Top Stories

Red Bulls sign McCarty to new deal

By IVES GALARCEP

Dax McCarty was arguably the most consistent player and most valuable player on the 2012 New York Red Bulls, and the Red Bulls are rewarding him for that excellent form with a new contract.

McCarty has signed a new with the Red Bulls, the club announced on Tuesday. Sources tell SBI that the new contract is a four-year deal that should make McCarty one of the highest paid non-Designated Players on the roster.

Acquired in the controversial 2011 trade that sent eventual MLS MVP Dwayne DeRosario to D.C. United, McCarty settled into a central midfield role last year that saw him become a box-to-box force. Former head coach Hans Backe tinkered with McCarty’s position at times, playing him on the right wing, but McCarty’s presence in the middle proved invaluable to the Red Bulls.

McCarty’s work rate in the middle of the park will become even more important as the Red Bulls prepare to hand the playmaking duties to Brazilian midfielder Juninho Pernambucano.

What do you think of this development? Happy to see the Red Bulls commit long-term to an American player for once? See McCarty having another MLS All-Star caliber season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Great move to lock up one of the elite d-mid’s in the league for 4 years. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get serious interest from many top-division European clubs over the next few years.

    Reply
  2. I’ll keep saying it till it happens. McCarty should get a chance with the national team. He was one of the best players o the US youth teams and he seems to be hitting his stride with the Red Bulls. come on Klinsmann, at least call him up for the Gold Cup.

    Reply
      • According to Wikipedia, he got two brief cameos and one start in a draw with Chile while Bradley was coach. In 2008 he was on the U-23 team which qualified for the Olympics, played in all the qualifiers and was voted to the CONCACAF all tournament team. He was also a regular on the U-20 team. He had injury problems in 2009 then was traded from Dallas to DC and then to the Red Bulls.

  3. I like to poke fun at the “Mighty Midget”, but he impressed me last year. Is the guy ever in the wrong place? He reads the game really well. He’s a guy who makes other players look good (esepcailly centerbacks), noy, as someone suggested above, the other way around

    Reply
    • Although there’s no surer way to kill an attack than to send the ball into Dax’s little feet of concrete anywhere within 10 yards of the box….

      Reply
      • True. But that’s not his role. The have spent considerable money on DPs who are supposed to do that

      • Absolutely true. Hoping that Dax will be left to winning the ball in the middle third and dumping it of to, say, Kaka….

        And i do like Dax.

  4. “Sources tell SBI that the new contract is a four-year deal that should make McCarty one of the highest paid non-Designated Players on the roster.”
    I’m hoping this is Petke’s doing, and if so, it shows to me what I have thought New York should have been doing all along. While it’s great to want to get international flair and promote your brand, you need to realize the market you are in. MLS requires gritty, hard-working guys like McCarty. Not hacking, diving, half-wits like Marquez who make (not earn) 10+ times as much. Well deserved for a club I want so desperately to be a constant powerhouse in this league.

    Reply
  5. Love Dax but don’t understand the urgency, why not see him duplicate the form at the beginning of this year before signing him to the deal, we just traded Cooper because couldn’t afford to keep him for close to non-dp money. If Dax were to revert to the form of two years ago it really hamstrings them.

    Reply
    • What if Coop reverted back to his 8 goal seasons that preceded last year? McCarty’s also three years younger and frankly played a more crucial role than Coop last season.

      Reply
    • Roxburgh wants to start locking down the American players that will be the core of the team going forward. Dax, Meara, Lade, Barklage all got new deals this off season.

      Reply
    • Nah I wouldn’t stress too bad about Dax tying up money. First of all, from my armchair, he is worth it. He’s young, talented, a great team player. Good investment.

      Second, and more to your point, there is a huuuuuuge disparity between the DP salaries and homegrown players. At least in the case of RBNY, it’s always an aging international star who carries a hefty price tag, not an up-and-coming talent. Even if Dax is getting the highest homegrown salary on the squad, he’s still not tying up an unruly about of cash.

      Reply
      • $300k is $300k. You’re very ill-informed. DP’s count for $350k against the cap. Dax, Pearce, Henry, and Cahill soak up $1.3 million of the salary cap that is less than $3 million. Olave makes it $1.55 million, Juninho and Holgersson make it $1.95 million.

        NYRB has less than a million dollars per year to spend on its 23 other players. But there’s more! Lloyd Sam earns $140k, Roy Miller earns $112k, and $175k is reserved for the midseason DP signing.

  6. I think McCarty is a pit-bull, and I love pit bulls. Hopefully he is not made to play positions and assume roles he is not suited for, like playmaker or winger.

    Reply
  7. Great move by the FO.

    Brad, what does Agudelo have to do with Dax being extended? And FWIW, Agudelo was never going to get the time here, his work rate was questionable, we got Heath Pearce in exchange, and RBNY gets a chunk of money when he eventually gets transferred to a European club this summer.

    Reply
    • I’ll take Pearce and allocation money over a highlight reel player with a poor work ethic who is going to Europe at the first opportunity any day of the week.

      Reply
      • “Poor work ethic” is bullßhit. At best it’s a signal of someone who doesn’t know soccer or understand how strikers occupy space. At worst, it’s a racial dog whistle. (Think back to how many times you hear of a dark-skinned player’s “work ethic.” Virtually never? Exactly.) Further, I can’t think of a “work ethic” “energy guy” I’d rather have than a mercurial striker, with the exception possibly of Dirk Kuyt.

        And I love how you subtly impugn his patriotism! Like he should stay in the U.S. for love of country rather than fraternize with the socialists abroad.

        Agudelo has tremendous physical gifts, far beyond what Altidore showed during his time at RBNY — and look at Altidore now. Agudelo has the chance to be great.

      • The race card is a bit extreme, no?

        You make good points, particularly about how strikers occupy space, but all anyone is going to get out of your post is the “Dark skinned” comment. You need a little more evidence before you hurl that around

      • I see the problem you’re having. I was speaking metaphorically. I didn’t actual think you ‘heard’ a whistle. I thought you were ‘receiving’ a cloaked message that, by definition, only a racist could understand.

        Perhaps you didn’t mean to misuse “dog whistle” and instead meant “code speak” or an equivalent.

        In either event, I find the comment incorrect at best and sinister at worst.

      • If we’re really going into the ether on this metaphor, strictly speaking, not even racists can hear a dog whistle. Unless, of course, they are racist dogs. And rather than rise to the bait — oh, why not? “code speak”? is that really the idiom you’d reach for? Or are you really not familiar with the political connotations of the term “dog whistle”?

      • Ha.
        I’m guessing I’m “Juan.” Although I’m about as big an Irish-cop-looking guy you can be without being a cop.
        It was unfair to attack Matt; this is a trope that has been bothering me for a long time, and maybe Matt has specific knowledge about Agudelo as a Chivas fan, what do I know?

Leave a Reply to Dan in New York Cancel reply