Top Stories

Red Bulls need to clean house immediately

RedBullsFan (ISIphotos.com) 

                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

There is bad, there is awful, and then there are the 2009 Red Bulls, who have taken an already tortured fan base and dragged it to new depths of disappointment.

The Red Bulls are on pace to post the worst record in the history of MLS, haven't won in 13 matches, and have seen anything worth playing for disappear over the past few weeks. The Red Bulls are a dead team walking, yet not a soul has paid the price for this train wreck of a season.

Why? Where are the pink slips, the firings and the accountability for soccer's version of The Titanic? The inactivity by the club's ownership in Austria suggests the painful reality that Red Bull doesn't care about how bad things get this season, and consequently doesn't care what it puts its fan base through.

That might be acceptable in the world of soft drinks, but in the world of soccer that is as egregious a crime as a club can commit.

No, nothing Red Bulls owners will do at this point will erase the memories of a season full of blunders, bad signings and gut-punch losses, but some firings would at the very least show fans that the club has some sort of interest in the team it bought four years ago, and it may help the team salvage something from this season.

That purge should begin with two men, head coach Juan Carlos Osorio and technical director Jeff Agoos, the two men responsible for the construction of this abomination of a team.

Osorio did lead the team to last year's MLS Cup final, a first for the club and a high point for most Red Bulls fans, but no coach can survive a disaster like this season has become, at least no coach should. He has made a series of failed signings, and has made questionable lineup decisions throughout the year. When his team failed to dispose of a mid-table Trinidadian team in the CONCACAF Champions League, it should have marked an automatic pink slip for Osorio.

It didn't though. Things remained the same and Osorio remained on the sidelines to watch his team lose to Chivas USA, a team that hadn't won in seven matches.

As much as some would like Osorio to be the fall guy, the sole person to blame for this disaster, he isn't. Jeff Agoos has worked hand in hand with Osorio and is just as culpable for the construction of a team that has manage just two wins all year. Agoos has held a front post for three years, after never having held one, and his on-the-job training has produced nothing of consequence. Sources suggest that Agoos tries to hang his hat on the acquisition of Juan Pablo Angel in 2007, but it's pretty common knowledge that Bruce Arena was the instrumental figure behind that deal.

The scary part is that it is starting to look like nobody will be fired for this train wreck, at least not until the end of the season, and even then only Osorio looks like a good bet to be let go. Agoos and managing director Erik Stover went to Austria earlier this summer to answer for why things have gotten so bad, and while we don't know how those meetings went, we can assume that neither man is too worried about their future considering both men just took vacations during the worst season in MLS history.

Think about that. Two of the three highest-ranking members of a team ready to post the worst record in the history of Major League Soccer just went on vacation. Think that would happen anywhere else in the world? And think either of them is that worried about their future if they feel comfortable enough to take a break while their team crumbles? You might recall that Osorio canceled a family vacation last season when things were looking bleak. Apparently, Stover and Agoos didn't feel a similar sense of urgency.

Firing the men responsible for this mess isn't just about appeasing fans. It's also about giving the players a chance to prove that they aren't as bad as they have looked all season. There is this perception that Osorio has held the team back, and that the talent exists to be miles better than a two-win laughing stock. Th best way to find out if that is true would be to fire Osorio and see how the team responds to a new leader. If the players can't step up and show something more than they have in the first 24 games of the season, then the belief that an almost total purging of the roster is needed after this season is legitimate.

You might think that such an exercise is futile because the team has nothing to play for. That isn't exactly true. The team does have something to play for. It is playing for the chance to prevent being the worst team in league history. That distinction would spell doom for the careers for everyone involved with the organization. Think any team would be rushing to bring in a player or coach from a club that failed so miserably and showed so little heart and ability for a full season?

There is also the matter of who will ultimately replace Osorio. Red Bulls assistant Richie Williams was long regarded as one of the league's most respected assistants, and a good head coaching candidate, before this season. Rather than take advantage of his presence and handing him the keys to the faltering club, Red Bull has done nothing. While eight games may not be much time, it could be enough time to allow Williams to show the club that he could be a viable replacement. Apparently Red Bull has forgotten that it was Williams who served as a capable interim head coach back in 2006 when the team was starting to look like the disaster it became this year.

