Level Set 13, Red Bull New York: The Difference Between Success and Happiness?

This tracked as a bad omen when MLS launched.

What follows is a brief history of Red Bull New York(/New Jersey), plus more brief notes on whatever long-term tendencies they have. Their 2025 season gets weighed on both sides of that and the whole thing ends with where I see things with them in this very specific moment in time - i.e., before First Kick 2026. You should count on things happening between here and there.

The post ends with a scale I came up with to measure the long-term success of every team in Major League Soccer. It does some things well (e.g., count trophies/achievements), other things less well (capture recent trends). It's called the Joint Points Scale and you can find a link that explains what it does. I was really stoned when I came up with the scale and wrote the post. Caveat lector. With that...

Thumbnail History
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 the once-famous saying, “that’s so Metro.” It gets more complicated from there…

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 MLS teams when signing players, even before the rebrand, and they have signed some infamous egos…er, players including Rafa Marquez and Lothar Mattheus, plus another gaggle of high-profile signings who, for whatever reason, missed more than they hit – e.g., Youri Djorkaeff, but old heads remember 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 (still going, like the undead), Tyler Adams, and Luis Robles. Those bright shining stars laid 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. Circling back to “that’s so Metro,” 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 the three Supporters’ Shields the Red Bulls won between 2013 and 2018; it was raining Shields (Hallelujah!) over New Jersey through the mid-2010s. All it took from there was landing the supporting cast, which the Austrian/Red Bull brain-trust did with aplomb by singing players like Tim Cahill, Dax McCarty, (too briefly) Sacha Kljestan, and even Joel Lindpere, Daniel Royer, even deeper cuts like Sean Davis. Perhaps most important in the formula: calling in a succession of rugged, successful defenders like Aaron Long, Tim Parker (for a minute), and Jeff Parke. Those players turned games the Red Bulls would have otherwise tied into wins, the golden formula in MLS, insofar as the league has one. 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 (until, um, recently; also, give or take recent “wild card” entries), but never wins it all. They came close, to be sure, in 2024…but, again, they didn’t win it.

Getting Reacquainted with Red Bull New York, MLS's Kings of Falling at the First Hurdle

To some, an insurmountable obstacle.

Thumbnail History
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

An MLS History Project, 2005: Expansion 1.0 (& Reliable Players)

Charles Ponzi, who knew a little light-foot to boot...

[Ed. – I understand that nearly all the statistical information about goals for/against in what’s below is more revealing than revelatory; I mean, what else would a mid-table team do, but post mid-table numbers?]

The average goals scored in Major League Soccer was 39.2 in 2004, the lowest in league history to that point. Also, you do know what I mean by that phrase, “the average goals scored”? Basically, I wanted to establish the baseline for goals scored for and against in a given season (it’s the same number, obviously…noted because it took me a couple passes), so I can see where each team’s goals for and against landed around that average.

Also, taking suggestions for better phrasing of the concept because I hate that one. Moving on.

By the end of the 2005 MLS season, the average goals scored would rise to a lofty 45.9. Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA joined MLS at the beginning of the year. This wasn’t the reason I started fixating on averages, but, well, it paid off here.

As noted in every post in this series since 2001 (and here’s 2002, 2003, and 2004), a combination of defenses tightening up across MLS and - hear me out – the retirement/decline among the first generation of Marquee players (explained in the 1996 post), conspired to make scoring goals in MLS harder. [Ed. – Did that same process help the American attacking talent that fed the U.S. Men’s Team by giving them more reps and more time to sort out what worked on the field?] This resulted in most teams in the league staying fairly tight against the average on both sides – e.g., goals for and against – through those years and that created a league that was highly competitive (amongst the teams), but that, on the worst Saturdays (aka, late July and August) moved one to think, surely, there is more to life. On the one hand, no team could run away with the title; on the other, the regular season looked like a cartoon reel of the most evil goal-less draws that Hell could engineer. And you had to stare at the hideous gridiron lines for half the season. [Ed. – Honestly, your eyes adjusted, and pretty quickly; it just looked like shit.]