By Eric Walcott (@ericwsoccer)

At times this season the New York Red Bulls have looked like a very good soccer team, sometimes even harkening back to the 2018 Red Bull team that set (what was then) an MLS record for points in a season. Case in point, nine of New York’s 14 wins this year have come against playoff teams. That included wins over FC Dallas, Atlanta, and Real Salt Lake during a five match unbeaten stretch early in the season and back to back wins over Portland and Philadelphia during a late season run to put them into the playoffs.

There have also been times when the Red Bulls have looked exceptionally mediocre. They’ve looked like a team that not only lost its most important player in Tyler Adams, but also lost a whole lot more of something else as well, despite mostly returning their entire squad from 2018. The flip side of nine wins against playoff teams was picking up only one point from four games against Montreal and Columbus.

Unfortunately for Red Bull fans there was far too much of the latter and not near enough of the former. A few things might be to blame for the Red Bulls’ decline this season. The aforementioned loss of Tyler Adams has certainly had a significant impact. The offense struggled in part because of the decline of Bradley Wright-Phillips, who through a combination of injuries and maybe finally age fell off significantly in production this season. Aaron Long won Defender of the Year in 2018, and Kemar Lawrence finished 5th in voting, but neither of them found the same form in 2019, even when they weren’t out with injury or national team callups. Of course it could all just be Chris Armas’ fault, which is certainly what some supporters think.

All that said, a win against Montreal on the last day of the season would’ve meant a home game in the playoffs. Instead they get a road date in Philadelphia.

Team Statistics

Possession: 46.8% (18th in MLS)

Passes Per Game: 431.1 (21st in MLS)

xG For: 46.8 (12th in MLS)

xG Against: 43 (12th in MLS)

A few things stand out in the numbers from this season for New York. Perhaps most visibly was the decline in production from BWP. Probably at least partially as a result of that, Kaku’s assist numbers were also noticeably down from 2018, despite his chance creation metrics actually being up a tick from last season.