The Red Bulls have never given the U.S. Open Cup much thought throughout their history. Their participation has consisted of a handful of victories, one losing appearance as a finalist, and far too many embarrassing losses to minor-league clubs.
Conversely, first-year coach Jesse Marsch won the Open Cup four times as a player. So when the Red Bulls open Cup play with a fourth-round match against the Atlanta Silverbacks of the North American Soccer League Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena, which philosophy do you think will play out?
“Once you’ve won the Open Cup you gather even a stronger affinity for it and you realize that it’s not easy to do,” Marsch said. “In theory, it’s five games and a chance to win the trophy, but it’s a single elimination, there’s no room for slipups, you’ve got to get some breaks in there, sometimes (there are) penalty shootouts. That’s what makes it a fun tournament.
“For us, we’re prepared to play a tough game against a good Atlanta team. We’ve watched them play a number of games this year. They haven’t gotten results lately, but we know what that’s like. We’re expecting a physically-gifted team, a team that’s going to come here and compete and make it hard on us, and we know it’s not going to be an easy game.”
And here’s an added difference this season. Unlike in regular-season games, there’s a limit on international players in the 18. Will that make picking a lineup a problem on Tuesday?
“It does affect it a little bit,” Marsch said. “We just have to analyze now. There may be a guy that’s left out in a particular roster. It limits us in certain ways, but I think we have a balance in this roster of American guys and international guys that we shouldn’t be in too much of a bind. And the fact that a lot of our international guys are away at the Gold Cup for this one means that it’s not a huge problem.”
The game comes during a week off, so players will be rested, but it will be followed by games Saturday against the Vancouver Whitecaps; Wednesday against Real Salt Lake and Sunday, June 28 in the away derby match against New York City FC.
“This week is important,” Marsch said. “We’re using this week almost as like a fitness booster shot. We’re going to make sure we use these three days. They’ve had some time off mentally and physically to recharge. These three days are going to be tough, and we think that it will then prepare us for that stretch of games in the heat and with the rest being short.
“The only thing to be said is that we have, for the most part, an extra day in there, so a lot of times when you play Wednesday to Saturday that puts a big strain on you. Earlier in the year we played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, and that was difficult. Here we typically have four days in between, which should give us enough time to recuperate, recover and then go again.”
Training Thursday at the Red Bulls training facility in Hanover saw between 20 and 30 college coaches attend the session. The group representing Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Delaware, Northeastern, Monmouth, Fordham, Princeton, Cornell. Penn, Fairleigh Dickinson, Stony Brook, Rider, Bucknell, Southern Connecticut and Kean got to observe practice and meet with Marsch and his staff.
It was a session arranged by Red Bulls sporting director Ali Curtis.
“Ali Curtis, this was his initiative, and I think he’s done a really good job of engaging a lot of people into our new identity as a club, to trying to open doors to people and show them who we are and what we’re about,” Marsch said. “It’s important for everything from the supporters’ groups, to the season-ticket holders to the soccer community to our academy for everyone to feel like this is their team, so we hope that the coaches were able to come here today and appreciate what we do and understand that now when they watch us they kind of understand what we’re trying to achieve.
“It’s was fun. I had some really good soccer conversations. It’s not like I think anyone in the soccer community necessarily learned anything new, but what we hope is that they feel a connection to who we are and what we’re doing.”