There is little doubt that wholesale changes are coming this off-season, with the new Red Bull Arena set to open, but Red Bull ownership is absolutely clueless if it doesn't think there is risk in standing pat and doing nothing for the rest of this season. Doing nothing will further alienate an already fed-up fan base, will further damage the development of the handful of talented young players on the roster, and will ensure that this team will go down as the worst team in the history of MLS.

None of that may matter to Red Bull now, but it will when Red Bull Arena opens next spring and the best stadium in MLS has trouble filling its seats. "Come see the worst team ever" doesn't quite sound like the marketing campaign you want if you're trying to sell tickets and trying to recoup the cost of a $150 million stadium project.

There is still some time left, time for Red Bull to do something, anything, to salvage something from this season and show its fans that this nightmare season is an aberration and not the unavoidable consequence of having an incompetent ownership group.

Comments

  1. Red Bulls need to Rebrand, either to Metrostars or Cosmos. Then they need to Sign Dilly Duka and Johnny Exantus. I don’t know why it’s taking them so long to sign an academy player. Try to bring in a quality MLS veteran or an experienced American from abroad. Then you can have a more competitive Team and a more attractive name. And After all I’m a FIRE FAN, so why I care is because this team is hurting our league

    Reply
  2. I love the tears on the guy in the picture. Not sure if it means he’s sad, or if it means that he’s a convicted murderer though.

    Reply
  3. I dont see how that would be over the salary cap. The Red Bulls have one extra DP spot and they could fill that with Adu, and the way Beasley is I think he would have to prove himself to get a big contract. Hill hasnt really done anything great so he would get a big deal, and with Mastroeni, well if they didnt have the cap room, then you look at maybe getting a younger Holding midfielder for less money. There is no way that this would be over the cap. I would also think the MLS might want to do what they have done with the Galaxy and let them have a roster like them, (Donovan is not a DP, but gets the money). If they did this it would help build the NY franchies back up and realy hep the game grow. Its kinda to bad the Red Bulls didnt get Beckham, then they could have spent all the money they wanted too.

    Reply
  4. Jason makes a good point. When Arena was fired, the boss said it was because the team did not win the MLS Cup. JCO knew this going in and achieved what the bosses expected, by any means necessary. This insane goal was established by the upper management and set the ass-backward standards that corporate RB has followed over the last few years.

    Reply
  5. Good post Ives.

    Answer me this: Arena gets fired for having a winning record (and making the playoffs) and Osorio keeps his job for this.

    Apparently Red Bull gives you wings, not brains.

    (SBI-Arena was fired because management overreacted to a revolt among veteran players who were fed up with Arena’s treatment and called for his firing.)

    Reply
  6. In all seriousness if I was the owner of the Red Bulls this is what I would do this off-season. I would fire Agoos and Osorio and replace them with Klinsmann and his staff from Bayern Munich, and I think that they would have a good season. I am not saying they would go on to win it all, but make it to the finals and maybe back to the final. I also think that it will take Klinsmann 2 or 3 seasons before he really gets the league.

    I would then bring in Freddy Adu, by doing whatever it took to get him with out giving up Angel. Then see about getting Altidore some way whether by transfer or loan. Right there you now have 3 real good players. I then go out and get the best Americans I could in the league. I would say a roster would like this:

    GK- Coundoul, Cepero (look at bringing in Friedel though)

    D- Boswell, Whitbread, Pacheco, Johnson Hall, Petke, O’Rourke,

    M- Richards, Stammler, Oebester, Celades, Rojas, Sassano, Mastreoni, Beasley

    F- Angel, Adu, Wolyniec, K. Hill

    My Starting line-up would be:

    Coundoul

    O’Rourke Boswell Whitbread Pacheco

    Masteroni Celedes

    Rojas Beaseley

    Angel(C) Adu

    (SBI-And then you would wake up and realize your team’s salary is five times the MLS salary cap, and then you’d realize you were dreaming.)

    Reply
  7. A little history lesson:

    Back in the late 1970s, when another team in the Meadowlands was an embarrassment, the league got involved.

    The New York Giants were a disaster. Ownership was dysfunctional, personnel decisions were a joke, the team sucked on the field, the fans were in open revolt.

    So NFL commissioner Pete Roselle, worried about the NY-based team, forced the Giants’ owners to hire a new GM, George Young. Young was a real executive, someone who understood football (er, gridiron), player evaluation and management. After he took over, the Giants slowly but surely become one of the NFL’s top teams.

