By Matthew Doyle

The Red Bulls began the decade the same way they ended it:  As an enigma wrapped in an onion wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an 8.4 ounce aluminum can.

The team/club/franchise/marketing experiment (there’s still some argument as to what this thing of ours actually is) that promised to revolutionize soccer in the states was, instead of leading the pack, mostly just along for the ride.  Columbus and Houston set the tone for onfield performance and production of young American talent.  Seattle and Toronto, both in the early days of their existence, proved to be light years in front of the rest of the league in understanding and reaching local markets.  LA Galaxy are the global brand leaders, while DC United are a recognized and respected name in the Americas.

Red Bull couldn’t really figure out how to be a part of any of that.  I’d make an Icarus analogy here – certainly fits with Red Bull’s “wings” marketing campaign – but truth be told, the soccer arm of the larger sporting enterprise has never approached the sun on these shores.  A better comparison would be an infant trying to walk before it could crawl.  Of if you want to go pop culture, Red Bull so far has been like Sonny Corleone when he took over as Don in The Godfather.  Tough talk, impetuous decisions, and little indication that there’s an understanding of what it takes to be truly successful.

Stretching it further, last season’s record-setting futility was the scene where Sonny is riddled with roughly 9000 machine-gun rounds at the tollbooth.  And yeah, the two-headed monster that was Juan Carlos Osorio/Jeff Agoos is Fredo Corleone (too clueless to run the family) in this whole thing.

Once Osorio and Agoos were pushed out and shuffled off to scouting, respectively, the Red Bulls began the search for their Michael Corleone.  Someone who has the strength, vision, intelligence and ruthlessness to run the family.  And they took their own sweet time about it, spawning about ten different “Why don’t we have a coach?” threads, twice that many “Fire Agoos!” threads, countless hours staring at nothing, and even a “No Coach Clock” on Metrofanatic.com.

In the end the team went almost exactly four and a half months before settling on Swede Hans Backe.  Backe’s a veteran of several head coaching gigs, mostly in and around Scandanavia, but is also know for being one of Sven Goran Eriksson’s cadre of advisers.  In fact his last job as manager before coming to New York was with his old boss at Notts County.  Backe spent seven weeks there before leaving over a wage dispute.

And no, that doesn’t settle the nerves of fans of the single most unstable franchise in MLS history.

Even with that caveat, Backe seems more Michael than Fredo (and looks wise, he’s pure Enrico Palazzo).  He’s said nothing but the right things so far, from praising the current players to making measured and reasonable responses about the type of talent he’d bring in from overseas.  He looks to have a good working relationship with Erik Soler, the new General Manger/Sporting Director of the club.  He’s kept last year’s assistants, Richie Williams and Des McAleenan, both of whom have acquitted themselves well over the years.  He’s started preseason training early – we opened with a 1-1 draw against CSKA Moscow, and all-together encouraging if meaningless result – and while it’s clear he wants to build with youth, it’s just as clear that he’s putting responsibility and expectations on the veterans.  Just as he should.

What does this mean in the long run?

Hard to say.  Backe has no US experience to speak of prior to this job, and in the 15 year history of MLS, quite literally no one who can say the same has been successful.  That’s not to say that American experience is sufficient for success – the coaching graves of everyone from former national team managers to former players to former announcers litter the MLS cemetery – but it has proved necessary.  So Hans is swimming against the tide of history, and he’s swimming against sharks.

The best example of that came at the recently held MLS SuperDraft.  While, by most accounts, Metro did well to walk away with central midfielder Tony Tchani at the #2 spot, left midfielder Austin Da Luz at #14, make a low-risk high-reward trade for veteran defender Chris Albright, and pick up some potential role players in the later rounds, what Backe and company did pales in comparison to what Peter Nowak and the newly formed Philadelphia Union pulled off.  In building his club from whole cloth, Nowak proved himself a wartime consigliere by landing three of the top seven picks, a veteran attacking midfielder (Brazilian Fred), the highest rated keeper in the draft and some allocation money.

Staying with The Godfather theme, the Red Bulls acted like Tom Hagan.  Everything lined up precisely, no undue risks, but nothing visionary.  The Union, on the other hand, acted like Michael when he settled all the family’s debts.  A shotgun blast here, a garrote there, and suddenly it’s clear that there’s a new alpha dog running the show.  As a Red Bull fan, I am legitimately concerned.

The good news, though, is that even if you maybe shouldn’t expect to win with Tom Hagan, you can at least expect to be in the game.  No more 5-19-6 records, no more futility, no more “league laughingstock” talk.  You may not shoot Moe Green in the eye, but nobody’s taking you out for a “fishing trip” on Tahoe, either.

For the Red Bulls, that’s a step in the right direction.  And for now, that’s enough to give us some hope.

