Red Bull Round Up 1/23/2024
The Red Bulls take care of business in their first pre-season game, while one of their best players represents the US National Team in a busy weekend
Photo by Will Vragovic / New York Red Bulls
Sun Tanned Bulls
The tri-state area may be suffering through its first major cold spell of the winter, but with preseason finally underway at IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida, the New York Red Bulls have had nothing but sunshine and warm weather. They celebrated the lack of ice and sleet with their first game of 2024, a friendly 6-0 victory over the mighty Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles.
We here at the Metro Soccer Report are dedicated to giving our readers in depth match coverage. Sadly this game was closed to the public, so the details on its events are limited. The starting lineup was a healthy mix of established starters, Red Bulls II players, and Superdraft pick, Aiden O’Connor, who the team has not yet signed to a contract. Most notably, Emil Forsberg saw action in a Red Bull jersey for the first time on this side of the Atlantic, earning an assist on a Dante Vanezeir goal at the end of the first half. Hopefully that sentence will be rewritten here several times over the course of the year.
15 year old homegrown forward Julian Hall, one of the few players on the field younger than the team’s collegiate opponent, opened up the scoring with an assist from Vanezier who scored a brace before mass substitutions at the half. Midfield stalwart, Daniel Edelman, was the only starter to come off before half-time, and was replaced by Ronald Donkor. No reason was given for the early substitution.
O’Connor was the only starter to remain on the field for the beginning of the second half before eventually being replaced by the Red Bulls youngest ever signing, Bento Estrela. The second half followed a similar blueprint, as MLSNP forward Mohammed Sofo made it 4-0, assisted by the team’s newest homegrown player, Roald Mitchell. Senior team striker Elias Manoel added a brace of his own with Frankie Amaya assisting the Brazilian’s first goal.
New head coach Sandro Schwarz seemed satisfied, though not overly excited, with the result, stating “We saw the principles we train in our sessions and that is very important to us. We have to improve and to continue how we want to play.” Whether the team can apply those principles in their games against stiffer competition, will provide him with a clearer idea of how to best utilize his new squad. The outcome may never really have been in doubt, but even if it was a friendly, it still stands out as the first ever game of the Schwarz era. May it be a long and prosperous one.
There’s not really much that can truly be taken away from a game against the Atlantic Sun Conference’s fifth place team, especially a game that no one outside of FGCU or the Red Bulls organization actually saw. Hopefully it was a nice little tuneup as the team starts getting into game shape. Wednesday’s game against the New England Revolution will likely be more consequential, at least to the extent that a pre-season game can be consequential.
The notable absences from this game were Lewis Morgan Juan Jose Mina Wiki Carmona Cory Burke
and Cameron Harper
Away Kit Leak
Footy Headlines has leaked the first pictures of the Red Bulls’ 2024 away jerseys.
The kit, made by Adidas, is a traditional New York red, with black zig zags going down the front and the sleeves. There are also three white stripes across the shoulders. The back appears to be a solid red block, though the black pattern zig zags down both sides of the sleeves. Whether this design has any significance beyond aesthetics (kit makers do love to justify their designs with hidden symbolism after all) won’t be known until the team officially unveils them.
The design is definitely more distinctive compared to last year’s checkered red away jerseys, which often appeared to be solid red from a distance. Regardless of design, it’s hard to go wrong with a black and red color scheme. If this is the official kit, the team probably avoided using straight black stripes to steer clear of comparisons to the old MetroStars’ jerseys. That said, if the design is a homage to the team’s early years, that would earn it some extra points in this writer’s book.
Grade: A-
All-American Tolkin
John Tolkin has yet to arrive in pre-season camp, but he has a good excuse for his tardiness, thanks to Gregg Berhalter calling him up for the USMNT’s annual January camp. Tolkin came off the bench for the national team in their 0-1 loss to Slovenia, Saturday, subbing on for Nashville’s Shaq Moore in the 61st minute. The team largely shifted to a more aggressive pressing style after the 4 man substitution that brought Tolkin on, an approach that definitely favored the 21 year old All-Star’s playing style and experience with the Red Bulls. He managed to provide a much needed spark of energy down the left side.
