HARRISON, NJ -- How fortunes have changed for the New York Red Bulls in the 2016 season.
After losing six of their first seven matches, the Red Bulls enter Sunday night’s match with the Seattle Sounders (7:30 pm ET, FS1) having won five of their last seven league games.
For leading the turnaround, head coach Jesse Marsch received a multi-year contract extension, the Red Bulls announced on Friday. Marsch, the 2015 MLS Coach of the Year, has a 24-17-7 record in charge of the Red Bulls—already good for fifth-best in franchise history through one-and-a-half seasons. Marsch said he has a common belief with Red Bulls head of commercial Marc de Grandpre, sporting director Ali Curtis and Red Bull chairman Oliver Mintzlaff.
“This business can be funny because you can get bounced around,” Marsch, who previously coached the Montreal Impact in 2012, said. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever find the right place again. But to find it at a place like this where there’s great resources, great commitment to be successful. I feel very lucky to be here but it also is a huge responsibility.”
Mintzlaff was at training Friday. The last time he was at the Red Bull training, the team was 1-5-0, but Marsch said Mintzlaff told him he continued to believe in him. Since that meeting, the Red Bulls have collected 16 of a possible 21 points, looking more and more like the team that won the 2015 Supporters' Shield.
Goalkeeper Luis Robles said the team has learned not to take matches for granted simply because of their track record. Those lessons, he hopes, will carry the team to more success under Marsch.
“We know that we have quality but a lot of times it doesn’t come down to quality alone,” Robles said. “It has to be the effort. If we’re able to come out with the sort of effort and discipline that’s required to win a game, then the quality will come out. As long as that’s the mentality we have coming into each and every game, I feel very optimistic about our chances. It doesn’t matter who we go against.”
