Red Bulls know patience only lasts so long as they veer from smashed to surprisingly good
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 Guz...