Struggling Red Bulls face big questions heading…
New York Red Bulls coach Sandro Schwarz has never been one to get caught up with wanting too far down the street.
And the second-year coach wasn’t wanting to do that a day before the Red Bulls opened the Leagues Cup event against Chivas Guadalajara on Wednesday.
But the Red Bulls discover themselves in a precarious state of affairs after 25 league matches this season — on the incorrect aspect of the playoff cutoff as they enter a compact half of their schedule and the stretch run of the MLS calendar.
Over their next 5 matches, the Red Bulls will take part in the Leagues Cup, Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the MLS common season — a stretch that will embody three matches in one week — raising the query of where the workforce’s priorities lie.
The Leagues Cup, an in-season event between groups in Mexico’s Liga MX and MLS that was first launched in 2019, and the U.S. Open Cup offer a path for the workforce to qualify for the celebrated Concacaf Champions Cup.
Meanwhile, the Red Bulls haven’t missed the MLS playoffs in the earlier 15 seasons.
Nevertheless, if there was an organizational precedence, Schwarz wasn’t tipping his hand during a dialog with The Post.
“I would say it’s not … more MLS or then Open Cup, or Leagues Cup, or something like that,” he mentioned. “For us, the priority is to bring our face on the field every day. That’s the focus and that’s, I think, actually, right now, so important in our situation. To see a chance in every game, to see opportunity in every game, for our confidence to believe in ourselves.”
Since the tip of May, issues haven’t been great for the Red Bulls, and a membership that shocked the MLS world to attain the MLS Cup Final final winter has recorded just one win over the previous two months and fallen back to tenth place, one spot out of the playoff image, after an ugly 1-0 loss to the Chicago Fire final weekend.
Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz cheers on his squad during their loss to the Chicago Fire on July 26, 2025. Matt Marton-Imagn Images
The Red Bulls have been without star Lewis Morgan, who has been out with a quad harm and isn’t anticipated to return until late August, and Cameron Harper, who is dealing with a knee harm and is out indefinitely.
It has raised considerations about the depth the workforce has to face up to the harm points as scoring has been restricted, averaging 1.56 targets per match, and their protection has struggled, conceding 17 targets over their previous eight matches.
Schwarz described it as “unfair” to strive and analyze the roster or the continuing season when the subject was broached by The Post.
Red Bulls star Lewis Morgan, who has been out with a quad harm, isn’t anticipated to return to the lineup until late August. Aristide Economopoulos for New York Post
The outcomes — or lack thereof — have left Red Bulls followers even more annoyed, with average attendance dipping from final season and supporters taking to social media, after the workforce seemingly had raised the bar with their playoff run final season and their first look in the league championship sport in almost 20 years.
The coach understood that the success of final yr introduced greater expectations but defended the present group.
“That’s normal. It’s not the first time that I had this experience, to be honest,” Schwarz mentioned about the expectations. “But for this group right now, it’s not fair and we have to do everything to try to give our best. That’s clear. The guys are doing a great job, and we have to handle some situations. … But the expectations are good, but I think it has also every time to be realistic, that’s important. Ambitious, we are very competitive and that’s what I can say we are every day.”
Amid the stoop for the Red Bulls and the beginning of the Leagues Cup, the MLS summer time switch window opened final week and the membership has been linked to German striker Timo Werner, who has remained in ongoing negotiations with the Red Bulls about a doable leap to MLS after beforehand that includes for Tottenham Hotspur and RB Leipzig.
During a pre-match press convention Wednesday, Schwarz mentioned he and the entrance workplace have had conversations about bringing in gamers during the switch window, but insisted that the change had to come from the group already with the workforce.
“This is our responsibility, what we have to change and we can change this with our behavior,” he mentioned.
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