Red Bull striker John Wolyniec (left) in 101 with Matt Doyle (right)

By Matthew Doyle

The season ended Saturday night in the rain at Giants Stadium. It ended with a thumping 5-0 win over Toronto FC, our biggest win since 2006 and easily our best performance of the season. It was a bizarrely fitting conclusion to one of the worst and weirdest years in the history of the franchise.

I’ll give a quick rehash of the reasons the team performed so poorly:

• An ever-shifting formation that then head coach Juan Carlos Osorio seemingly chose by throwing darts. Blindfolded.
• An ever shifting lineup, with names Osorio pulled out of a hat. That man was a tinkerer to make Rafa Benitez blush, and tinkerers like that don’t win. Soccer demands context and consistency. You don’t win with match-ups, you win by getting your team to play its game to the best of its ability, and the way to do that is to build trust and cohesion through fielding a consistent lineup with consistent goals. Osorio never understood that, and likely never will.
• Injuries

Once Osorio quit (and it still boggles my mind that he wasn’t fired… what exactly was Red Bull waiting for? Did Osorio have to murder a puppy at midfield to get Austria to act? I’ll say it again: WE LOST TO A SEMIPRO TRINIDADIAN TEAM. If that doesn’t get you fired, then your owners have the wrong priorities), the story was the god-damned Giants Stadium turf and the physical toll it took on our team. We lost Juan Pablo Angel, John Wolyniec, Mac Kandji, Kevin Goldthwaite, Carlos Mendes and Albert Celades for good chunks of time. That’s our only three forwards, our two starting central defenders and our midfield hub, respectively.

Richie Williams took over for Osorio and guided the team to a 3-3-2 record down the stretch, 11 scored and 9 conceded in spite of all the walking wounded. Not earth shattering numbers. But Williams was handed a dog’s meal and at least made the most of it.

Was it enough to get the job permanently? Probably not. Red Bull, for all the improvements they’ve made, are still built to make a splash, not to make a winner. There will be a big-name coach, and probably a big name technical director as well. There will very probably be Thierry Henry.

And there will be a roster overhaul, no doubt. It’s something of an annual tradition. Our young, fringe players deemed not good or flashy enough, will be sent packing to other MLS teams while we double-down on either imported talent or rookies. It’s our pattern, and it’s a fortuitous one for other MLS teams, as former Metros have a long and storied history of winning.

Think I’m kidding? Take a look at this litany of “post-NY success”:

Each of the past three MLS Cup champions started a former Metro back-up defensive midfielder. For Columbus it was Danny O’Rourke, whose team has won two Shields and the Cup in the past two years. Rico Clark’s Houston team won the 2006 and 2007 MLS Cups, and when they were in San Jose they won the 2005 Supporter’s Shield as well. Both O’Rourke and Clark were back-up d-mids in their time here, both given away for pennies on the dollar before they were given time to develop.

In 2004, the Kansas City Wizards lost in the MLS Cup final to DC United. KC’s starting defensive midfielder was Kerry Zavagnin, who was also a former Metro back-up d-mid. Joe Vide, Red Bull’s back-up d-mid in 2007, started for DC United in the 2008 US Open Cup final, which they won. Dema Kovalenko, who was unceremoniously dumped by Osorio before the 2008 season, is a starter for the LA Galaxy. LA won the Western Conference this year and are seeded second in the playoffs.

The capper is Michael Bradley, who was sold to Heerenveen for $70,000 and is now valued somewhere around $10 million while starting in the Bundesliga and starring for the US national team.

There’s more. Dave Van den Bergh was given away to Dallas last season, and he finished third in the league with eleven assists. Mike Magee was dumped for a second round pick, and while he didn’t exactly set the world on fire, neither did his replacements. Magee scored 5 goals in spot duty in 2008, a total that would have been good for second on the 2009 squad.

Chris Leitch was given away to San Jose, and he led them with seven assists on the season from his right back spot. And Francis Doe, who was cut before the 2008 season began, is now starring for Al-Ahly of Egypt. You’ll see him play in the Club World Cup.

