{"id":71121,"date":"2025-12-15T15:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71121\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:23:09","slug":"red-bulls-hire-usmnt-great-michael-bradley-as-new-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71121\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bulls hire USMNT great Michael Bradley as new coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Red Bulls head of sport Julian de Guzman went out to look for a new head coach, he had certain boxes that he wanted candidates to check off. And when all was said and done, there was one name that just made sense for the club.<\/p>\n

Michael Bradley.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Men\u2019s National Team great and New Jersey native will take the reins of the Red Bulls as their new head coach after leading the club\u2019s development team to an MLS Next Pro championship in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not be more excited for the opportunity to be head coach of this club,\u201d Bradley told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s a club that means a lot to me. It\u2019s home. I started my playing career here. \u2026 It\u2019s something really special, and I\u2019m honored and couldn\u2019t be more excited to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Bradley, head coach of New York Red Bulls II, celebrates winning the MLS NEXT Pro Cup after defeating the Colorado Rapids 2 at Sports Illustrated Stadium on November 8, 2025. MLS via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Bradley was among five coaches that de Guzman spoke with about the vacant position following the decision to part ways with Sandro Schwarz at the end of the 2025 season. <\/p>\n

The Red Bulls\u2019 head of sport whittled the list down to three before Bradley was the last person standing.<\/p>\n

Part of what de Guzman wanted in his first coaching hire as the man in charge was someone who truly understood the ins and outs of Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was really important to really identify a coach who has strong ties with the league,\u201d de Guzman told The Post. \u201cWho understands how MLS works with league rules and player movement, and this takes me back to seeing the most successful coaches in the past had a really strong understanding of MLS as a culture. Michael Bradley, for me, he\u2019s played in this league. He\u2019s been successful, won trophies. He\u2019s led his country as well as the captain. I think that those were two very strong starts based on his career as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley also fits into the on-field vision that de Guzman seems to have for the first team. Bradley took over as Red Bulls II coach in the middle of the summer \u2013 the American star\u2019s first-ever head coaching job \u2013 and led the club to a championship.<\/p>\n

When de Guzman addressed the media for the first time as head of sport, he pointed to what Red Bulls II were doing as how he envisioned the style for the first team.<\/p>\n

And Bradley seems all too eager to install that style of play now that he\u2019s head coach of the Red Bulls.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Bradley playing for USMNT in 2019. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to find even more ways to be a complete team, to be a team that when we have the ball has real ideas about how to connect passes,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cReal ideas about how to push the other team into their half to play the game there. Different ways to get into the box, to create chances to score goals. Doing that, ultimately, because the better that you are with the ball and the better you attack, the better you will be able to press and the better you will be able to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cGenerally speaking, we\u2019re going to be younger. We\u2019re going to have a team that is aggressive. We\u2019re going to have a team that is dynamic. We\u2019re going to have a team that, um, people really enjoy watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley\u2019s coaching experience is limited. He served as an assistant coach under his father, legendary American soccer coach Bob Bradley, at Stabaek in Norway and briefly worked on the staff of Jesse Marsch as a guest coach for the Canadian National Team.<\/p>\n

But de Guzman has liked what he\u2019s seen from him during Bradley\u2019s short time running the second team, with the Red Bulls\u2019 head of sport noting the on-field success for the developmental squad in 2025 as well as how Bradley conducts himself on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was essentially a breath of fresh air, to be honest,\u201d de Guzman said.<\/p>\n

The question will be whether it all translates into success for the Red Bulls in 2026. It was clear in October that de Guzman expects to make the playoffs, and that mandate will be in place with Bradley at the helm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe target is definitely, we gotta become that playoff team again,\u201d de Guzman said. \u201cMichael wants to win, right? He\u2019s a born winner. That\u2019s what his career represents and that\u2019s the person that he is. He came in as a coach six months ago and he\u2019s already went on to win a trophy, so those things are highlighted as to how we want to go into this new year with him as a head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to succeed and by succeeding, yes, making playoffs is a very big statement as to we are back here again, and this is where Red Bull should be as a minimum standard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Red Bulls head of sport Julian de Guzman went out to look for a new head coach,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36372,6583,9,11,10,4505,400,319],"class_list":["post-71121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-michael-bradley","tag-mls","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-red-bulls","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}