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

Getting Reacquainted with Red Bull New York, MLS's Ugly Duckling (And All That Means)

Pow.

[Standing Disclaimer: While I have watched…just a stupid amount of MLS over the years, I don’t watch the vast majority of games, never mind all of them. As such, it’s fair to take anything below that isn’t a hard number or a physical trophy as an impression, a couple steps removed.]

Thumbnail History
Born as the New York/New Jersey Metro Stars (and with a logo inspired by, yet embarrassing for, the bottom of a skateboard), Red Bull New York, aka, New Jersey’s finest soccer team, has always been a weird one – e.g., the one time they reached MLS Cup (2008), they made it by way of a run through MLS’s Western Conference. Despite later, praiseworthy successes (wait for it), the Red Bulls have been…haunted, I suppose(?), by a failure to take that final step – hence, the once-famous saying, “that’s so Metro.” Did that start over the earliest seasons when they missed the playoffs almost as often as they made them (they even felt the cruel caress of a Wooden Spoon in 1999), or when they seized their second Wooden Spoon in 2009 (yep! the season after their only MLS Cup)? I don’t know, honestly. What I do know is that the rebrand from MetroStars to Red Bull came in 2006, immediately before that sharp rise to and fall from glory. And yet, that second Wooden Spoon season aside, the Red Bulls became the team that MLS fans know today – i.e., the one that qualifies for the playoffs every single season (which, per one in-house source, is a sportz record). They’ve crossed that threshold with a heavy limp, at times, and more lately than before (i.e., four of the past five seasons). In some ways, that has become the Red Bulls new normal…

Best Season(s)
It’s gotta be one of the three seasons that Red Bull won the Supporters’ Shield, so that’s 2013, 2015 and 2018. All that started with the arrival of France/Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, but he was only around for the 2013 Shield and probably mattered most in terms of creating a culture of success and/or embracing the full potential of having one of the world’s most famous cities (NYC) as a recruitment draw. Only two big-name players were present for all three Shields, both of whom belong on the MLS all-time lists for me: Luis Robles, one of the more underrated goalkeepers in MLS history, and Bradley Wright-Phillips, one of the best pure, poaching goal-scorers the league has ever seen. Midfield machine Dax McCarty deserves honorable mention for being present for two of their Shields, but how much this succession of Red Bull teams rotated and still found good parts to replace the departing ones – e.g., Tim Cahill, Jamison Olave and Tim Cahill in 2013, Damien Perinelle, Sacha Kljestan and (why not?) Mike Grella in 2015, and Aaron Long, Sean Davis and Daniel Royer in 2018 - is more or less the story.

MLS Off-Season Weekly: How MLS Cup Made Me Fear the Future, The U.S. Men, the Goodwill Bins Lottery

A depiction of how I relate to players. (Also, worlds collide.)

After a…was MLS Cup just last weekend, or is time running like those weird traffic patterns where it tightens and loosens for no obvious reason? For a visual, think what happens on I-5 around Nisqually sometimes – that’s as opposed to Tacoma, because the cause there is plain as day – but, to take today’s points chronologically, I’ll start with brief notes on MLS Cup…

I’m Worried About the Future, Barbara
Whilst live-tweeting MLS Cup, my partisan fever boiled over after the Seattle Sounders bounced an own-goal off Toronto’s Justin Morrow. “THEY DESERVE NOTHING,” I tweeted, or something to that effect, not least because TFC had looked better to that point, especially with the moments of tricky dribbling that forced shifts in Seattle’s defensive shape in midfield; Alejandro Pozuelo and Nicolas Benezet, in particular (plus a shout for Marky Delgado), kept Seattle within one mistake of giving up a goal for the first 60 minutes.

I hereby revise that tweet to say Kelvin Leerdamn did not deserve his goal (and that MLS’s website should fix it). The Sounders took over the game from that goal forward. Toronto never forced a telling mistake in Seattle’s defense, Stefan Frei stuffed the half-chances that came his way, and, as Seattle pushed its line of confrontation further up the field, Toronto’s attacks started to fail further from Seattle’s goal. The game ended when Seattle scored a deserved, and rather pretty, second goal. They'd score again, Toronto would salvage a little pride, but the 3-1 final score fairly reflected what happened out there.

