threatened to repeat that failure until the very end of the season. Saying they benefitted from the failures of others doesn’t do anyone an injustice. Finally having their No. 10, Emil Forsberg, available for the final games of the season, as well as for every post-season game, revived the old formula well and long enough for them to make their second-ever run to an MLS Cup. Which they lost, of course. In their defense, missing key players like Andres Reyes (just traded to San Diego FC, fwiw) and (apparently) Felipe Carballo gifted the Los Angeles Galaxy an early lead that the generally low-scoring Red Bull attack was not built to claw back. Not for the first time in MLS history, the 2024 Red Bulls proved that just making the playoffs gives the right team a real shot at getting written into the history books…not the Red Bulls, obviously, who do not win cup competitions.
Questions for Their 2025 Season
Before seeing the Reyes trade, I could be talked into seeing the Red Bulls make…some noise in 2025, if everyone stays healthy. While it’s not as if his departure screws them in defense – both Dylan and Sean Nealis come from the Red Bulls’ old, bruising mold and the youngster Noah Eile played a solid MLS Cup once he settled in (a bit too late) – but they’re going to need something better somewhere in the attacking mix to get them to where they can actually compete with all the teams they, arguably, slipped and grinded past to get to MLS Cup 2024. I genuinely wonder at times, how much their HIGH-ENERGY system compels them to sign players who can run like berserkers over one who can actually play soccer. In their defense, the Red Bulls do seem to have backed off the running-till-their-legs bleed formula last season: even as they played against the ball more often than not and the press wasn’t a constant blur, I caught glimpses of them evolving out of the old system. That last point may or may not be true – I can’t say I watched them enough to confirm it – so I’m mostly interested to see how they replace Reyes and whether Carballo earned the nods of respect he got during this season’s MLS Cup broadcast.
Till the next one…which goes back to the middle of the country and a team in a different place.
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