Tim Hall’s View From 101

Since last we spoke, the entire American political system has gone to hell in a handbag, so, in celebration of the last summer on Earth, we might as well enjoy the final season of MLS before everybody starts nuking each other.

But before and until we get to the extinction of our species as a whole, well, I’m here, you’re here, and the New York Red Bulls are here, almost entirely in the same form and shape in which we left them, as winners of the MLS Supporters’ Shield for the league’s best record during the regular season, and, as we have left them twenty times out of twenty in their history, coming up short of lifting the ultimate prize of MLS Cup.

It is interesting to note that, as Major League Soccer turns 21 in 2016, an age where most of us decide to hurry up and make as many bad decisions as possible as quickly as possible, the New York Red Bulls seem to be showing an incredible amount of restraint and maturity in their decision making. Granted, we’re talking about a sample size of one offseason, but the seeds are there and they certainly don’t spring up overnight fully grown.

For a team known for a high amount of turnover in the personnel department (read: the annual tradition of completely gutting the team like a fish and starting over from scratch), the normally choppy seas of offseason roster movement have been downright placid coming in to 2016. Many of the key maneuvers executed over the winter were to lock down the core of the team that was so successful the season prior. Among those signed, re-signed, or given contract extensions were the captain Dax McCarty, the 2015 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Luis Robles, the 2015 MLS Player Picked Up Off the Trash Heap and Upcycled Into a Goal Scoring Threat of the Year Mike Grella, midfielder/defender/reality show star Sal Zizzo, and the club’s original homegrown academy player, defender/one child standing on another child’s shoulders in a desperate attempt to get the cookies down from the top shelf Connor Lade.

Speaking of the talent coming up through the ranks, RBNY signed six players to homegrown contracts, many of whom most memorably featured in the team that went undefeated as U-23’s on their way to winning the fourth-tier semi-pro NPSL championship in 2014. Unfortunately, this is where the problem comes. It’s all well and good to promote from within and build for the future and want to play the same style from the first team all the way down to the babies, but the theory butts up against the reality. All of the hype and hope brought in by these young men means precisely squat if they are left languishing on the bench, and with a team that, as presently constructed, was very successful last season, it is hard to see where any of them will get serious minutes, outside of mop-up duty. Indeed, already one of the promising homegrown players signed just before Christmas – midfielder Mael Corboz – has been waived by the team. Time will tell if he lands with the reserve team and continues within the system.

However, when you do have this solid pipeline from the youths to the pros, it means you can basically forego the increasingly archaic process of the MLS SuperDraft. Fittingly then, head coach Jesse Marsch and sporting director Ali Curtis rolled up to the draft with three days of beard growth and smelling faintly of Johnnie Walker and selected Nick McDonald from Akron and Virginia’s J.D. Tippit. And if you recognize those two names not as soccer players but as the police officers most directly related to Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, give yourself a gold star for the day. You’ve done better than most people reading this. In reality, the Metros selected Justin Bilyeu from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Zach Carroll from Michigan State, both defenders and both likely selected with a “why let the picks go to waste?” shrug.

Unfortunately into each life some rain must fall, and into each offseason some players must leave us. The big loss was that of the big central defender Matt Miazga. Miazga, arguably one of the brightest prospects on the US Men’s National Team radar was transferred to Chelsea to help in their relegation battle. Miazga is still young and with some rough edges, but all the raw materials are certainly there, and he spent most of 2015 being a shutdown defender who was keeping many of the big-name, big-contract stars off the stat sheet. Such a player, even a work in progress, is not one you replace easily. The man signed to take on that unenviable task is Gideon Baah, the Ghanain international brought over from HJK Helsinki. If you’re expecting a breakdown of the Ghanain MNT or of the Finnish Veikkausliga, you’ve come to the wrong place, and anyone who claims to have strong opinions about the first division in Finland is either Finnish, a liar, or both.

In the end, the biggest additions to this Red Bulls team may be the re-addition of pieces that were already here. Young Chris Duvall spent his second season in New York in 2015 rounding nicely into a solid defender for the side before going down with a broken leg during the summer. Incredibly handsome French veteran Damien Perrinelle suffered a torn hamstring in the playoff win over DC United in October. Duvall has been back and training with the first team this spring, while Perrinelle is likely slated for a comeback somewhere around May, depending on how his rehab goes. The return of both to form would go a long way to shoring up a defense which is, right now, the biggest question mark on this team.

The other big addition without actually adding anyone is Gonzalo Veron, the Argentinian forward/winger signed in the summer of 2015 who spent most of last year’s campaign getting acclimated to the system and to the country and being brought on as a super sub. Jesse Marsch has been experimenting in the preseason getting away from the 4-5-1 that brought success last year and putting Veron aside star striker Bradley Wright-Phillips in a 4-4-2/4-2-2-2, and Veron has shone there, though he picked up a hamstring knock that will rule Veron out for the opener. If he recovers well and shows the ability that everyone can sense is there, Veron could be among the best signings of 2016 (that was actually signed in 2015.)

So, there you have it. Now you’re ready for some New York Red Bulls soccer, and even as the republic falls apart in our hands like wet sand, we might as well try to enjoy it.



UPCOMING EVENTS

Sunday March 6th: New York Red Bulls vs. Toronto FC – The Red Bulls start the 2016 campaign at home with a banner raising to commemorate the Shield win, and then the 219-month long season will begin anew. Kickoff is at 1:30, so check out the Empire Supporters Club for a breakfast tailgate located in Lot A in Harrison, just behind the Five Guys.