Red Bull New York held a midseason media roundtable with head of sport Julian de Guzman on Thursday at the recently opened RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center located in Morris Township, New Jersey.
De Guzman spoke for a total of 52 minutes, taking questions from a select group of invited media members, including South Ward Central. The entire roundtable will be presented in a multipart Q&A on South Ward Central.
In Part 1, de Guzman offered insight into the Red Bulls’ pre-World Cup break performance, transfer strategy, youth development, long-term strategies and tactical fluidity.
The 45-year-old executive discussed the excitement around the club’s new performance center, the goalkeeping department, the team’s leadership core, how injuries to AJ Marcucci and Cameron Harper impacted the team and loan strategy.
De Guzman on RWJBarnabas Health Red Bulls Performance Center: ‘The Guys Were Buzzing’
Q: What do you think a facility like this can do for this vision, for this culture, for sort of making this place maybe more of a destination than maybe what it had been?
JDG: Oh, I mean, I’m still getting used to this. I mean, I can’t believe this is even real. The first team had a taste of it last week. They got to train here, and the guys were buzzing.
They just couldn’t wait to finally live here full-time. Just seeing the faces of everyone that’s been a part of this week of training, of just operating and eating, you’re like getting, wow, this is a dream come true, and this is unusual, not just in North America, but globally.
This will certainly be inspiring. It will create a whole new standard. But the most important thing was we were already at a standard before coming here. It wasn’t like we were struggling, and there’s turmoil going on, and then you suddenly got to move into a new facility, and then let’s see what happens. We already know what needs to happen, but now it looks much better when it works out. If it doesn’t work out, then we know when we show up at this building every day, we’ve got to turn it on because this is a standard here that we’ve got to keep up.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s playing, if it’s our comms team, if it’s medical staff, we’ve got to come in with a top, top standard, and that’s such a beautiful thing to have here at Red Bull. It’s also an incredible thing for these players to walk into June 11th when they see this. I’ll tell you, it’s going to be super exciting. So I can’t wait for them to enter the building full-time.
Q: Two things, actually. Have you given a thought at goalkeeper? Do you think you’ve made the right choice coming into the season with the signing that you made, especially with some players that were still out there at that time? Then, a follow-up was at one of the first press conferences that you did with us, you mentioned how it’s not just a sacrifice for you, it’s also you taking away time from your family, your kids, being a dad, being a husband. How has that been so far in this first half, getting all that acclimated with something that you obviously hold dear to you because you brought it up?
JDG: I’ll start off with the, you know, the sacrifice. It’s really good. The family is here full-time. It’s been almost a full year now since they, they moved, and we have a really cool lifestyle where I get to see my kids and my family before I go to work, and then after that, I come back and I see them there. They’re still there, and it’s like, wow, this is good.
Selfishly, it’s great. My wife certainly has been extremely supportive of this process. It was probably the first 22 months where they were in Toronto and I was here, and it worked out really well because I really had to get my feet wet and invest into what is happening, how can improve and it worked. [It] wasn’t easy, but today I could say we’re in a much, much better place. It’s a good balance now. It’s a really good balance to see the family.
I have a little one, 15 months now, watching him grow. One of my five kids. So, I’ve been there, done that one time as a player, and I’m doing this as an executive, and it has been really, really good. So, very happy there. Thanks for checking in.
De Guzman Discusses Ethan Horvath Signing and the Red Bulls’ Leadership Core
JDG: I would say, in terms of the goalkeeping, signing, we’re thrilled. Ethan has been outstanding. We identified him, for sure, as one of the guys that we wanted to bring in. We weren’t sure if it was going to work out, and he was coming from a very difficult situation at Sheffield.
We knew what his standard was, being a former World Cup player, international for the U.S., but the one thing that probably we weren’t sure of at first was that he’s never played in the league, right?
So, coming to the U.S. and MLS, how quickly would he be able to adapt? But the moment we spoke to him, you could already see that he was eager and hungry just to be a part of a team that wants to compete, and that was one of his main things. I want to be a part of a team that wants to compete, and that message resonated with myself, with Michael [Bradley]. Michael knew him already as a former player, and when you look at the spine of the field, you certainly want somewhat of a leadership, right?
If [Eric Maxim] Choupo-[Moting] was starting great, you have leadership there, you have Emil [Forsberg], you could have maybe Gustav [Berggren], you could have Dylan [Nealis], and you could have Ethan — and that’s your leadership spine.
