“How We Play” is Important to Schwarz and RBNY

New York Red Bulls have had a flying start to the MLS season, sitting just two points back of Inter Miami for first place in the Eastern Conference and a tough test in Vancouver Whitecaps over the weekend. Head coach Sandro Schwarz has been pragmatic about the team’s success, focusing on behavior and playing style rather than over-amplifying results.

“For me it’s more important how we create three points,” said Schwarz after training. “How we play, our behavior off the field, this is more important. It was good and now we have to continue the process. This is now the next step for us, a very difficult game to raise our level and the next line on Saturday.”

While the recent away results may be somewhat disappointing due to dropping points on late goals, the team has been able to manage a gauntlet of tough games and only losing one of them. Points in Nashville, Orlando, LA and Houston show that the team is taking to Schwarz’s tactics rather well. While it isn’t the same break-neck style of Gerhard Struber, it is still a high-energy system that demands a lot from players. So much so that we have seen the need for rotation due to fitness and longer term injuries.

Coming home to Red Bull Arena will be a welcome sign for New York. The team has only played three home games out of nine total games played. Thus far they are undefeated at home with two impressive wins over Dallas and Miami. Their most recent draw against Chicago, while somewhat disappointing, has to be seen as a positive given that they played without defender Andres Reyes for 50 plus minutes.

“To compare the road games and home games, it’s not a big issue for us,” said Schwarz. “We prepare how we want to play. We analyze the opponent and it’s not a big issue for us how we play in our home stadium or in an away game. It’s better to have these emotions, these feelings, with our home supporters, in our stadium, with all our staff. That’s a good feeling for us but what happens on the field is not a big issue.”

New York will host second place Vancouver Whitecaps of the Western Conference on Saturday night at Red Bull Arena.