New York Red Bulls redefine ‘Red Bull way’ en route to MLS Cup final, adding in a dash of ‘Jersey soccer’

CARSON, Calif. – Nearly 20 years after Red Bull kicked off its global soccer project, “the Red Bull way” is a tactical fixture of the sport. It is played at the highest levels, including by RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg in the UEFA Champions League and has made its way across the Atlantic Ocean through different investments. It is defined by a high press, and many who have been tasked with executing that vision have created a mash-up of the dictum and soccer’s current possession-oriented stylistic trends.

Yet in the U.S., “the Red Bull way” looks a little different these days.

The New York Red Bulls, the second club in the company’s portfolio after they made the purchase in 2006, have made it to Saturday’s MLS Cup final against the LA Galaxy the so-called scrappy way. They play without the ball and absorb the other team’s pressure for much of the game, their defense playing a leading role in their playoff run. The Red Bulls are also limited in their shot-taking and nick goals off set pieces. It is the textbook definition of winning ugly, living up to their status as the underdogs after becoming the lowest-seeded team to reach MLS Cup. Describing it as an abandonment of “the Red Bull way,” though, is a different story.

“We all know the Red Bull way,” captain Emil Forsberg said on Thursday, “[and] how we want to play soccer.”

Reinventing ‘the Red Bull way’

In an effort to generate some publicity, and perhaps draw clicks to their website, Red Bull used the opportunity of Ralf Rangnick’s 2021 move to Manchester United to essentially make the company’s tactical manifesto public information.

Though Rangnick was not the founder of Red Bull’s soccer project, he is often credited with perfecting it and laying the foundational elements that the company’s entire portfolio of clubs is, theoretically, supposed to follow. The gegenpress was at the top of the manifesto, described as “a wave of relentless high pressing and intensity,” but there are many ways to interpret that. Historically, it is by keeping the ball.

Leipzig, for example, have been one of the Bundesliga’s possession leaders for the last several years, while the New York team has, at least historically had success being possession-oriented. From 2015 to 2018, when then-head coach Jesse Marsch led them to two Supporters’ Shield titles and arguably delivered the team’s greatest period of success, they were one of MLS’ possession leaders, too. This season, though, new head coach Sandro Schwarz has abandoned that idea entirely – they were second-to-last in the regular season for possession and perhaps outdid themselves by only averaging 31.3% of the ball during their four playoff games so far.

“The Red Bull way,” though as the company defined it three years ago, accounts for that discrepancy and they point towards a quote from Ramgnick himself. “In my opinion, it’s a mistake to think that you can only control the game if you have the ball. It’s often the other way around. Our research has shown that the likelihood of scoring a goal rapidly decreases the longer a team is in possession.”

Though the Red Bulls’ form has been all over the place this season, they seem to have perfected their approach without the ball.  It is their particular interpretation of the high press requirement, which has actually allowed the Red Bulls to slip out of that “ugly” style on the eye test.

“We feel comfortable without the ball and actually, you know what? We can control without the ball,”  defender John Tolkin said. “When the other team’s passing the ball in their own defensive third for 10 minutes, they’re not doing anything with it. If we have a good structure, we can hold the middle without the ball. It’s no problem for us. If we can frustrate them that way, it’s no problem for us. I don’t like to try to break down a tough team so that’s what I mean by that and hopefully we can do that to these guys and pick up some loose balls, some loose strings and get ’em on the counter and capitalize.”

Only two of their six goals in the playoffs have come from open play, something that Tolkin, a product of the Red Bulls academy, also said does not stray from the company’s messaging.

“Ever since I got to Red Bull, the thing that’s just been injected into me is we love set pieces and for five years, set pieces have been massive for us, especially in this postseason,” he said. “I think we’ve won three games from set pieces and that just shows the importance of them.”