That kind of roster turnover breeds nothing but failure. We’ve seen it here long enough to know how this ends, and if Red Bull really wants to “have a more unified vision of who we are, what our character is, what our culture is and where we’re going to be next year and five years from now,” as Erik Stover said to BigAppleSoccer.com last week, then they have to start keeping our players and giving them an environment where they can grow and improve. The words I’d want to hear out of a prospective new manager or TD aren’t about the great talent they can discover either in the draft or overseas; I’d want to hear how they can get the guys we already have to play better, play together, and become winners. If he doesn’t have a plan for that, then he’s not the right guy for the job.

Now there are names being thrown about as possible new managers or technical directors, and I commend Red Bull for seemingly leaving no stone unturned. They’ve also gone out of their way to begin bringing back former players like Your Djorkaeff, Claudio Reyna, Mark Lisi, Tab Ramos and more, guys who at least have some sort of long-term association with the team. Both are steps in the right direction, and for now I’ll keep my fingers crossed that whoever they pick will have some sort of institutional history and knowledge of what works and what doesn’t in MLS.

Because if they don’t, then Red Bull are buggered. The team’s a borderline joke even among MLS fans – you know how hard it is to root for a soda? How about for a soda that doesn’t win?

So they have less wiggle room for screw-ups than other clubs, even other clubs in MLS. And they’ve had more than their fair share of screw-ups already. Any more, and they’ll lose the market entirely – the plummeting attendance numbers show how close they are to that, anyway.

So get it right, Red Bull, or be prepared to sell. Because it’s very likely you won’t get another chance at this.

Around the league…

For the record, TFC’s 5-0 thrashing at our hands was the single most gutless regular season performance I can remember in MLS history. Interim manager Chris Cummins has already been given his walking papers, and GM Mo Johnston could be next. The good news is that the lack of playoffs (for the third straight year!) means the TFC fanbase can go back to rooting for their favorite Euro teams and acting out scenes from Green Street Hooligans…

Also out of the playoffs are DC United, after conceding a late penalty at KC Wizards for a 2-2 draw. DC and TFC knocked out of playoff contention on the same night made Saturday a truly wonderful experience… Capitalizing on that pair of results and playing some of the best soccer in the league are Real Salt Lake, who put a 3-0 hurting on Colorado Rapids to claim the last spot. I feel bad for Colorado, who lost literally every winger on the roster to injury by about mid-August and ended up unable to create a goal for the life of them. (Also, Rapids owner Stan Kroenke refused to splurge even 100k on a new signing… you see that Arsenal fans? You see that? You definitely, DEFINITELY don’t want this guy owning your team. Do what you can to discourage him – mail him a turd sandwich, start an online petition, whatever you have to do, do it. He’s cheap. He’s a loser. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.) They went winless in their last seven games, and finished tied with RSL on 40 points but miss out through GD…

New England Revolution controlled their own destiny on 39 points heading into the final matchday, and full credit to them for getting a 1-0 win at Columbus Crew. Nobody grinds out results like the Revs. Columbus won the Shield the week before, but they’ve now lost two of three at home after being unbeaten in 22 straight, and are nowhere near as dynamic going forward as they were this time last season. I’m picking RSL to upset them in the first round…

Elsewhere, LA Galaxy clinched the west with a 2-0 win over San Jose Earthquakes, while Chivas USA dropped a pair of decisions – 1-0 to Chicago Fire on Thursday and 3-2 to Houston Dynamo on Sunday – to end with a whimper but still limp into the playoffs… Seattle Sounders came from behind at home to beat FC Dallas 2-1…

The first round begins Thursday, and the match-ups are as follows:

Eastern Conference
1 Columbus v 4 RSL
2 Chicago v 3 New England

Western Conference
1 Los Angeles v 4 Chivas
2 Houston v 3 Seattle

A bunch of good match-ups, but the one to keep an eye on is LA v Chivas, which will probably be bold and bloody. Those two teams share both a stadium and a mutual hatred that cards and injuries are born of.