New York Red Bulls: Rising in MLS and within its own football conglomerate

On Saturday, the New York Red Bulls will participate in an MLS Cup final for the first time since 2008. Less than a month later, the club and the broader Red Bull football group will enter a new era altogether. Rather than trying to get their wings from a slim silver can, the conglomerate hopes to take flight thanks to an iconic German newcomer.

In January, Jurgen Klopp begins his tenure as head of global soccer for Red Bull. It is a sprawling sports enterprise with assorted flavors, including Formula One racing, extreme sports, esports and soccer. Klopp will oversee the arm of the latter, which comprises UEFA Champions League qualifiers RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg, the New York branch and Brazil’s Red Bull Bragantino. The organisation also have a stake in Leeds United but Klopp’s role with the English Championship side is expected to be more of an advisory one.

The former Liverpool head coach is larger than life, one of international soccer’s biggest characters and cerebral influencers. Impressing him is not easy. 

However, the Red Bulls’ run to this weekend’s final against the LA Galaxy could have hardly made a stronger first impression. Overseen at the top level by Klopp’s compatriot and New York’s head of sport, Jochen Schneider, it has been a wild ride of underdog determination and away wins. Schneider, it must be noted, hasn’t received official confirmation yet that his impending boss has been watching.

“I don’t know — you’ll have to ask him about that,” Schneider told The Athletic on Tuesday. “I’ve not spoken with him about New York, but we will find out. I’m looking forward to seeing him here, hopefully very often during the year. This is such an amazing decision for Red Bull, for all of us, for all our clubs. To have somebody like him — not only for his experience as a coach, but also him as a human being — with us is really big.”

While it’s unclear how involved Klopp will be with the group’s American branch, his handling will help answer a long-open question about the club’s standing in the hierarchy. After years of adhering to a development model, New York has evolved into a more modern and competitive operation under Schneider. To him, reaching this weekend’s final is only the beginning.

“I said this right at the beginning, we are not a ‘farm team’,” Schneider said. “I know how much the New York Red Bulls mean to the Red Bull organization, how important we are, and how much they appreciate that we play successful football this season. This club means a lot to Red Bull.”

Over the past decade, the Red Bulls have provided some valuable talent to the broader group. At times, however, that pathway has seemed to hamper the team’s ability to contend at MLS’s highest levels.

While some teams were spending club-record transfer fees on a near-annual basis, New York appeared to be developing players and coaches with an eye toward the best interests of the other Red Bull soccer properties. Mike Petke led the Red Bulls to win the Supporters Shield in 2013 but he was fired a year later as the club appointed a better ideological match, current Canada men’s coach Jesse Marsch. After Marsch himself won two more Shields in 2015 and 2018, he departed — not for a head coaching gig, but to become assistant coach at Leipzig. 

Perhaps most worrisome was the departure of Tyler Adams. While it made sense for him to move to Leipzig as his European entry point, the reported $3million (£2.4m at current rates) transfer fee felt laughably below market value for a young defensive midfielder with considerable first-team experience.

Schneider arrived in 2022 and immediately pushed back on the “farm team” narrative, but supporters could be forgiven for remaining skeptical.

The Red Bulls had not signed a squad-leading veteran designated player — a hallmark of any competitor’s roster build — since Thierry Henry retired after the 2014 season. The club maintained success by balancing a domestic-skewing squad with a pipeline of young talent through its academy. While the developmental approach didn’t cost the team playoff appearances, it seemed to keep them from competing with free-spending rivals.

Still, the return to contending at the highest level required a concentrated shift in approach. After a surprising first-round exit at home in 2022, Schneider began studying what other teams in MLS were doing — particularly those that could credibly threaten to win MLS Cup.

A founding franchise in 1996 (initially as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars), New York is one of three remaining originals to have not yet won MLS Cup, a painful reality, especially when local rival New York City FC did so in their seventh year. 

“We went through the process of how we make a winning team out of this club, and what it really needs,” Schneider said. “It was important to raise the quality of the team, to add leadership and experience to our team.”

Over the years, the pipeline from New York to the group’s clubs in Leipzig and Salzburg occasionally flowed both ways. New York has acquired eight players from the Austrian club and two from Leipzig, most often as loanees. Current starting goalkeeper Carlos Coronel first arrived on a loan from Salzburg in 2021. 

