Start on the weekend
The 26th season of Major League Soccer (MLS) starts on the weekend with an Austrian head coach. Gerhard Struber is tackling his first full season with the New York Red Bulls and wants to do better than 2020, when they failed in the first play-off round in what was then the first competitive game under Salzburg. In contrast to preparation, the coronavirus pandemic will not cause any problems, as all players and the coaching team have already been vaccinated.
Struber: “The focus is on developing the team”
“That makes everything easier, especially since things kept getting stuck in preparation for the corona,” said Struber. The conditions at the training camp in Florida were fantastic, but due to corona cases, only two of the six planned test games were held. This is one of the reasons why the 44-year-old who came from the English second division Barnsley in October 2020 does not put great pressure on his team from the start.
“Many things are going in the right direction, progress can be seen. But we are only at the starting point for certain tactical aspects. The development of the team will be the focus in the coming weeks and months,” said Struber. Above all, the Red Bull identity should be clearly recognizable. “High intensity, pressing” are the most important keywords. We work hard on this every day. “The guys are really powerful and show a huge willingness to learn new things every day. It’s a lot of fun to work with the individual players and to continuously form the team into a functioning unit,” said the former WAC coach.
Three players with a connection to Austria in the squad
With the 39-time MLS regular season goalscorer Daniel Royer, a 30-year-old ex-Austrian is one of the top performers, with goalkeeper Carlos Coronel, who is on loan from Salzburg, and midfielder Youba Diarra, who has an injured cruciate ligament, two other players have ties to the Austrian Bundesliga . There were no major transfers in winter, mainly young people were brought in. They are really looking forward to the start on Saturday (local time) in the Red Bull Arena against Sporting Kansas City.
That too, since 3,000 spectators are allowed to watch the game. “We are really looking forward to the season opener – all the more because there will be fans in our stadium again. That at least partially creates the atmosphere we all want,” said Struber. The game should end more successfully than the one on November 21, when they lost 3-2 against the eventual champions Columbus Crew. The home season opener statistics are very encouraging. So far there have been seven wins, two draws and one defeat. In the Red Bull Arena you have never lost with four successes and one draw.
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