New York Red Bulls suffered their first loss of the 2024 season against the Columbus Crew and are taking it as a learning experience. The team which has brought in a new head coach in Sandro Schwarz and a new star player in Emil Forsberg, has yet to find their footing, despite going undefeated through the first three week.
“This was a learning game,” said Schwarz after the loss. “You saw the difference to the team that won least season’s MLS Cup. They played with confidence in all positions, and you saw the speed. We had some troubles to be honest.”
Troubles were indeed abound, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The combination of Noah Eile and Andres Reyes found themselves out of place often, with Columbus constantly getting balls in behind the Red Bulls defense. Combined with the team’s inability to score goals and New York suffered their most devastating loss of the season thus far.
Still, head coach Schwarz is staying positive. From the beginning of the year, the German coach stated that the club had a long way to go before they could be considered at the level of a team like Columbus. This early season clash gave fans, and the team, a view of just how far they are from a club of that status.
“For sure we are disappointed today about the performance,” said Schwarz. “Training was good and the first results were good. But this is also the experience we need sometimes against such a good team. We have to learn to play with this confidence with this young team. It’s normal to get this experience sometimes and we will continue our style, how we want to play.”
That style will be put to another test this coming weekend against Inter Miami. While Leo Messi won’t be available, the Red Bulls will also be missing stars of their own. Noah Eile, Emil Forsberg, Corey Burke, John Tolkin and Daniel Edelman will not be available. Combined with the injury woes sustained to Sean Nealis and Dante Vanzeir leaves the Red Bulls having to rely heavily on reserve and bench players to get points during the international break.
“When you have this kind of loss, it’s normal that these young guys put a lot of pressure on themselves and are disappointed,” said captain Forsberg. “We deserved to lose but we have a new game next week. It’s time to look forward. We’re going to analyze this game and see what we did badly and what we can do better and then we have to look forward.”
photo by Matt Kremkau