Monday at Pier 59 Studios, the New York Red Bulls passed their first challenge of the season: their annual media day gauntlet. As the team unveiled new 2013 home jerseys, we spoke with players, coaches, and staff to get their take on a turbulent off-season, the new attitude for the club, and expectations for the coming campaign.
What did you take away from the 2012 season?
Midfielder/Defender Connor Lade: I think it was a pretty good first year. As a team we wanted to do better, but I was able to get a lot of playing time, and see what the ins and outs of the league were. I'm just trying to improve on my performance from the first year, and be a consistent starter. Whether that's in the start or I have to work my way back in, I'm definitely comfortable with trying to prove to the staff I can start and affect the team positively.
Defender Brandon Barklage: Personally, I'd give myself a C+. It was good to finally get back onto the field, it was good to play right back. I feel more and more comfortable playing at that position every game. I'd like to stay healthy for all 34 games this year.
Defender Markus Holgersson: It was a little disappointing to get out against DC United. We had a lot of good opportunities to break them down, but we couldn't finish it, and in the last moment, yeah. We can ride on that, we did a really good end and we have a strong team this year also. If we can get it together, we can go a long way.
Goalkeeper Ryan Meara: I had so much fun with everything. Everything was new to me. Something about playing and starting every game on a team where we were winning a lot of games. It's a lot of fun, and we have a great group of guys. I thought we were real close to being that team to either be in the final or win it last year. We're all hoping this is the year.
The biggest news during the offseason was the departure of Rafael Marquez, who returned to Mexico after two and a half controversial years with RBNY. How do you feel about Rafa's departure?
Striker Thierry Henry: [We're] losing a great guy and a great teammate.
Lade: He's been a top pro at the top level for such a long time. I think that people view him differently. It's different having him in there every day. He's actually a very knowledgable guy, and he helped everyone a lot with how he played and how he trained with us. You can learn a lot from him. I think it was unfortunate sometime the criticism he received, but to each their own, and I learned a lot from him.
Holgersson: (laughs) No, that's good. I have nothing to say about that.
The other big transfer was the team unloading their leading goalscorer from last season, Kenny Cooper, to FC Dallas. How did it feel to make that trade?
Sporting Director Andy Roxburgh: I'm still in denial. I fought for nearly a month to keep Kenny Cooper. I said "Over my dead body", so I actually shouldn't be standing here. Great boy, goal scorer, and they kept telling me "you can't keep him, you just can't have him, you need to sell him, because somebody wants him, his price is too high". I could've kept him, but it would've brought the rest of it into real difficulty. I'll put it this way: it was not a football decision...again, I'm not critical of [the salary cap], because I understand that they have the global view, that they're protecting the league. And that's very understandable, I understand why they do it. But it's very difficult to come to terms with when you've just arrived, and you have to let one of your favorite goal scorers go.
Replacing Cooper will be Fabian Espindola, a player that had been spoken highly of in the NY locker room even before he joined the squad. How does it feel to have him in the attack?
Henry: I've always admired him as a player. Great to play with him because you can put a lot of pressure up front. He's been in this league for a very long time. He's been kind of a nightmare for a lot of defenders, usually against us...It's been great so far — we've had a great understanding in some games. Very happy to have him here.
All combined, the offseason saw sixteen players depart and twelve players join RBNY, leaving last year's rookie Connor Lade as the fourth longest tenured player at the club (behind Miller, Henry, and McCarty). Coaching and front office staff turned over as well; how does such massive turnover affect the club, and how do you get settled?
Lade: I didn't actually know that! I guess I'm a seasoned veteran in that case. (laughs) There's been a lot of turnover within the team. It's exciting for the fans. We've got a lot of new faces in, I think this year we're going to have a good team with all the pieces we brought in, and hopefully we can build a foundation around the team and sustain it for more years to come and reverse that trend. I think good teams don't happen in necessarily a season, you've got to build them for a couple of years.
Roxburgh: The staff's changed here now, a lot of the players have changed. And that's one of the reasons it'll take us a while to get settled. My attitude is, you tell them everything. I was literally their newscaster. I would say "Here's the news, so you're not reading about it or hearing about it somewhere. Here's the news, we're signed this guy, we've brought this guy on staff, here's our structure, et cetera." The staff is now almost finished — we've got one guy we're bringing in from Barcelona, stolen from Barcelona, who's coming in to join us on the fitness side of it. And so that will be the staff now complete.
The biggest staffing change was the appointment of club legend Mike Petke as head coach. How is Petke as "the boss"?
Midfielder Tim Cahill: It was the perfect fit. We've got a lot of American players, he's played for the club for a long time, he's got a lot of knowledge of the league. For me, players play for people they respond to, and Petke is someone who has that aura about him that you want to play for.
Lade: I think Mike has come in and done well, he's really bringing his style he wants it to be — very intense, everyone fighting for every minute on the field. I think everyone's adapting that very well and embracing the new culture that we have. I think we're going to be an exciting team to watch this year.
