HARRISON, N.J. — When Kaku was left off the New York Red Bulls' gameday 18-man roster, a club spokesman called it a “coach’s decision.”
After his team’s 4-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday at Red Bull Arena, Red Bulls coach Chris Armas explained his decision — albeit briefly.
“We had a minor internal issue, and we dealt with that quickly,” Armas said in his post-match press conference. “It's nothing to talk about or discuss here.”
Kaku made news with comments in the preseason about his desired transfer to Liga MX giant Club América. The influential playmaker on Wednesday tweeted in Spanish: “Sad when you realize, you’re not as important as you thought.”
Armas was later asked bout Kaku’s Twitter activity, and while he didn’t directly address that tweet, he said it was important that his players understand what message they are sending on social media.
“We have to be mindful of how we educate our players and what they put out there,” Armas said. “But sometimes in the spur of the moment, you put out things that maybe, you know, you could do it again, maybe not.”
Armas praised Kaku’s passion, calling it “his best quality.” But he alluded that perhaps at times that passion can be misguided.
“Those things are always short-lived, and we see a committed player from him through and through,” Armas said. “But again, we don't want him to lose the fire and the passion. We've just got to be mindful of how we do some of those things.”
Kaku wasn’t in the Red Bulls locker room after the game and it was unclear whether he was at Red Bull Arena at all. Later in the evening, after tweeting his support for his team, he tweeted a quote in Spanish that read: “Sometimes it's best to keep quiet, smile and move on.”
That was followed by a retweet of the Paraguay national team’s picture of Kaku, who joined the delegation ahead of an international friendly against Peru at Red Bull Arena, of all places, on Friday.
