TUCSON, Ariz. (February 19, 2017) ā The New York Red Bulls, featuring almost an entirely different squad than the one featured in Feb. 15ās friendly against NYCFC, kicked off its 2017 Desert Diamond Cup campaign on Saturday against Sporting KC.
New Yorkās starters featured four MLS players, four USL players, two 2017 SuperDraft picks one Red Bulls academy player.
Although the score did not go their way, John Wolyniecās young Red Bulls, whoās Starting XI was an average age of 21.55, impressed against Sporting KCās best lineup.
āObviously it was a tough challenge, Kansas City put a good lineup out there and had their starters play 60 minutesā¦theyāre a good team,ā Wolyniec said. āBut I thought for a long time our guys played really well and held the game together.ā
Amongst the team who faced Sporting KC, Wolyniec noted Arun Basuljevicās positive performance in the match, and his improvement since the beginning of preseason in January
āObviously being a young guy coming in from college early, itās a big jump for him, but heās starting to show that heās making strides and showing that he belongs out there,ā Wolyniec said. āHeās a clean, technical player that can make plays.
āIf weāre going to play him in that deep role in the midfield, heās just going to have to learn a little bit about defensively being a little more aware and stuff like that, but his work rate was really good and his ability on the ball was great.ā