Henry: Passionate. Desire. Committed. You guys know him more than me, he's the same as he was a player. Really committed, passionate about the club. We all know that. I think we're all in a situation now that we're all waiting for the game to start. Hopefully this year, we won't be every time meeting on Thursday saying it's a must-win game up until the end of the season. Hopefully we can do better. You are going to have to also understand that this team needs to gel. A different type of play Mike is demanding of the players, some new players. We're not far from doing well.
What sort of competition can we expect for starting roles this year, and what does that mean to the players?
Head Coach Mike Petke: Nobody has a guaranteed spot here — nobody. I'm a firm believer in competition pushes you, pushes players, and brings out the best in them. And if it doesn't, if it does the other side to them, then they answered a very big question for me — they can't handle that type of pressure, and they don't want that type of environment. Well, that's not the type of player I want here.
Meara: I think it'll be a good. For me, right now, my mindset is just to get healthy and get back in the conversation as being able to play. You always need competition — I think it'll be good. After looking back at preseason now, almost every position on the field now there's competition to be in the starting eleven. I think guys will be disappointed they're not starting, but it's a long season. Like we saw last year with all the injuries, you need a deep roster. I think we're set up to hopefully make a run at the cup this year.
Barklage: Competition is only good for the team. You've got [Kosuke Kimura] coming in, he's a right back. He's had an awesome preseason. He's pushing me every day. You've got three left backs, two center backs at both center back positions. Competition's always good, it's going to push everybody, and it's going to make us a better team.
Holgersson: No, it's always good with competition if it's a fair competition. But the coach wants to play a special style, and sometimes you fit and sometimes not. I was lucky last year with Hans — he and Eric [Soler] brought me here, and they really believed in me and liked what I did. This year it's a new situation — and yeah. I'm not the same player as Mike was, and we have to see who's choice.
The Red Bulls finished a shortened preseason 2-3-3, ending with three straight losses. What were your takeaways from the last month and a half?
Cahill: To be with the team for four to six weeks, to get to know the new lads, it's fantastic. The training sessions, the way we've been looked after in the whole of the camp, it's been first class. For me, it's what I needed. I needed time to settle with my teammates, new staff...the results hasn't been there, but the standard of football has been exceptional. I've been really impressed with the way we played. When you've got 20, 30 boys and mixing the team so much and trying to play the youngsters as well, you're going to get results like that.
Petke: First and foremost I'm happiest looking back on the last two preseasons as an assistant coach, and the camaraderie, the attitude early in preseason. We've had three, four solid weeks of just everybody enjoying themselves, enjoying the team, enjoying the staff getting along, the players and staff having good relationships. Whereas maybe even the first week last year, the environment wasn't great, there were some things going on.
Henry: I remember my first preseason, we played so well against some Mexican team. Everyone was raving about us "Oh wow", and then nothing. Then the season after, we lost some games and won some games, and then nothing. And this year, it's true, we looked good on the ball and conceded some silly goals. But we conceded the goals during preseason. It's going to be a different type of game against Portland, like I said to you.
One frequent fan complaint under the Backe era was about the lack of effort on the field from time to time. Petke and Roxburgh both spoke about a different mindset for this year's squad.
Roxburgh: Everything we do here will have to be humble, hardworking, and professional. Key words.
Petke: Passion is something that I'm convinced you can't teach — you either have it or not. And I feel that every single person on this team has it. It's about bringing it out of them. How do you do that? I don't have an exact science how to do that. I just hope that my passion is rubbing off on them. Our first preseason game, I lit into them yelling. You might sit back and say "First preseason game". I don't care, there's things I expect. One thing I do expect is for ninety minutes not to be outworked. I don't care if the ball gets kicked into the stands every time we get it, I don't care. What I do care about is not being outworked, and bringing that competitiveness to work every day in a way.
March will be a tough start to the season, with away games at Portland and San Jose, then a home game against DC United. What sort of outcome are you looking for performance-wise in the first month?
Roxburgh: I don't think you put a target on how many points here. I think it's rather more in our case that we've got a lot of new staff, a lot of new players. We've been working very hard to get them settled. We go into the games now starting next weekend, and we try to simply get ourselves playing well and trying to deliver some results so we can build a platform. I don't think it's a matter of putting numbers on it...if we can play the way this group is capable of playing, we'll be okay. Where we end up, nobody knows, because you know in this league, you have to do well without necessarily being brilliant, but then you have to shine at the end...the line for me is when people talk about whatever numbers of trophies, and I just say what I want right now, the focus is: to get a team that we can be proud of as a staff, that the players can be proud to play in, and that the fans can be proud to watch and support. If we can do that, we'll be on the right road.
The Red Bulls travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Portland Timbers for First Kick on Sunday at 7:30 PM ET (TV: ESPN2). The Red Bulls open at home on March 16th against bitter rivals DC United. For additional NYC soccer news throughout the entire season, follow @GothamistDan on Twitter.