But then, if Julian [Hall] started, okay, then that kind of brings it down in terms of leadership, because Julian, this is his first year as a starter, right, leading a team. You still have Emil, which is good. Then you have a now 17-year-old, just turned 17, Adri [Mehmeti].
How much of a leader is he? By the way, I think he’s an incredible leader, actually and he’s developing, but you can’t throw too much on his shoulders to manage in his first professional year as a footballer.
So, then what offsets that? Then you got a backline where you have either Dylan Nealis, maybe Tim Parker. So, you look at that roster, and then if Justin Che is going to be a starter, he’s still quite young. At one point, we were talking about maybe Noah [Eile] was going to be a part of the team, still a young player. If Noah’s out, Julian [Bazan] comes in, a young player.
So at that point, we realized, okay, in that goal, you certainly need someone as a leader. You need somebody who could command the box, who has experience, who could grow the backline a bit more, add some maturity. Ethan really, in our eyes, when you look at the balance of that roster, especially down the spine, Ethan leads it from the backline.
Based on his experience, it made sense. We just weren’t sure how soon he was going to adapt to the league, and when you look at the first few games, you could say, okay, he was the right choice. So, we’re certainly happy with that.
John McCarthy is our backup. I mean, he’s excellent, and when he gets a chance to play, he steps up to his expectation as being that leader in the locker room as well. He is the loudest guy in the locker room. He’s the first one to speak. He’s the last one to speak. So, that’s great to have as well. Then, we have young keepers that are up-and-coming. AJ Marcucci, young keeper. He’s got a good group of guys to learn from. Aidan Stokes, Tobias [Szewczyk] as well. Super young keepers who need time. They got a good group of good keepers to learn from.
So, that helps the pipeline for the next one to step in, hopefully in the next couple years. They could learn from some really good, experienced keepers down the road. So, that’s why we were very happy to one, sign Ethan, and then based on what he’s been able to prove, we’re super satisfied.
De Guzman on AJ Marcucci, Cameron Harper Injury Recovery Plans
Q: You mentioned Marcucci. He’s a player who’s already been introduced to the first team, has been seasoned. Is there a plan for him? Maybe he comes back from injury, and I guess, same question as well about Cam Harper. Saw him come back. Great to see him back with the first team, but he’s coming back at the moment where Cade Cowell and Jorge Ruvalcaba are hitting their stride. What’s the plan for him as well?
JDG: Yeah, Cameron, he’s been out for a very long time. So, eager to get him back onto the field. We know he could add value in our roster in terms of depth, even become a potential starter, right? So, getting a healthy Cam Harper, I mean, that’s excellent. That’s what we want.
We certainly don’t want to rush the process. So, that’s why it took time to get him going again. He got some minutes with the second team. He’s been training quite often with the first team, and it was a harsh injury. It was a hard injury where you don’t want to rush a player psychologically to just throw him back in there and see what happens.
So, our medical staff has done an excellent job managing that, and I think the timing was perfect for him just to get some minutes against Sporting Kansas just before the break. He’s got to feel first-team football again. He’s probably going home now thinking, I want more, right? So, he’s going to come back June 11th, hitting the ground running and ready to compete, and that’s exactly what we want from a guy like Cam Harper.
AJ Marcucci’s been out for quite some time, a process we do not want to rush as well, and we hope to expect him back going into the end of June, beginning of July. Hard to say right now, but even when he starts training again, we never want to put it on the shoulders of a young keeper to say, hey, we’re gonna need you at some point to start games. So many things can happen in this game, right? We don’t know, but the message for him and the process for him is let’s continue to take our time just like we did with Cam and then find the right moments to slowly integrate him back into game mode soccer, right?
But he needs to start training, and training for Cam took months before he could even see the field in a game setting. The same will happen for AJ as well. We don’t have an exact date or timeline as to what that looks like, but we certainly have a good process to allow AJ to come back and let’s see what he looks like after the break, and then we could start making smart decisions.
Yeah, we’re on the right track with both of those players, and then like I said, for Cam to get the minutes before the break was extremely important for us. So we see that Cam is kind of his old self. [He] had some chances, could have scored, which would have been cool, but we circled June 11th as an important return date for a lot of these guys, and Cam’s going to be somebody that we have a very close eye on.
De Guzman on Cade Cowell’s Ankle Injury: ‘Nothing Alarming’
Q: Cade [Cowell] came out of the last game with an injury. Is that something that the team is concerned about?
JDG: No, no. I mean, he fell awkwardly on the ankle. I got a brief update from the medical staff, and Cade came in today, and there’s nothing alarming. [He] fell awkwardly on the ankle, may have stretched maybe a tendon at most, but no tears, nothing that is required of a long-term surgery.
