The roster was incomplete, the message too bland, the urgency non-existent.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we had too many dips,\u201d Forsberg said in an exclusive sit-down with amNewYork. \u201cIt went like a rollercoaster in performance. [After a loss] were just like, \u2018Ah, next week, we have a home game.\u2019 Come on, no. That\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old midfielder and captain of New York, alongside first-year head coach Michael Bradley, is helping to instill a new message in 2026, and it already has an air of desperation to it with a new season kicking off on Saturday down in Orlando.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, we have to set a bar and a level that\u2019s high enough that we know that every game is our last game,\u201d the former RB Leipzig man said. \u201cIf you want to achieve something big, that kind of level has to stay on a high level. This year, it has to be, \u2018This f\u2014ing game or no game.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery training has to be that way as well. I think we\u2019re trying to implement that kind of mentality now, and Michael\u2019s been doing that fantastically, and everybody\u2019s on board with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-02-07T212100Z_286296754_MT1USATODAY28181206_RTRMADP_3_MLS-PRESEASON-RED-BULL-NEW-YORK-AT-FC-DAL.jpeg\" "\\"Red")
Michael Bradley Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Bradley has become the poster child for this new age of Red Bull \u201cfootball,\u201d the term he uses to describe the style of play he is instilling. While the global Red Bull machine \u2014 featuring other clubs in Germany, Austria, and Brazil \u2014 has always preached intensity, pressing the ball, and counter-pressing, the US men\u2019s national team legend is urging free-flowing soccer that also stresses possession, speed, and perhaps, to the music of the ears of many supporters, goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As new goalkeeper Ethan Horvath put it while speaking with amNewYork: \u201cWe\u2019re going to be playing at 100 miles per hour.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Bradley\u2019s mindset aligned with Red Bull\u2019s burgeoning international braintrust, headlined by former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, former German national team coach Jochim Low, and former German national team striker Mario Gomez. Following extended talks last season, they brought the 38-year-old Bradley on to coach New York\u2019s second team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He immediately won the MLS NEXT Pro championship, and following the dismissal of Schwarz, got the call to take over the first team \u2014 his first top-flight head-coaching gig.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a young coach, the part of how Jurgen sees the game, his vision for Red Bull football going forward, how he wants to take the essence of what Red Bull football has always been\u2026 and how he wants to combine that with football, with ideas of creating chacnes of scoring more goals, of playing a way that is even more entertaining and more exciting, that fits to a tee with how I see the game and my ideas,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here if it weren\u2019t for them and the vision of Red Bull football moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Bradley and first-year head of sport Julian de Guzman at the helm, the turnover began. Foundational roster pieces like winger Lewis Morgan, defender Sean Nealis, and midfielder Daniel Edelman were shown the door.<\/p>\n
A one-dimensional attack has been revitalized with youthful exuberance and playmaking on the wings. Mexican international Jorge Ruvalcaba and American international Cade Cowell \u2014 both signed from Liga MX clubs \u2014 will now feature on the wings and flank former Bayern Munich and PSG center-forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCade and Jorge have come in and established themselves really well within the group. We\u2019re excited to have them,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cThey\u2019ve shown everybody the qualities that they have in terms of their speed, their ability to dribble, to put opposing defenses on their heels.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jorge](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026-02-07T195947Z_1660776136_MT1USATODAY28180321_RTRMADP_3_MLS-PRESEASON-RED-BULL-NEW-YORK-AT-FC-DA.jpeg\" "\\"Red")
Jorge Ruvalcaba Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
A back line that appears incomplete on paper, with the club still in the market for another center-back, per sources, is stressing distribution as much as it does structure. Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, a 21-year-old Canadian international, brings panache to the left-back position. American Justin Che, at just 22, can play right-back and center-back, the latter of which he played while with the famed FC Dallas Academy and while working with the legendary developmental ranks of the German powerhouses, Bayern Munich.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a perfect world, Che will play left-back, and one more center-back will be brought in to play alongside the veteran center-back Robert Voloder, who signed after a stint with Sporting Kansas City and told amNewYork that he \u201cloves to have the ball at my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m more than capable of playing [Bradley\u2019s] style on the field and show everybody that I\u2019m capable of doing that,\u201d Voloder told amNewYork. \u201cI want people to enjoy our style of play, and I want to help the back line.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the middle of it all, though, remains Forsberg: the talismanic engine of what Red Bull wants to do, and the key messenger for Bradley to use to help spread the gospel of a long-awaited new era.\n<\/p>\n
\u201c[I\u2019m leaning on Emil] in a huge way,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cTo take advantage of the experience, to find the right ways to connect with them, to make sure you know how much you value their leadership, how much you value their experiences in the game, not just as Red Bull New York but in Emil\u2019s case Red Bull \u2014 Red Bull Leipzig \u2014 his experience with the [Sweden] national team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a young coach and a new coach in the team, your ability to hit the ground running and find ways to connect with these guys is so important. When you work with Emil every day and when you see firsthand how much he loves the game, how much he loves to train, when you see the way he interacts with his teammates, that part is incredible. We\u2019ve developed a really good relationship early on, and, for us to be at our best and be a really good team, we need to find the right ways to get the absolute most out of Emil.\u201d<\/p>\n