Michael Bradley’s Red Bulls Start Hot

In terms of pure narrative, there may not be a better story than Michael Bradley and the New York Red Bulls through the first two weeks of the Major League Soccer season.

Bradley, arguably the most underappreciated player in United States men’s national team history, is making his managerial debut at the club where he once signed his first pro contract as a 16-year-old.

Now age 38, he finds himself managing one of best clusters of academy-produced talent in the history of a club that also developed USMNT stalward Tyler Adams.

In his managerial debut on Feb. 21, he started the trio of striker Julian Hall, midfielder Adri Mehmeti and defender Matthew Dos Santos, marking the first time three players age 17 or younger had started an MLS match together. Hall scored a brace and the Red Bulls won 2-1 at Orlando.

And so on Saturday afternoon, the trio was in the lineup again. Hall scored again. The Red Bulls won again, 1-0 over visiting New England.

And yet when Bradley’s intriguing charges took the field on Saturday afternoon at Sports Illustrated stadium, there were officially only 15,087 on hand for the club’s home opener. That was lower than all but one attendance figure from Matchday 1, and it was likely to be among the smallest crowds of Matchday 2. This at a club that was only 16 months removed from a surprising run to the 2024 MLS Cup final, and one that plays in the largest and one of the wealthiest markets in the world.

If You Can Make It Here

Despite its enormousness, New York has always been somewhat of a last frontier for MLS, which has had far more success penetrating Los Angeles when it comes to of nation’s two biggest markets. But sometimes it’s hard to know how much is the fault the market – one where so much oxygen is devoted to MLB’s Yankees and Mets, the NBA’s Knicks, two NFL teams and three hockey teams – and how much falls on the clubs.

New York City FC has its nomadic existence as a built-in excuse until it opens its permanent stadium in Queens in 2027. The Red Bulls have a lot of smaller issues that by themselves should be surmountable, but together maybe are greater than the sum of their parts.

There’s the location of the stadium in Harrison, N.J. Yes, it’s on the other side of the river. But it’s not as though there isn’t an enormous soccer literate population throughout Northern New Jersey. And in terms of transit, the links with NJ Transit and the PATH Train to New York City are more straightforward than those to the Meadowlands, where the NFL’s Jets and Giants play.

There’s the branding, as a subsidiary of the Red Bull Football division that includes five clubs around the world, with RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga representing the flagship. It’s not very common for any sports entity in New York to carry an identity that isn’t centered around the famous city. At the same time, it doesn’t seem to hinder New York City FC as much given their similar relationship as part of City Football Group.

There’s the history that is not stunningly successful, but also not particularly bad. The Red Bulls have never won an MLS Cup. But they also set an MLS record by reaching 15 consecutive postseasons, a streak finally snapped last year. They’ve also won three Supporters’ Shields.

And in recent years, there’s a lack of star power. But you almost can’t blame the Red Bulls for focusing less on big names after Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez and Tim Cahill only marginally bumped the club’s profile during the previous decade.

Connective Tissue

But what the Bradley era could provide is something that matters so much in New York sports: Connective tissue that ties the present to the past, at a club where that always feels a little more difficult. (Even the name has changed; The Red Bulls were first the New York MetroStars until Red Bull company bought the club in 2006.)

The teenaged Bradley played for his father Bob in the early 2000swhen it was still the MetroStars. He made the leap to Europe while he was still a teen and eventually succeeded in the Netherlands and in Italy. He later became a United States captain, footsteps Adams eventually followed.

And now, he is quite literally continuing the family business with a group of players who hope to follow his career arc, in the same Northern New Jersey communities where his father grew up. The same Northern New Jersey communities that were producing U.S. national team talent before MLS existed – including John Harkes, Tony Meola and Claudio Reyna.

Down the line, Bradley might even be following another former member of the Red Bulls family, Jesse Marsch, into becoming one of the most globally accomplished modern American managers.

New York is a hard sports market to crack. But it’s also one that loves a good story – the Miracle Mets, Willis Reed, Jeffrey Maier, Linsanity – and a sense of authenticity. Bradley’s group is providing both of those things so far. If they can keep it up long enough, the rest of New York just might hear about it.