He made himself a strong attacking threat throughout his 29 minutes, making some good runs down the line and positioning himself well in the box. He failed to capitalize on his chances, sending two open shots wide right within the span of a few minutes in what were some of the national team’s best opportunities to threaten the goal. These misses proved costly, as the low-budget, version of the Stars and Stripes missing all of its most popular stars, ultimately failed to equalize. In the last few minutes of the game, he switched over to center back, playing on the right in a position he has rarely filled at the club level.
With several U-23 players involved, the game acted as a partial preview of what the US Men’s Olympics team might look like. Assuming he’s called up for Paris, Tolkin would miss most of August, potentially giving Curtis Ofori or Omar Valencia, who started the Red Bulls’ friendly against FGCU, a chance to demonstrate their readiness to take over the left-back role in his absence. Thankfully, the Olympics coincide with this year’s Leagues Cup, a tournament MLS and Liga MX fans are still trying to determine how much they should actually care about. So he’s unlikely to miss more than one or two of the games that’ll actually determine the fate of the Red Bull’s MLS season.
Tolkin turned in a fairly Strong performance overall, but his missed shots were critical to the USMNT’s chances. He will still certainly earn more call ups in the future, both with the U-23s and the senior team. In the long term, no one will hold a few missed chances in a January camp friendly against him.
Captain Panama
Rafael Mosquera, on loan to the Red Bulls II from Panamanian club Plaza Amador, is also not in preseason, as he is captaining Panama in the UNCAF U-20 Championship in Honduras. He led the “Canaleros” (AKA the Canal Men) to a pair of victories in their first two games, beating El Salvador 3-0 on Friday and Nicaragua 4-0 on Sunday. He assisted Panama’s opening goal of the tournament with a perfect through ball against El Salvador, before getting on the score sheet himself in the second game where he converted a penalty in the 35th minute.
Mosquera has been with the organization since the summer window, but he’s already shown some of the promise that attracted New York’s attention, racking up 2 assists in the MLSNP playoffs. His loan will end in July, at which point the Red Bulls have to make a decision on whether or not to make an offer to Plaza Amador for a permanent transfer. If he continues his good form from the Central American competition to MLSNP, then he should be able to make his mark in the US.
Panama continues their tournament run with a game at 4:00 eastern Tuesday against against hosts Honduras. With such a strong performance, Mosquera and Panama should be among the favorites to win the whole competition.
Lower League Notes
New York’s newest team, Brooklyn FC, set to debut in 2025 in USL League One, announced Friday that they will be playing in Maimonides Park, home of the Mets’ Single-A affiliate, the Brooklyn Cyclones. This continues the proud New York City tradition of playing soccer games in baseball stadiums. Maimonides Park also briefly hosted the New York Cosmos for the 2017 season.
Dilly Dilly budlight campaign or new FC Motown fans chant. Former Red Bull and Rutgers midfielder, Dilly Duka, has been named the head coach of FC Motown’s NPSL team. Duka first joined FC Motown in 2018, and has served as team captain for several years. The club has qualified for this year’s US Open Cup.
The Daniel Patrick kit will be gone after this year. 2 year cycles
I adore that away shirt. You’re right that apparel companies love to extract meaning from their designs, but I’ll do it for them (Adidas, DM me for my Zelle info, thx): those zigzags remind me of the stylized “M” in the old MetroStars logo. I’m not a #redbullOUT guy by any stretch, but any time we can smuggle Metro designs back into the club, I’m happy. The only thing that sucks is that it looks like we’re committed to wearing the cursed Daniel Patrick shirts again - how often I can only speculate.
Great wrap-up overall.