What went wrong after the end of the 2025 Regular Season
This Monday Morning, we all got the shocking news of the departure of both Director of Sport Jochen Schneider and Head Coach Sandro Schwarz, leaving the club as they failed to continue the club’s North American Playoff Qualification Streak that ended at 15 years. So many moments added up as the issues started to grow within the season, and why did these moments happen? Let’s dive into them.
End of the 2023 Season
After saving themselves from playoff qualifying elimination with a penalty call as Luquinhas was taken down inside the area at Geodis Park against Nashville SC, John Tolkin converted the penalty to put them into the wild card game and host Charlotte FC. After taking them down, they lost in the first round to FC Cincinnati.
At the end of the season press conference, Jochen Schneider announced that Troy Lesense was relieved of his duties and said he listened to the fans when they held a sign in the South Ward that read “It’s not Good Enough.” He said he would fix the issues of the club going forward.
Beginning of 2024
The new era of Red Bulls Soccer began with the moves of the Winter Transfer Window, bringing over Swedish International Midfielder and RB Leipzig offensive player Emil Forsberg as the top playmaker of the club, also bringing in Swedish Youth International Centerback Noah Eile, who looked strong and a promising partner for Sean Nealis.
Entering Sandro Schwarz
The new head coach of the club was German Sandro Schwarz. He promised to give better play and a better offensive posture with Forsberg on the club. Everything we saw from the start of the season worked well. Strong defense, better combinations with the ball, and Carlos Coronel had a better season, getting results.
Andres Reyes gets disciplined
When Andres Reyes recklessly hit a Chicago Fire attacker in the nose before the ball was played, the VAR review called and told the Referee to give him a red card. That play put the club down to ten men, and they survived with a draw. Schwarz disciplined him and told him he must be better or suffer the consequences. From that point on, Reyes behaved, and the media gave Schwarz high praise for how he handled that issue.
End of the season and playoff run
After missing Forsberg to a Foot injury in the middle of the season, till he returned for the last three games, the Red Bulls finished in seventh place and went on a magical playoff run. Sweeping the Columbus Crew with a Game One clean sheet as Felipe Carballo scored the lone goal.
Then a two-goal draw in round two that ended in the penalty kick shootout when Coronel made three consecutive saves from the fourth round to the last. Forsberg converted the tying penalty, while Daniel Edelman converted the winning penalty.
In the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, the Hudson River derby was at Citi Field in Queens, where Carballo did it again with a long-distance strike, then Dante Vanzeir snuck one past Matt Freese that hit the inside of the back post and over the goal line.
Traveled to Orlando, Florida, to face Orlando City for the Eastern Conference Final. It was a miracle, Reyes’ header from a free kick by Tolkin to put the Red Bulls into the MLS Cup Final, but they fell to the LA Galaxy two goals to one. Many fans and media members thought that from that point on, Schneider was going to improve the club for 2025.
The 2025 Season
In the Winter Transfer Window, Schneider brought in Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. This man was bringing in the big goal-scoring moments for the club, and it did work, scoring 17 goals in the regular season and 18 in all competitions.
Emil Forsberg played the entire season injury-free, and the backline was solid, but injuries were a big issue. Lewis Morgan, who earned the comeback player of the year award last season, once again was put on the shelf with a knee injury. Then Cameron Harper was injured during the road match at Austin FC and is done for the rest of the season.
Help came, but couldn’t
With Morgan out, it was Mohammed Sofo from Red Bulls II getting his chance on the attack, and he did very well with five goals in league play and eight in all competitions, scoring three goals in the U.S. Open Cup. But after his strong start, Sofo fell and couldn’t finish.
Wiki Carmona didn’t look like himself from the last two seasons. He made poor decisions with the ball and made poor shot selections that missed the net badly. Especially in the Leagues Cup game, where he faked out the defender from FC Juarez three times and shot the ball high over the crossbar.
Road Record was Road Kill
In 17 road games, the Red Bulls only won twice: at DC United on May 24th, and at CF Montreal on September 20th. The rest of the matches they drew four times, and lost 11 matches. Some of these matches they drew or lost, should’ve been wins with the state of these other clubs that weren’t that good.
Falling flat at the end
After a huge win away at Montreal, the Red Bulls hosted NYCFC in the Hudson River Derby. They allowed an early goal, then equalized it. Gave up another goal and went into the half down by one. Even though Forsberg did score a second equalizer, the Red Bulls burned themselves again with a late goal and lost their chance to fight the Chicago Fire toward the finish.
The consequences
As we learned from my colleague J.J. Pavlick, Jochen Schnieder is stepping down, and Julian DeGuzman has been elevated from Sporting Director to Director of Sport. Head Coach Sandro Schwarz has been relieved of his duties and will now head back to Germany.
Many fans wanted these moves to happen, and now they have finally gotten their wish. The main culprit was the lack of moves in the Summer transfer windows, when the club truly needed help at the back end of the regular season. While only getting Felipe Carballo last summer, it did work for their MLS Cup Run. In this past summer window, the promise of bringing over Timo Werner failed, and Gustav Berggren wasn’t enough to save them from going to the playoffs.
Sandro does deserve some blame for tactics and lineup selections, but at the end of the day, this all falls squarely on the shoulders of Jochen Schneider. From the end of 2023 to agreeing with the fans, to bringing in Forsberg, Eile, Gjengaar, and Choupo-Moting in the Winter windows, he failed miserably in the Summer Windows to give the club a chance to save their season.
While Schneider gave Red Bulls II promising talent for their future and brought over Andy Rojas and Marcelo Morales to the club, the fans wanted to see their side make a return to the MLS Cup Playoffs and make another run to the MLS Cup Final. That’s what the fans wanted to see: returning to the MLS Cup Final, and they failed to do so.
To Red Bull Global
It’s great to see them understand the frustration the supporters are showing, but at the same time, they need to make sure they make the correct hire for the head coach. Depending on how they feel, either internally or outside of the club, it has to be the right man to come in here and get it right from the very first day when training camp comes.
For Julian DeGuzman, I hope that he can do the job better than Schneider did. It’s not about getting a bunch of pictures and throwing darts at them to see which one will stick to get that player to help the club for 2026. It’s making sure to get the right ones and have the technical ability to get them going and make it work so this club can finally get that ultimate prize or prizes.
New York Red Bulls News:
- Red Bulls’ Historic 15-Year Playoff Streak Ends, Prompting Major Leadership Overhaul
- Red Bulls 2 selected and ready to face Chicago Fire 2
- Red Bulls II Dominate Carolina Core, 5-1, Advance to Eastern Conference Semifinals
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