Red Bull New York head of sport Julian de Guzman detailed how defender Devin Padelford is making a difference for the Red Bulls since his arrival on loan from Minnesota United FC.
In a recent conversation with South Ward Central, de Guzman compared Padelford’s ability to contribute at outside back and center-back to the value brought by blossoming defender Justin Che.
“The incoming of Devin was important for us,” de Guzman said. “It helped almost match the profile as to what we saw as Justin Che being that hybrid right-back/center-back. What that’s done for us now, as you can see, Justin is clearly one of our best performers this season. Devin has that similar profile but on the left side. So that gives us flexibility to get more depth on the left side. You have Matty Dos Santos, Omar Valencia and Devin.
“But also on the left side of center-back position as well, knowing that right now you have Julian Bazán, you have Justin Che, you have Tim Parker. Robbie Voloder hasn’t gotten the minutes that we were hoping for, so it was important for us to make sure we could give us something in the back line — flexibility and depth.”
De Guzman on Padelford: ‘He Gives You Energy, Competition on the Physical Side’
De Guzman praised Padelford’s set-piece defending, competitive nature and physical traits.
“Also where his strength lies is a lot on the set pieces and that was an area that we knew we needed to be better on defensively,” de Guzman said. “He’s been proven to be a really good defender in the box. He gives you the energy, he gives you the competition on the physical side. There’s an interesting ceiling that we’re noticing when he’s playing in our system. As we’ve seen with Justin Che, it can be similar for him on the left side. So it’s worked out for us really well with Justin. I think Devin definitely has those qualities to give us that balance on the left side and in the back line.”
Since making his Red Bull New York debut away to Seattle Sounders FC on September 5, Padelford has appeared in six matches for New York.
The 23-year-old left-back scored his first goal for his new club in Saturday’s 4-1 home victory over San Diego FC. He headed a corner delivery from Cade Cowell past San Diego keeper CJ dos Santos in the 20th minute.
So far, Padelford is making a positive impression across 278 minutes for New York.
Padelford Clears Concussion Protocol, Feels 100 Percent
Padelford suffered a concussion late in the second half of Saturday’s match. He was replaced in the 88th minute by Dos Santos.
On Monday afternoon, Red Bull New York head coach Michael Bradley confirmed that Padelford has cleared concussion protocol and indicated that the defender is “feeling 100 percent.”
“He has cleared concussion protocol,” Bradley said. “So the protocol continues to be updated and modified based on whatever the league’s medical experts in conjunction with our doctors think is the best practice, most up-to-date way of taking care of these things.
“Obviously, concussions are, for all athletes in all sports, something that are really sensitive and the safety and well-being of the athlete is always going to come first. Devin takes the ball off of his face at the end of the game the other night and has a minute or two where he has lost a little bit of balance. With the rules now, it made complete sense to use the concussion sub and make sure that we were taking care of him. As part of the protocol, that begins immediately after the game into the next morning. Into this morning, he has moved along in a really good way and is feeling 100 percent.”
Bradley Pleased With Left-Back Competition: ‘We’re Going to Need Both of Them’
Bradley is pleased to have the tough decision of choosing between Padelford and Dos Santos for his starting XI.
“We’re really happy with Matty’s progress,” Bradley explained. “In the end, like any really good team, the hope is that we create really strong competition inside the group and our ability to, depending on the game and depending on who’s in the best form, make decisions.
“I thought Devin had a really good game on Saturday night. Matty’s had a really good season. Matty was gone with the national team during the international period. With the international window, he was only back in training towards the tail end of last week. We felt like Devin had been here and had had a really solid stretch of training and also played pretty well against St. Louis. It’s a busy stretch. We’re going to need both of them. We’re going to need everybody and we’ll figure out what makes most sense on Wednesday.”
The eighth-place Red Bulls will next face rivals D.C. United on Wednesday night. Kickoff for Wednesday’s contest at Audi Field is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
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