Red Bull New York had been one of the hottest stories in Major League Soccer when the 2026 regular season kicked off in late February. But they didn’t stay hot for long, and the club has gone through its fair share of ups and downs through the first third of the season, making its fanbase restless.
With a young crop of players and a first-year head coach in Michael Bradley, the message from the club has been patience. The Red Bulls have shown promise with young stars Julian Hall and Adri Mehmeti’s play on the pitch, but with that has come a lack of consistency for a roster whose average age is roughly 23.6 years old, according to Transfermarkt.
“It’s a young team, so you’re going to have this sort of up and down,” Red Bulls captain Emil Forsberg told The Post in a phone interview. “You’re not going to have this consistent performance all the time. It’s normal when you’re a young guy and it’s your first time in the league, first time playing professional soccer, that it’s gonna be a little bit different.”
Forberg, who arrived in New Jersey ahead of the 2024 MLS season, echoed the idea of patience while also expressing optimism over the development of the team.
Through 13 games, the Red Bulls have experienced the swings of coming out of the gate strong with back-to-back wins, getting blown out twice by Montreal, an ugly loss to Charlotte in March and an impressive performance against Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami. More recently, the club went winless in three straight matches before winning consecutive games against Chicago and Columbus.
“You can see that this is a very young team we have now,” Jürgen Klopp said in April at the opening of the Red Bulls’ new training facility. “From time to time, we will get smashed. That happened already, but in other moments, we will be very surprisingly good. Because the boys are extremely talented, and this is only the start together with Michael and Julian [de Guzman].”
With Bradley and de Guzman at the helm, the Red Bulls went through a number of changes, from the implementation of a new tactical system to the additions of Cade Cowell, Jorge Ruvalcaba, Justin Che, Robert Voloder and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty. That was along with the consistent minutes being given to teens Hall, Mehmeti and Matthew Dos Santos.
“We understand that building something real, building a team that can hold up in the toughest times…that takes time,” Bradley told The Post. “That takes work, that takes going through real moments together and you can’t change that. … And trust me, we don’t write one thing off as an excuse. We don’t just toss anything aside and say, ‘Oh well, we’re young,’ or ‘we’re new.’ No chance.
“We are trying every single day to push ourselves and push the group forward in a way where we can become the absolute best team that we can be.”
The up-and-down way the club has played through the first third of the season has been a flash point for fans, especially after the Red Bulls missed out on the postseason last year to snap a streak of 15 consecutive seasons with a playoff appearance.
With a record of 5W-3D-5L, the Red Bulls are sitting in a playoff position, helped by their back-to-back wins going into Saturday’s game against NYCFC and with the World Cup break rapidly approaching.
“I mean, that’s the goal. We don’t play for anything else. I definitely want to go to the playoffs,” Forsberg emphatically stated. “We have to take game for game and win our games, but of course, playoffs is the main goal. Then after that, see what we can do. But I’m here to win and nothing else.”
