In the words of Bradley Wright-Phillips, “now we have to start thinking about Olimpia.”
As the New York Red Bulls look ahead to their second preseason camp, set to kickoff on Tuesday, February 6, the club’s focus shifts to CONCACAF Champions and their first-round opponent, CD Olimpia.
“These games we are playing now, we are going to start getting more minutes and we have to start winning games and looking like us,” Wright-Phillips continued. “The performances have got to be good now.”
For Tyler Adams, the team’s fitness will be a focus over the coming weeks, something which could prove to be the difference since their opponents are at full fitness in the midst of their regular season in Honduras.
“[We’re] really getting our fitness up and getting as sharp as possible because we have our CCL match on the 22nd,” Adams said. “Against Olimpia in Costa Rica, it will be a big match for us and the club because we want to start making runs in these championship games and this is the first step.”
For head coach Jesse Marsch, this means concentrating on the players who could factor into their Champions League clash, and as a result, reducing the number of players travelling to camp in Arizona.
“It’ll be a smaller group that goes to Arizona at first,” Marsch said. “We’ll really start to focus on what Olimpia does, who they are, what we need to do to address them and make sure that we’re fully prepared.”
New York faces CD Olimpia in the opening round of Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League at a neutral site in Costa Rica on February 22, and concludes the series at Red Bull Arena on Thursday, March 1.