    The moral of the story: Leadership matters. MLS commissioner Don Garber needs to step in, call Austria (collect) and force a change in NYRB management. The franchise is at a dangerous tipping point, and the demise of the club threatens all of MLS.

    I don’t plan on using my season tickets again until significant changes are made. Based on the posts above, I’m not alone.

    (Fire Osorio.)

    Reply
  8. 1. Not sure who the “JoeW” was earlier that posted about Steve Goff was but it sure wasn’t me. I’m guessing it was someone using my usual moniker. In any case, I don’t have a problem if Ives roots for NYRB or doesn’t. And I disagree with all of the comments made about Goff posted earlier by whomever that was.

    The reality is….we need more journalists like Goff, Galarcep, Steve Davis covering soccer in this country.

    2. I think JCO was blessed with the “Steve Sampson” phenomena. SS won an MLS Cup despite a terrible season and a club that even looked like crap. But they got hot at the right time. And some people argued “well, they saved it for the right time and then turned it on” implying that the LAG were deserving champions. If you look at how NYRB played last season and then got two wins (admittedly–impressive to win at Houston and RSL), it’s real hard in my book to argue that proves JCO is a good coach. I’m not arguing that winning (or making finals) of MLS Cup doesn’t mean anything. But when your entire season produces bad results and the team isn’t very impressive, then a run of 2-3 good games doesn’t undo everything previously.

    If you look at NYRB over the past two seasons, they’ve been amazingly consistent. It’s not like they relied on one key player who stunk or they had terrible injuries. JCO has been extremely consistent over nearly two seasons. He flipflops formations all the time. His foreign signings have been mostly dreck. His body of work over nearly two full seasons with a lot of personnel turnover (it’s not like he was stuck with bad players that someone else chose for 2 years–he drove signings like Rojas and Jimenez and Pietrevallo).

    But ultimately, it’s about accountability. If SAF or the “Special One” came in and produced two regular seasons of such inepitude and such bad signings, you’d have to act. Not because they were proven incompetent, but because in pro sports, you have to hold people accountable for their results. You can conclude JCO is a fine coach and still fire the dude if you feel he’s had sufficient influence in these 2 seasons of performance.

    Reply
  9. @Will Smith: great letter. More people need to write to the FO, or they’ll continue to think they can get away with this nonsense. Everybody who’s pi$$ed: write the FO, tell them that their apathy toward the team will hurt them where it matters–their wallets.

    @Mike: Grow up. Seriously.

    Reply
  10. At this point, they should fire neither Assorio nor Agoof.

    No.

    Instead, they should replace them. Then force them both to scrub toilets for the remainder of their contracts.

    Reply
  11. The firing of both J.Agoos & J.C. Osorio is long overdue as both are blaming each other for the recent signing of players who cannot play in this league. The major hurdle that the team faces is do they have enough draft choices and non guaranted contracts to do a major roster overhaul for the 2010 season? Most nyrb fans will cut the team some slack if they see players who are at least trying and giving their all on the field. That never give up attitude is missing in many of the current players as well as a total lack of a soccer brain. Osorio should go tomorrow and if Agoos wants to resign before being fired at the end of the season so be it at least then one can say maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The MLS cannot afford to have the worst team in the league in the largest TELEVISION & MEDIA MARKET in the country. The growth in income for all (players included)is when there are more sponsers and higher TV revenues and that is harded to come by with the current state of NYRB.

    Reply
  12. Great column, Ives. I wanted Osorio gone back in May, but that’s just a difference of opinion. One thing: don’t respond to the haters. They don’t deserve it. Speaking as an NY (but not Red Bull) fan, I know you don’t have a rooting interest in the team, and non-stupid SBI readers know that as well.

    Reply
  13. Will Smith !!!

    Did you just say Metuchen High??? No sir, that guy did not attend Metuchen High! I can assure you that. He would not be working there!

    🙂

    Reply
  14. @StevenJ

    Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer, to name just one, said they should clean house weeks if not months ago. So yes, Ives is late to the party, but he’s welcome of course!

    Reply
  15. Ditto to Drew and Warren.

    I was ticked when Judas Osorio slipped into the playoffs and caught lightening in a bottle. Bridgeview wasn’t good enough for the little twerp (or his wife) and I hope he lands his professorial butt back in some dumpy Colombian backwater team of hacks.

    The league needs NY to have a watchable team but it’s great to see kharma bite this doofus in the backside.

    Reply
  16. I posted criticizing Ives about and hour ago. All of a sudden my post disappeared.