Still, no previous import came close to the stature of Emil Forsberg. As Schneider tells it, the Sweden international was ready for a change of scenery after over nine years with Leipzig, from helping the club earn promotion from the 2. Bundesliga to its sustained presence in the top tiers of Europe’s club rankings.

Forsberg joined New York early in its offseason for a reported $4.9 million. Now, Schneider’s squad building came with a centerpiece that he estimates is “the best football player the Red Bull soccer group has ever had.” The way he creates chances from central areas is illustrated in the graphic below.

“It was a perfect fit at the right time,” Schneider said. “To be able to sign him to the New York Red Bulls was quite remarkable. I’m grateful for what Red Bull has done for us: the support, the trust, especially (Red Bull CEO) Oliver Mintzlaff. He gave us the opportunity to sign Emil, and that really helped a lot.”

Forsberg made a strong first impression under head coach Sandro Schwarz, who also joined in the offseason, having been dismissed by Hertha BSC. Schneider was confident Schwarz could balance the increasing veteran presence and expectations with the club’s steadfast commitment to development.

The season could have hardly started off better, with New York sitting atop the Eastern Conference after seven games. Forsberg built a swift connection with winger Lewis Morgan, who returned from a hip injury that ended his 2023 after six games. While the club created chances at a rate similar to conference heavyweights Inter Miami and the Columbus Crew, they struggled to turn that into goals.

“The only thing we have to criticize is that we didn’t convert our chances well enough,” Schneider said. “When you look at the data in terms of expected goals, we have been at the same level of Inter Miami. When it comes to executing, you can see what they were able to convert and we missed many, many big chances. We tied a lot of games which we could have won, and we could have easily finished this regular season in the fourth, maybe third position.”

New York gradually fell down the conference table as the season progressed, finishing seventh after a couple of maddening stretches, including four straight draws through midsummer, and not a single win during August and September. From there, Schwarz looked into the team’s issues and made subtle changes to get the team ready for a playoff showdown against defending champion Columbus. He tailored his defense to force the Crew to cross far more than they were comfortable with, neutralizing their attacking threat. With the ball at their feet, Schwarz kept Morgan at the top of the defensive shape as a pacy outlet for quick counter-attacks.

It paid off, as the Red Bulls shocked MLS by beating Columbus in two games. A conference semifinal win against New York City FC and last week’s 1-0 win over Orlando City ensured the first-round result was no fluke, getting New York back to the final.

“I have to give a lot of credit to the coaching team, to Sandro,” Schneider said. “They found the key to beat Columbus in two games, and we played a bit differently than before, but this was the key to win games, and players believe in that.”

While Forsberg is a worthy leading man, the team hasn’t strayed far from its long-established DNA. Five of the 11 players who started in Saturday’s conference final hail from New York and New Jersey, including the academy-developed midfield double pivot of Daniel Edelman and Peter Stroud. Fellow homegrown John Tolkin sent in the conference-winning assist on a set piece, while brothers Dylan and Sean Nealis have come up big defensively throughout their run.

The academy will receive another boost when the team’s privately funded training complex opens in 2025. Stationed in Morris Township, NJ, the facility will cater to both the senior and youth setups, ensuring a continued seamless integration of homegrown talent into the broader organization’s plans and practices, according to Schneider.

Klopp coached against RB Leipzig while with Liverpool (Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images)

Schneider also singled out Adams, who captained the United States at the 2022 World Cup, as a great role model for young players, both in how he climbed the ranks and the heights he has hit as a result of New York’s development. “There will be more to come,” he added.

Win or lose on Saturday, it feels as though the Red Bulls have come into their own as an MLS operation this year. With a pragmatic coach and more senior experience to supplement and mentor the long-standing young core, it’s a sustainable approach that Schneider hopes will lead to more successes on the field and beyond.

That’s a commitment to its own end, not a concentrated effort to further fortify Red Bull’s clubs in Europe. Schneider insists attempts to cater MLS planning predominantly to provide for teams abroad would be difficult due to the league’s byzantine roster rules.

“You cannot compare MLS to any other league in Europe. Being one entity here is completely different to any European club,” Schneider said. “The overall global awareness is growing — I can see that in the last week how many people reached out to me from Europe. I can tell you that people from Europe follow MLS closely.”

Only time will tell just how closely Klopp himself keeps tabs on Schneider’s works, either from Germany or a seat at the team’s stadium in Harrison, NJ. 

But one thing is clear: New York is on the rise, both in MLS and their broader footballing network.

(Top photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)