Forsberg is a graduate of the possession-focused definition of “the Red Bull way,” moving to New York this year after eight years with Leipzig. He joined the German club in the lower leagues when Rangnick did and spent the last several years on the Leipzig team that loves to hold the ball. The tactical transition from Germany to the U.S., despite the clubs’ different approaches, has been a straightforward one.

“I think it’s been easy, to be honest,” he said. “I think also with Sandro as a coach, and what he wants to do, I could feel that and I could take that with me because I’ve been working with some coaches for a time, so for me, it wasn’t a hard transition. I know what to do and as a captain, you have to take more responsibility and trying to put that out on the pitch as well, with the players. It wasn’t hard. Sandro is a great coach so the message we always get is good and we always know the game plan.”

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New York takes center stage

The New York Red Bulls arguably redefined Red Bull’s soccer aspirations from a side project to a full-blown operation. It was the second club to enter the portfolio, a year after the company bought the cash-strapped Salzburg, but as the Red Bull’s global reputation started to center around Leipzig, it was hard to know where the New York team fit into the picture.

Players would occasionally shuffle around the Red Bull network, most notably with U.S. men’s national team midfielder Tyler Adams developing through New York’s academy and landing a transfer to Leipzig in 2019. Coaches have done it, too, with Marsch following up his successful stint in New York with an assistant role at Leipzig in 2018 and later serving as the manager in both Salzburg and Leipzig. The movement created the impression that the New York team existed to service its Leipzig-based counterpart, and the side’s middling form in recent years did not help matters. Since Marsch’s departure, the New York have not finished higher than sixth in the Eastern Conference or advanced past the first round of the playoffs – until this year.

Though the Red Bulls entered the 2024 playoffs as the No. 7 seed and with just one win in their previous 11, their ability to make it all the way to MLS Cup feels like validation for the things the team has gotten right even amidst their struggles. Head coach Schwarz has won over his players in his first year through his personable approach and clear communication, though his spin on “the Red Bull way” is not the only standout quality about the MLS Cup finalists.

Red Bull teams are almost married to their processes, and not only their tactical ones. They are rarely star-studded teams, in some ways rooted in finding players that are diamonds in the rough, but ones that can fit specific tactical roles. The squads on Red Bull teams can skew younger, in part because of the physical demands of a high press, but in New York’s case, it is also the result of a strong academy. The team has been happy to offer opportunities to homegrown players, with seven members of the current squad starting their professional careers on homegrown deals. For them, “the Red Bull way” is also uniquely a product of the area they hail from.

“We all have a similar bond and that definitely balances the team out to be able to help us,” New Jersey native and lifelong Red Bulls fan Daniel Edelman said, “because us guys know what Jersey soccer is from a young age.”

“Jersey soccer” is its own flavor of “the Red Bull way,” Tolkin argued, and one that has been crucial in the team’s success this season.

“We have that kind of Jersey, New York grit and swag and [get] up in your face,” Tolkin said. “I know that I don’t like when guys are breathing down my neck the whole game and I think the longer we can do that in games and the more intense we can do that in games – I think guys don’t like that and I’ve seen it and I’ve heard it from players so as long as we can keep that up, I think we’re in a good spot. … We’ve played really quality players all long this season so we respect [the Galaxy]  but we also want to kick the shit out of them and I think we’re going to try to do that this weekend and it’s what we’ve done all year long.”

The “Jersey soccer” version of “the Red Bull way” has now made the New York team the toast of Red Bull’s soccer setup for perhaps the first time since the energy drink company’s takeover nearly 20 years ago. Their run to MLS Cup for the first time since 2009 comes not only as Leipzig and Salzburg struggle for form, and while Red Bull Bragantino fights to avoid relegation from Brazil’s top flight hours before kickoff at Dignity Health Sports Park. It also offers a chance at something that has not only been elusive to the New York team, but for the other Red Bull teams minus Salzburg – meaningful silverware.

“That’s why I came,” Forsberg said. “I came to win, nothing else. That’s the ultimate goal, to win. I came here to win. I can’t speak about what was before but when I came, I had one clear goal and that was to win.”