    Wow, just Wow.

    Folks, just be aware that Ives censers your posts. Don’t ever say anything remotely critical. He can’t take it and he’ll remove your post.

    Nice job Ives.

    (SBI-Listen, there’s a difference between criticism and over-the-line and obscene smack talk. You obviously don’t know the difference. Your lame post at 12:51, complete with childish name-calling, may be considered criticism, and is still there. The post you wrote that was taken down crossed the line. If you’d rather be somewhere that allows you to write anything you feel like, without any standards or restrictions, I’m sure there are other places you can go.)

    Reply
  17. JOSH- GO SUPPORT THE UNION YOU F****NG TRAITOR.

    you were never really a rbny fan and i’m glad you will be gone.

    and that goes for anyone else that thinks it’s ok to switch alligiances in soccer. it does not work that way.

    f**k you josh

    Reply
  18. What’s incredible to me is that early in the year, despite the lack of results, I didn’t think the Red Bulls were playing that badly. Everything seemed fixable to me. I felt the same way about the Galaxy.

    The Galaxy were able to define roles, find a line up that works (before Beckham’s return – even when DOnovan was still gone) and turn things around. The Red Bulls seemed to have just completely spiraled out of control. Yes, Red Bull fans have been complaining all year, but as a neutral observer, I still believe that heading into summer that the team wasn’t THAT bad. It was fixable. That’s what ever MLS team does – they course correct. And the failure to do so is what damns Agoos and JCO.

    Reply
  19. Here is an e-mail I sent to Stover & Garber this weekend:

    Gentlemen:

    Disgusted as I am with this New York Red Bulls team, I was planning on

    > throwing out my tickets for this season’s remaining home games and setting

    > my sights on 2010. Alas, I had promised my seven year old daughter several

    > months ago that I would take her to the August 15th match against Chivas

    > and no amount of explaining my rationale behind boycotting this

    > unfathomably bad team can make up for breaking a promise to my child.

    >

    > So, fully expecting another lethargic Red Bulls defeat (to be folllowed,

    > no doubt, by the requisite inane post-game ramblings of Master Strategist

    > Juan Carlos Osorio), I decided to make a night of it. We, along with two

    > of my friends (also fans from the earliest days of this franchise) dined

    > on kebabs in Brooklyn and then headed off to the Swamp in the hopes of

    > securing the rarest of all prizes – a Red Bulls victory! Recognizing that

    > this grand achievement was most unlikely, we were at least hoping for a

    > nice evening under the stars.

    >

    > Alas, thanks to the overzealous Meadowlands security guards and a truly

    > horrible team, we enjoyed neither.

    >

    > Let me digress for a moment:

    >

    > I am an avid cyclist. This is how, at age forty-three, I keep in shape and

    > fight off family genetics. It also keeps my blood pressure under control.

    > As a result of biking everywhere, I’ve gotten used to carrying my

    > belongings in my bike bag. Call it my “man bag” or my “murse” or my

    > “European.” Whatever. It works for me and if it costs me “macho points, ”

    > I gain them back by virtue of being a lifelong Brooklynite.

    >

    > It should also be noted that I’ve been bringing this bag into the stadium

    > with me since I started biking four years ago and have never been stopped

    > or asked to remove the bag when entering the stadium.

    >

    > Well, there was a first time Willie Mays couldn’t hit a fastball either.

    >

    > As we entered the Swamp, a yellow jacketed security guard told me that I

    > needed to lose the bag. When I asked him why, he told me not to give him

    > lip and when I pointed out that the woman in front of me walked in wearing

    > a back pack that would have made Lewis and Clark proud, he told me he

    > could have me arrested, which, of course, upset my daughter. The guard’s

    > supervisor then proceeded to draw a line between my bag and 9/11. Rather

    > than upset my daughter further, I put the bag in the car. Nevermind that

    > on 9/11, I was actually running for my life in lower Manhattan while this

    > nitwit was probably attending class at Metuchen High, far away from the

    > carnage.

    >

    > Frankly, I look forward to never setting foot in the Swamp again after

    > this season. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to set foot in the new

    > stadium either, based on the continued on-the-field ineptitude we fans

    > must be subjected to.