So we’ll let him settle, continue to get his rest, and then see how it looks on June 11th. But that’s the tricky thing with this break, where you want to give the guys time off. It was a rigorous first part of the season, so we have enough time to rebuild them again, and let’s hope that Cade comes back where he’s able to match everyone’s schedule. If not, then we just take our time, but nothing alarming.
De Guzman on the Progress of Loaned Out Players
Q: I want to bring up the scouting department just a bit. Looking at the past couple of seasons, you’ve had a couple guys with designations, U-22, maybe a guy like Marcelo Morales, who haven’t kind of filled their expectations when they were brought in. You know, Marcelo’s on loan now, [Wiktor] Bogacz is also on loan, and Dennis [Gjengaar] is playing with the second team right now. When you look at that overall department, and you were a part of that as well with a couple of those guys, just how do you step back and re-evaluate what you guys are actually looking for, and trying to put your identity on the type of player you’re trying to bring in?
JDG: Yeah, I mean, you could say Victor, obviously, coming in as a striker who would have suited probably [to] assist him in a 4-2-2-2. That’s how we recruited him. I’m not saying that he won’t fit the 4-3-3, but let’s see how he comes back, and he’s been available off the bench for Cracovia, so he’s coming back up to speed after his injury, which is really good to see.
Let’s see how he looks when he comes back, right? I’m glad we were able to get him a place. I’m super happy we were able to get Marcelo a place to play. Marcelo, it’s funny because Marcelo has a similar playing style like Matty Dos Santos, but how Matty Dos Santos was able to elevate his game in that manner was by watching Marcelo Morales at Next Pro last year, which was just interesting to kind of point out, and it’s worked out for Matty.
Marcelo just needed to get himself in a place where — I just want to play football, and having him go back to his old club on loan allows him now to build his confidence, and he has been getting minutes, which is good. Now let’s see if he can put that on repeat to the end of the year, and then we re-evaluate what that looks like going into the new season. But Marcelo has lots of football. He has a lot of quality. He likes to be that inverted fullback that becomes the extra body in the midfield in the build-up, similar to what Matty Dos Santos does, but I’m not sure if Marcelo knows this, but he has helped Matty’s career go upward. So Matty’s now doing that as a young player.
Then for Dennis, Dennis is a guy where when I look back at the acquisition of Dennis, it was more based off of the metrics where he can run, he’s fast and dynamic. In a 4-2-2-2, I’m sure that could have worked. In a 4-3-3, it actually could still work. It has worked in favor for him as a full-back. It has worked in favor for him as a winger now, and we never had wingers.
He has shown some good signs at the Next Pro level. It’s now just pushing him to be more consistent, and then the beauty of that is, okay, he’s done it now, you know, the first part of the season. Everyone’s gonna get a fair shot going into June 11th to see, okay, let’s see where everything lands. Let’s see where the chips land. Let’s see how you were taking care of yourself during the offseason, and it’s almost like a clean slate, which is gonna be exciting to see June 11th for the players and the coaching staff.
So Dennis has been very good for the Next Pro team, and when you watch those games, you kind of scratch your head and say, oh, he actually could do a good job as a full-back, but then the next game, he’s playing as a winger. He’s scoring goals, he’s setting up goals, he’s active, and we’re seeing that he’s showing those potentials to do that at a first-team level, but it’s just a matter of proving it on a consistent basis.
So there’s still a really good shot and chance for these guys to prove themselves, and I’m actually really happy that we found places for a lot of these players to continue to be active and playing, and the playing environment.
So Serge Ngoma is another one where he’s at Birmingham. He has to pull himself away as a young kid from Red Bull life and be in an environment where you’re with men, compete, fight, and then, you know, Birmingham have identified him as a difference maker. That’s great. Now there’s pressure on him. Let’s see how you live up to that, right? Serge is not just a teenager anymore, and I think that was great for him.
Then most recent was [Aiden] Jarvis, now going to get some minutes at Huntsville, and I think that’s great for him, and it’s important. There are also young kids. All of the guys that have gone on loan, they’re still young when you think of it. So every player has their own kind of way of developing, and I’ve seen it many times when players come back from loans, they become a different person, and it’s like, okay, he’s ready to be in the starting 11. So it’s important for us to make sure we make use of each player and their scenarios that they’re experiencing.
That’s all for Part 2 with de Guzman. Check back Saturday for the final installment in Part 3.
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