Schwarz: “We Have to Improve Very Quick”

New York Red Bulls have now gone six games unbeaten but the disappointment of three straight draws has left the club looking for improvements instead of celebrating their standing. Saturday night’s draw against Vancouver was another frustrating effort where a defender, this time Noah Eile, made a poor decision that left the club down a man 15 plus minutes.

“We have to improve very quick,” said head coach Sandro Schwarz after the game. “In some moments to have this consequence to play forward, to play forward very quick, and in some moments to have more deep runs to create more situations in the box. This is not good enough today in some moments.”

Red Bulls continue to have problems scoring goals in 2024. While they are able to chase games when going behind, they tend to find the final moments difficult to convert. We’ve seen strikers Dante Vanzeir, Corey Burke and Elias Manoel create chances but none of them are able to find the killer instinct needed to score. Currently the three healthy strikers have a combined two goals in 10 matches. Without winger Lewis Morgan, the team would be back to what they were in 2023, a defensively stout team with an inability to compete moving forward.

More problematic is that there is now a large sample size for designated player Vanzeir. Last season was littered with injury and suspensions that it was difficult to assess his abilities in the league. While his assist numbers have proven to be impressive, a total of six thus far in 2024, it is not his main purpose within the club. What they have missed is a striker and what Vanzeir has given them is more of what was expected from Emil Forsberg in production.

“We knew at the start of the year that we hadn’t really capitalized on those moments,” said winger Lewis Morgan. “I thought we were brave and trying to have them on the counter attack and commit numbers forward to get the winner and we nearly did. Not that we had a clear chance but we were definitely dangerous moving forward when we went to 10 men. As a group we wanted to win the game. We didn’t want to draw.”

That draw was made even more frustrating by Eile’s 74th minute red card for reaching and touching the ball with his hand. While there has been no explanation why this happened, the situation looked as if the Swede was the last defensive player back with Vancouver moving forward on transition. Still, such a move has to be seen as short sighted since the team will now suffer against Inter Miami on the road without a defender. Much as they have over the last few weeks without Andres Reyes who will return from a two game suspension of his own.

“Of course it changed the game,” said captain Forsberg. “We wanted to win and I think we were on a good path but sometimes mistakes happen. We have to keep looking foward, keep evolving. It’s irritating because I think we could have won today and we didn’t.”