    >

    > Once again, the Red Bulls, with very few exceptions (Wolyniec and Condoul

    > specifically) played like they were in a coma and allowed a team that had

    > lost five straight to come in and look like Real Madrid. In short, our

    > defenders can’t mark their men, our midfielders can’t control the ball or

    > pass it and our forwards can’t score. Worse yet, but for the

    > aforementioned exceptions, the team doesn’t hustle and lacks desire. Mac

    > Kandji, for example, has missed several weeks of play with a hangnail this

    > season.

    >

    > This is a team that backed into the playoffs last season, got hot and

    > miraculously found itself in the final. Much like the 1973 NY Mets, they

    > got lucky. Much like the 1974 Mets, this team has paid the price for its

    > overconfidence and luck and their record reflects that.

    >

    > There are only two men to blame for this mess: Osorio and Agoos. They

    > jointly put this team together and they must shoulder the blame. In

    > addition, Osorio’s penchant for playing a 4-5-1 despite our continued

    > inability to win with it as well as his need to play players out of

    > position has helped an average team get over the hump and become a truly

    > unwatchable side.

    >

    > Of course, if JCO had a shred of self-awareness, he’d acknowledge this.

    > Instead, in his post-game comments, he had the audacity to knock both Woly

    > and Condoul, the prior for not getting open often enough and the latter

    > for coming too far out on the second Chivas goal. Of course, if, in the

    > course of putting together this poorly imagined team, the Master

    > Strategist had signed a durable forward who could create space or some

    > defenders quick enough to prevent a late two-on-one breakaway, Woly and

    > Condoul would have had great nights. Instead, they are pulled deeper and

    > deeper into the abyss known as RBNY.

    >

    > Inept security. A horrible team. Fingerpointing by the coach.

    > The question now becomes, “Where do we go from here?

    >

    > Let’s look at each of those three problem areas individually:

    >

    > Security- Well, we’re getting out of the Swamp in two months, so this

    > should, theoretically solve itself. The new stadium, I’ll admit, is coming

    > along beautifully and if you can get the security at the new arena to act

    > like civilized human beings or at least post the rules (!), the whole

    > match day experience will be greatly improved.

    >

    > The Team – Frankly, I’d keep Angel, Woly, Stammler and Coundul and cut the

    > rest. Realizing that this is impossible, we should let go of as many

    > players as possible, sign some Academy prospects, an attacking mid,

    > defenders who are not afraid to run and a DP who can actually put the ball

    > in the back of the net.

    >

    > Better yet, just sell the team. Clearly, Red Bull is not committed to

    > winning based on what has transpired this season. This is particularly

    > tragic coming on the heels of the benign neglect of AEG and complete

    > incompetence of Metromedia. You can keep the stadium. Just sell the team

    > to someone who might actually care about it. I’ll open the bidding. I will

    > offer you two dollars. I know I’m overpaying, but…

    >

    > The Coach- A good coach takes heat off the players, not throw them into

    > the fire. JCO is not a good coach, either in his handling of fault or as

    > evidenced by his record. Agoos has to go too, if only for standing by JCO.

    >

    > As for me, I’m ready to walk. Going to the games has become a completely

    > joyless experience. There are three reasons to go to a sporting event:

    >

    > 1) See victory – Obviously RBNY is not up to this task.

    >

    > 2) Be entertained – Obviously RBNY isn’t up to this task either.

    >

    > 3) Support the team – I’ve been doing this for fourteen years. What have I

    > got to show for it? A mickey mouse team in a mickey mouse league that is

    > neither victorious nor entertaining.

    >

    > I can always support FCNY next year and if the USL folds before they ever

    > take the field, I can still go for kebabs and kick the ball around the

    > backyard with my daughter.

    >

    > I won’t be back unless Osorio, Agoos and most of this team are gone.

    >

    > We fans deserve better than this for our loyal support.

    >

    > Respectfully yours,

    >

    > Will Smith

    >

    Reply
  20. Agoos did not have a good WC 2002. But that does not mean he was not a good national team player. Over his career he was one of the best defenders who has ever pulled on the shirt for the US.

    Critique his performance as a Front Office Tech Director if you want, but impugning his career as a player just shows your ignorance.

    Reply
  21. I know Osorio’s contract is up at the end of the year and he wont be back, btu I agree that Williams should have been given the reins to at least give him a shot, and the squad a fresh impetus to finish out the rest of this forlorn season.

    Shocking on the part of ownership.

    You’re right though, it doesn’t bode well from the stand point of launching the new stadium. You’d think a few wins – and trying to avoid the worst team ever tag – would be a priority.

    Reply

Leave a Comment