With the current 2020 MLS season on pause, the New York Red Bulls’ coaches, staff and players have no choice but to train from home. This will be a time for them to try new things, but to also stay active and ready for when everything returns to normalcy.
Midfielder Cristian Cásseres Jr. shared with us what he has been up to in recent months:
How has this experience been to train at home?
“It’s been difficult because it’s something that I’ve never experienced in my short life. It’s been a very different experience. To have to train at home, train outside in the backyard, and train alone after getting used to training with your teammates during all your career, it’s difficult. But after a long period of time, I’m getting more used to it, and I’ve adapted to this situation.”
What have you missed most from training on the pitch?
“To train on the pitch, I miss everything. To be close to the ball, do one-on-ones, that’s the best of our training sessions. The competitive practice games, everything.”
With the time available, have you worked on something specific to the game, or something that has nothing to do with it?
“Yeah right now, this quarantine has allowed us to reflect and analyze everything. It’s time to reflect and talk to oneself, maybe before this we couldn’t do this because we had something to do like work or go out shopping, but now that we have a lot of time at home, we can think of the good and bad that we’ve done to ourselves. I’ve worked on myself, watched my past games, observed other players like Xavi and Iniesta, so I can learn new things. I’ve tried to read more, so I can learn more because what’s important in life is to learn new things every day. That way I can be a better person, and better player.”
How has the experience been to receive instructions virtually, like video analysis, tactics chats, even the workouts?
“I want to thank Chris [Armas], Tony [Jouaux] and all the coaching staff for always being there. They’re always giving us instructions for what to do and what to learn, which is always important. It’s something that helps us now because they send us the instructions, they send us videos to watch. It’s things we see, and then we’re left thinking about the same topic, so that way we can think about it and reflect on what we did wrong and what we did right. And of course, when we train on the pitch, the coach can come over and tell us, but we might put it aside and go back to work. You can forget what they said, but now I can review it like two, three, four times, so I can see the small details, which is the most important thing in the game. I’m very grateful to all the coaching staff for what they send us.”
Message to the supporters:
“To the Red Bull fans I tell them to always be following us, to trust us and support us. I’m 100% sure that we’re going to give you something to be happy about. It’s something that I’ve felt since I got here, that I promised myself, as I think most of my teammates have, which is to always give the fans a reason to be happy and give them something they’ve always been wanting, and what we all want - a Cup. We want to be happy, the team and the fans.”
