Head Coach Jesse Marsch said this is the deepest New York Red Bulls team he’s seen.
Marsch said that depth lies with the youth of the team.
“The young guys are starting to show they understand what it takes,” Marsch said after training on Thursday. “They don’t need as much time with the USL team. They’re now ready for challenges here with the MLS team. That’s an exciting proposition for us.”
The average age of the Red Bulls is 25.5 years old.
“The more we develop young players and they show they’re ready for bigger challenges, the more that everything we do here is becoming more effective,” Marsch said.
Homegrown player Alex Muyl has scored the game-winning goal in back-to-back games for New York.
"I think I’m doing the same things, I think I had good chances to score last year as well, I just didn’t always score them," Muyl said on Thursday. "For me, just not thinking so much, playing a little bit more, enjoying myself and when the moments come, putting them away. For me, I don’t think I’m really doing anything differently. I don’t want to do anything differently, I want to just continue to grow, that’s what I want to do. I think, hopefully, that this year that’s what can happen."
Homegrown players have played 1,549 minutes for New York in 2017, compared to 766 through the first eight games of 2016. The average age of Homegrown players is 21.8 years old.
The head coach said that seeing the younger players make impacts on the field is a sure sign that what they work on every day is working.
“I think it makes us all feel good,” he said. “It makes us all feel like we’re doing our jobs well."
