Preseason is well and truly underway here in sunny Orlando, Florida. And even though you may likely be stuck with the snowy conditions in the northeast, NewYorkRedBulls.com will have you covered every step of the way with all the happenings down south.
Four More Years!
Not exactly feeling any of the presidential candidates? Fear not, as captain Dax McCarty has secured a position in office (read: central midfield) for another term.
McCarty joined the Red Bulls from D.C. United back in 2011 and has since become near synonymous with New York Red Bulls soccer. The midfielder stands as the longest tenured player on the roster, most recently captaining the club to its second Supporters’ Shield in three seasons.
For head coach Jesse Marsch, securing McCarty’s services for the long term was a top priority.
“I’m really happy for him and happy to know that he’ll be here for a number of years,” Marsch said. “I think he’s been an important figurehead not just for this team, but for this club.
“Since I’ve known him, I’ve seen him grow and mature a lot. Now to be at a point in his career where he’s a captain and a role model within this team, it’s great to see him rewarded.”
Rested Kljestan Prepares for 2016
On the heels of a 2015 campaign that saw the midfielder make 40 appearances over all competitions, Sacha Kljestan was hurting, and understandably so. After playing a full European season in Belgium with Anderlecht, Kljestan joined the Red Bulls in Florida and found himself immediately thrown into the fire.
“I played for a year and half straight basically without a vacation and by the end of the year my knees were starting to wear on me, my ankles were starting to hurt everyday in training,” he told ESPNFC in a recent interview. “But the day after we lost to Columbus and we were eliminated, you would’ve thought I’d be ready to go on vacation and sit on a beach for a month. But the next day I was just so irritated that we got knocked out the playoffs that I said, ‘I wish the preseason started right now.’”
He didn’t quite get his wish, but the rest has done Kljestan well. Now that preseason has finally arrived, the 30-year-old is focused on preparing his body for the rigors of the upcoming MLS season.
“This year it’s a bit different for me,” he said. “I had a pretty long offseason, took a lot of time away from soccer to really relax my body and recover from last season. For me, it’s about taking it a little bit slower and not being at 100 percent right now, but being at 100 percent for March 6 so that I can last throughout the entire season and continue to push myself to a higher level.”
Gotta Keep ‘em Separated… for now
In the team’s first preseason session in sunny Orlando, Marsch and his coaching staff split the team into two smaller squads. The first group was comprised of all the familiar faces you’ve come to know and love: Dax, Sacha, Lloyd, Brad, Felipe, Grella, and so on. However, the second squad had lots of fresh new faces as homegrowns and trialists made up the group.
“With the older group we’re just trying to manage things physically to make sure that we take them on a path that really ramps them up and gets them ready for March 6,” Marsch said. “With the younger guys, we think it’s important to push our training methods and things that we think are important.”
For Marsch and his staff, one of the main goals of preseason will be to get the younger group up to speed on “the Red Bull way.” It’s a brand of soccer all too familiar to the first team regulars of 2015. But for the newcomers, it will take plenty of hours in the film room and on the training pitch for it to become second nature.
“Tonight we’ll have a video session where we go over a little bit more of the tactical concepts of what we do,” Marsch told NewYorkRedBulls.com. “The first two days on the field we’ve emphasized more the speed at which we play and how we accomplish certain things by how we train and how we think everyday. There are certain things we do during training to encourage fast thinking and fast playing, and then we have tactics that we put those habits into so that when we they step out onto the field they understand their roles.”