Here, I have to raise my hand as one of the many self-appointed pundits who wrote Seattle off when Chad Marshall took his concussions and went home. The fact that they never put together an impressive run during the regular season obscured the strength of the Sounders’ homely-but-effective system, but, when you want to win a succession of one-off games, having a solid spine and an organized defense gets you over halfway there – and Seattle has enough talent to push that percentage past halfway.

New York Red Bulls 2015 Season Preview: Does Drama Central Quiet Down?

Whither Dear Henry? Whither belov'd Petke?

What Happened Last Year
It sucks to admit it, but, yes, for the New York Red Bulls, 2014 was the Year of Thierry Henry. Speculation as to whether he would retire after the season was flat-out insane for the second half of it. Henry justified a lot of that hype and hand-wringing by turning in what can only be applauded as pivotal play on the field. From all of that, however, I admired nothing so much as this 37-year-old man's yeoman work in the second leg of their playoff series against the New England Revolution. Even more badass? His short, sharp answer as to whether he would play on New England's turf for that second leg. The man earned his accolades. Red Bull proved to be the big club they strove to be for a couple other reasons last season: Bradley Wright-Phillips near-miss on breaking the single-season scoring record sucked up plenty of ink; in a nice touch for the domestic soccer press, so did the quietly effective midfield pairing of Dax McCarty and Eric Alexander. It was a little tempting to run with that mildly anonymous element, but New York (let's use that name loosely while we still can) still had some bright light, big names last season in Jamison Olave and Tim Cahill. Then again, it speaks to something else that one of these players logged major minutes by year's end, while another did not. Red Bull accomplished what it did in 2014 through a pretty clear-headed brand of pragmatism. And one guy, in particular, had a lot to do with that.
Final Stats: 13-10-11, 50 pts, 4th in the East; 55 gf, 50 ga

What's Happened Since
An end to pragmatism for one. Also, a wholesale discarding of high-profile designated players (DPs). To say Red Bull went through some changes between 2014 and 2015 amounts to dismissing a tornado warning as the thing tears through one's kitchen. The Mike Petke firing was, quite possibly, the biggest shit-storm in MLS history (wait for it...a strike now would top it). That said, the transition to a lighter DP load changes the club quite a bit as well – i.e. lose Henry, Olave, and, his 2014 production notwithstanding, Cahill in a single off-season and your club has some serious work to do. So, what has Red Bull done? Well, their biggest off-season coup has to be signing Sacha Kljestan, for whom, let the record show, I'm more or less a complete whore. This being New York – e.g. Drama Central - the trade that paved the road for Kljestan's arrival rankled a bundle of feathers: Alexander had proved himself (to the notice of too few), but the ensuing, messy parting of Ambroise Oyongo somehow struck deeper at the time. New York picked up Felipe Martins going the other way and, for what it's worth, I like that pick-upgiven Peguy Luyindula's Henry-esque age. They have some depth pick-ups besides – see: Baptiste, Andrew-Jean, the re-signing of Damien Fontane...Perrinelle, and the weird, wily acquisition of Leo Stolz. Say what you will, but this is not a club that does things by half.

What to Expect This Year
New York ranked highly as they did on the list of clubs that interest me because, more than most MLS clubs, they can break either way in 2015. Henry is a massive loss, without question, but a player with that level of gravity, no matter how wholly justified, dictates how you play the game. It's possible the Mighty Frenchman's departure frees the club to attack through more channels (though it's not like New York did horribly attacking down Sam's right). Personally, I have high hopes for a...how does this work, getting McCarty, Kljestan and Felipe onto the field all at once? Does this require a 3-5-2 with….surely not Stolz as an anchor d-mid? The point is, New York has a highly intriguing season ahead, even if not for the right reasons. That said, I'm sure of two things: 1) Wright-Phillips will not (by his own admission) push to break the record again; 2) what continuity they have will buy their success in 2015. I can’t believe I got this far into a preview of Red Bull without saying either "Luis" or "Robles," but I rate the shit out of that goalkeeper.

Overall
Red Bull has good parts. I even rate most of the new guys. They also have chaos. So, why the hell is Ali Curtis on a one-year contract?