The inescapable void of theme nights at Red Bull Arena
It’s 3–0 in favor of the away side, and the home fans are doing the wave. It’s well into one of the worst Red Bulls seasons in recent memory, and the stadium is as loud and packed as it has been the entire year. Loyalty? Not quite. It’s fireworks night at Red Bull Arena, and apart from the faithful few in the supporters’ sections, the typically cobweb-bearing sections of the building are filled with newcomers or casual fans looking to have a good time with their kids on a breezy night in Harrison. The disconnect between the dejected looks on the field, the somber feeling setting in across the more tuned-in side of the fanbase, and the cheery atmosphere in the home stadium is striking and almost surreal. To blame the people for trying to have a good time is slightly pompous. To blame the front office for trying to create a good time is rather pedantic. But in reality, the image of such a depressing sporting occasion contrasting with what was supposed to be a festive night, eerily similar to the gloomy defeat to the Philadelphia Union during Star Wars Night just a month prior, is emblematic of the state of the fan culture surrounding the 2023 New York Red Bulls.
To say that the 2023 MLS season has been tumultuous for the Harrison faithful would be an understatement. Dismal performances on the pitch, the drawn-out dismissal of a controversial manager, and the unsatisfyingly short suspension of a controversial player have all combined for a historically low place in the MLS standings and a general mood of despair among supporters. But the problems go deeper than just this season. For more time than one might think, Red Bulls matches have often felt like quicksand. Every dismal loss further deepened the hole the club found itself in, and yet even when the team was winning, it felt like in the grand scheme of things it meant nothing. Because the accepted but unspoken truth to supporters has been that there is something fundamentally wrong with the New York Red Bulls organization. There has been something fundamentally wrong with the New York Red Bulls organization since the often harkened back to days of Jesse Marsch, Bradley Wright-Phillips, and the 2018 Supporter’s Shield. Ever since those glory days, there has been something missing from the team, and no matter how good temporary form has been there has rarely been an air of true hope and confidence in the future since then.
The centerpiece of the team has long been the “pressing identity”. Trickled down from the manifesto of then Red Bull football sporting director Ralf Rangnick, perfected and commodified into “energy drink soccer” by the aforementioned Marsch, the primary focus of the team since his departure has been to maintain the idea that by emphasizing counter-pressing and winning the ball back in key areas of the pitch, you can win a lot of soccer games. However, it’s never been quite recreated, not by Chris Armas, not by Bradley Carnell, and not by Gerhard Struber. The perspective on counterpressure has been a frustratingly unaddressed one, with three consecutive managers seeming to fall into the trap of viewing the strategy as an accomplishment in and of itself, rather than a tool to use to accomplish actual tactics. In 2023 almost every team on the globe employs some kind of defensive pressure, from U13 squads to the Premier League. Of course, the Red Bulls do it with unmatched zeal and effectiveness, but the point remains that it is extremely limited as a tactic when so widespread. It cannot be the only form of attacking strategy a team has, because such a narrow threat can be easily neutralized by teams who repeatedly practice breaking lines of pressure through dribbling or passing.
Counterpressure comes to life when used in conjunction with an actual attacking strategy, Pep Guardiola’s dominant Manchester City system relies on effective ball recovery in crucial areas combined with some of the best transitional offense in the world. It helps when Kevin De Bruyne is there to thread balls into places only he can see, and Erling Halaand is there to bury chances the ordinary man would consider a fleeting opportunity, but the practiced carving apart of disorganized opponents is what makes the pressing Manchester City such a formidable opponent. And to their credit, the highly qualified coaches of the Red Bulls have not magically completely missed this idea of a diverse attacking scheme. Chris Armas attempted to implement an extremely direct, but low-risk, method of advancing the ball up the pitch. Gerhard Struber emphasized preplanned attacking routes and discouraged any sort of deviation from structure, a method that ultimately proved too inflexible to last. But none of these worked. And because they haven’t worked, because the team has failed to find the magical x-factor to add to the press to finally make things click, the past five years have felt like treading water, like quicksand.
This concept is hard to place and hard to articulate, and because of this a recurring maxim in Red Bulls discourse has been varying forms of “we need to buy a striker”. Caused in part by the mostly coincidental departure of club legend Bradley Wright-Phillips at the same time everything in Harrison went down the gutter, and caused in part by the pervasive misunderstanding of the role of talent and stardom in soccer, the oversimplification of the issues surrounding the club has been a thorn in the conversation for years. The Red Bulls could use a striker, but in reality, there are fundamental issues in the way the organization as a whole has been managed and structured for years, ones that will not be solved by signing someone who can score 15 goals in a season. So to see fireworks brought out at one of the lowest lows the club has ever experienced is not only comically ironic but a microcosm of the state of the club.
One of the longest-standing complaints about Red Bull GmbH’s involvement in New York has been its perceived lack of involvement. The responsibility owners have to their fans has been a particularly touchy subject in global soccer as of late, with AC Milan players confronting fans at the famous Curva Sud, and multiple fanbases in MLS recently sparking removal of owners and coaches. It’s difficult to say whether or not the fans that create the culture deserve to have power over the, not infallible, but usually qualified professionals in charge of sporting organizations that are ultimately businesses. Nonetheless, owners and administrators have some sense of responsibility to create a relationship with the common people that give the club life, if there is to be life outside of the business. So to be a foreign ownership group already places one in a negative light, but to give the impression that one does not care about the common people is deadly. An absent owner, like an absent father, makes for a rather hollow home, and this is exactly what New York has felt like. Of course, there’s nothing objectively wrong with having some fun with fireworks and bobbleheads, but when the fanbase is so clearly discontent, these events come off as detached and cold.
There’s no telling when the mood will improve in the Red Bulls community. Troy Lesesne’s brief tenure at the club has sparked tentative hope, but it remains to be seen if he is the chosen one to finally find the secret key to unlocking this young, promising squad. Existing issues with roster construction and likely upheaval at the end of a campaign many have already given up on will likely hinder the former USL Co-Coach of the Year, but who knows? For now, the club continues to tread water. The wait for inspiration will carry on. The complaints about fireworks, while seemingly innocuous, will continue to provide insight into an increasingly indifferent aura.