Upcoming Events:

The Empire Supporters Club (www.empiresupportersclub.com) will be hosting an official membership drive at some point in February at Nevada Smith’s in Manhattan, and quite likely one in Jersey at a bar to be determined.  In the meantime feel free to go to the website and check us out.  If you like what you see and hear (if you’re a real footie fan, you will), sign up at your leisure.

Watch this space, or check the club website for updates.

Around the league…

The big MLS news this offseason comes on two fronts.  First, it’s the “outgoing players” alert.  As per usual, Beckham is leading the way with his annual loan to AC Milan.  Joining him in Europe is teammate and erstwhile verbal sparring partner Landon Donovan, who has rather distinguished himself in two games thus far with Everton.  Playing mostly on the wing, Donovan has provided pinpoint crossing on set pieces, quality passing in the midfield, tons of running, and some pretty rusty moments in the final third.  Even with the profligate finishing, the Toffees have four points from two games against Arsenal and Man City, which is at least three more than they would have expected at this time last month…

Making potentially more permanent exits from the league are Houston Dynamo midfield duo Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden.  Clark, a tough defensive midfielder in the Mascherano mold, has signed with the Bundesliga’s Eintracht Frankfurt.  His deal is for six months, with an option to extend it further after the World Cup.  Holden, after flirting with Portuguese leaders Sporting Braga, eventually signed a six-month deal with Bolton, again with the option to extend it in the summer.

Houston were the previous decade’s most successful MLS club, but I honestly don’t see how they can recover from this.  If they remain anything resembling competitive, then manager Dom Kinnear is a shoe-in for the US head coaching spot post-2010.

In addition to Donovan, Beckham, Holden and Clark, Chicago’s attacking midfielder Chris Rolfe has signed for and begun training with Denmark’s Aalborg, and teammate Cuauhtemoc Blanco is spending his next six months with Vera Cruz before a planned return to the Windy City in July…

The less glamorous side of the sport is also on display, as the MLS Players’ Union and the league’s owners are at odds over the new collective bargaining agreement.  At issue is roster size, reserve teams, salary scale, free agency rights and the salary cap.

To put the salary cap into perspective, the current annual player budget for an MLS team is $2.4 million, with the salaries of guys like Beckham, Donovan, Blanco and Juan Pablo Angel counting only partially against that number.

In Mexico, the average team salary is about three times that, though there is a much higher deviation between the top and the bottom of the league.  In England, relegation strugglers Hull spend about $25 million US per year on player salaries – more than ten times what any MLS team can pony up.  And, of course, there are teams like Manchester United and Liverpool, who have player budgets £700 million and £350 million (oh wait, sorry, that’s debts, not budgets).

Point being, the salary cap exists in the first place to avoid situations where a club can accrue £700 million of debt.  Financially, MLS has been very astute at going for the slow-but-steady plan since commissioner Don Garber took over in 1999.  And it’s worked.  Losses have been relatively minimal, with the notable exception of stadium construction.  And if you ask around, you’ll even hear the word “profit” whispered in more than one MLS city – something unthinkable when you consider that fully 2/3s of baseball, basketball and American football teams have lost money over the past two years.  Ten years ago if you’d have said the Chicago Fire would make money but the Bears, Bulls and White Sox would be in the red, they’d have put you in Bellevue.

But it’s just a fact, and a testament to how sound the MLS business model has been under Garber.  The league is now growing relatively rapidly – eight expansion clubs in the last five years, a tripling in the price of expansion teams, a 16% increase in TV ratings in 2009 alone.  And the players justifiably want a larger slice of the pie.

Problem is, MLS owners – filthy rich, the lot of ‘em – didn’t become filthy rich by giving away any more money than is strictly necessary.  And while, say, someone like Dave Van den Bergh is worth $200,000/yr just in terms of the quality he brings to the field and the wins he produces by being out there, very, very few people in the stands would say they’re going to the park to see Dave Van den Bergh.  He’s exactly the guy the league needs in terms of talent, but he’s also the exact type of guy the league can and has low-balled throughout its existence.

It benefits the league long-term to sign Van den Bergh, or to keep the likes of Holden and Clark.  It raises the level of play, and better soccer equals more fans, more advertisers and more money.  Eventually.

But as we’ve learned from Wall St. over the past couple of years, rich people tend not to worship at the altar of “eventually.”  And signing the Van den Berghs, Clarks and Holdens of the world hurts the MLS pocketbook short-term.  Hence, an impasse.  And a potential strike/lockout, which would be more suicide/suicide than murder/suicide.

Where does this end up?  Personally I think the players are boned.  They owners may give a few concessions – higher base salary, maybe a 10% bump in the cap – but there’s going to be nothing like the Bosman ruling or guaranteed contracts.  There’s just not enough leverage yet, and there might not be for another decade at least.

In the meantime, slow-and-steady will be the order of the day.