HANOVER, N.J. – Following a deflating loss in Montreal, the New York Red Bulls knew they would have to return home ready to work in order to right their wrongs.
They wasted little time doing so, as head coach Jesse Marsch led the squad in a tournament day session that was as lively and intense as you could hope for after two straight losses to open the season.
After a film session to start the day, the Red Bulls took to the pitch and held nothing back in their small-sided scrimmages. Tensions were high, tempers flared, but it served to foster the sort of competitive edge required to bounce back from a few tough results.
To an outsider, it may seem as though the squad’s frustration was boiling over after a slow start to the year, but all is not what it seems.
“There’s no frustration,” defender Kemar Lawrence told NewYorkRedBulls.com. “This is all normal on tournament day; we compete, we show a lot of heart, and we go out there and work. It’s kind of a game day situation that Jesse and the coaching staff try to put us in. He wants leaders out there on tournament day so that it can transition onto the field. It’s all about giving 100-percent on tournament day.”
So what exactly is tournament day? Midfielder Felipe explained just that on this week’s Seeing Red Podcast.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t a happy day for me because my team lost,” he joked. “But tournament day is great. It’s usually made up of four teams with six or seven players and the teams play against each other for 12 minutes. It’s very intense, very physical and everyone wants to win. We have a ranking where if you lose, you get zero points, if you win, you get three points. Right now, I’m at the bottom of the list because my team wasn’t that good today.”
The bite often seen on these days can serve to be especially useful, especially as Marsch challenged his side, saying the “overall commitment to the game wasn’t at a high enough level” in Montreal.
Goalkeeper Luis Robles, who was on the winning side on the day, knows just how helpful tournament days can be. Now, the hope is that the fire seen on the training pitch will translate to the field at Red Bull Arena come Saturday night.
“For us to come onto the field and be competitive in tournament day was good for us,” he said. “The guys were up for it and it was quite a competitive environment. It’s great for setting the tone going into this weekend against Houston.”
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