New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch isn’t shortchanging the CONCACAF Champions League.
Marsch told NewYorkRedBulls.com in a story published last week that he views the first leg of New York’s CONCACAF Champions League series against the Vancouver Whitecaps at Red Bull Arena on Feb. 22 (8 pm ET; Facebook Live, UDN) as perhaps the club’s biggest match of 2017.
“For us being in this Champions League tournament, it means that we have a four-week window, which is incredible how short amount of time that is to try to prepare for one of our biggest matches, if not our biggest match, of the entire season,” Marsch said. “It’s tested us in a lot of different ways, but I think in some ways it's good because it’s put a real urgency into what we’ve done every day.”
Marsch and the Red Bulls are currently conducting a preseason camp in Tucson, Ariz. The club topped FC Tucson 3-1 on Feb. 11 and beat rivals New York City FC 2-0 on Feb. 15, before falling 3-0 to Sporting Kansas City in Desert Diamond Cup action on Saturday.
The second leg of their quarterfinal series against Vancouver will be held on March 2 at BC Place. The winner of the series will face the winner of the all-Mexican matchup between Tigres UANL and Pumas UNAM in the CCL semifinals.
