The New York Red Bulls are looking to learn from their match against Orlando City SC -- but they won't dwell on the loss.
"What we've seen the last few days is what we love about our group: strong, collective team spirit," Head Coach Chris Armas said. "We all -- the staff and the guys -- came in ready to work and take a hard look at ourselves, but not to harp on it, just to learn from it."
Armas said the team had some "hard conversations" following the game, and are looking to better themselves after their first home loss since July, 2018.
Heading into a weekend matchup with Chicago, Armas knows teams are trying to figure out the Red Bulls' style of play.
"Our style of play, of playing fast and pressing and counter-pressing, it was very unusual in our league and different," Armas said. "Nowadays, teams know exactly what we're going to do, so we have to add some nuances and we have to be able to be really good at are pressing for days."
From that, the staff has been working on different wrinkles they can add to the gameplan to best attack and defend against clubs who look to battle the "Red Bull Way."
"You have to be prepared to be able to press high," Armas said. "You have to come back deeper. Be aggressive still as you come back deeper. And now, if teams are going to let us have the ball, you have a choice: You can just now give them the ball and say no we're going to defend and you go back like that, which could be part of it but now can, if we can hurt you when you have the ball, can we also be good when we have the ball? Which means that we have to add to who we are, with some pause and some patients and movements, moving the opponent a little bit and just adding some attacking principles that give our guys the weapons, and the ideas and the belief that we can hurt you in all ways. There's a lot that goes into it then. It takes all of practicing what we want to be good at."
The Head Coach said the style of play will continue to evolve as different pieces of the team show their talent. Take, for example, the addition of Mathias Jørgensen as a possible second striker to compliment Bradley Wright-Phillips.
"We will have to look at that, because we think the partnership, or even structurally, two strikers is interesting for us," Armas said. "It's gives us a different look, and come playoff time, we want to have that flexibility that we can start that way, we can finish that way and we can mix it up within a game. This can unbalance teams and keep teams guessing."
Chicago, 0-2-1 (1 point), through three matches, haven't seen results so far in 2019, but are still a dangerous side, especially at home.
"Is it a day we can employ our pressing a little more and have some fun trying to attack them that way? That'd be great," Armas said. "But maybe they play more direct on the day. We'll have to be ready for both."
The Red Bulls have just five wins in 29 regular season matches against the Fire at home.
"We'll have to be up for a big challenge," Armas said. "Hopefully, we get to play some more pressing."
