Awful Red Bulls Need More Than Stadium

The company that claims its product "gives you wings" seems to be just fine with the fact that its Major League Soccer club is sinking to uncharted depths. More than 36 hours have passed since the New York Red Bulls -- already on pace for the worst season in league history -- were eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League preliminaries with a 2-1 loss to a Trinidadian team before fewer than 7,000 fans at Giants Stadium.

And yet, the silence from Salzburg is deafening. With more than a week to go before it hosts Chivas USA, now would be the perfect time to send a message to what is left of the club's withering fan base and put coach Juan Carlos Osorio and "Sporting Director" Jeff Agoos out of their misery. The lack of action suggests, however, that the company has different priorities than building a respectable soccer team.

Pay a visit to the Red Bulls' Web site and you'll be greeted by a splash screen pimping the stadium scheduled to open next year -- Red Bull Arena. It serves to shield you briefly from the horror that is the 2009 season and really does look amazing, and the fact that it's on the PATH train line will make a big difference to New Yorkers unwilling to deal with the awful commute to the Meadowlands.

It appears that the suits at Red Bull are relying on this palace to solve all the club's problems, in classic "if you build it, they will come" style. Why fire Osorio and Agoos and pay their salaries for a few months, while hiring an interim manager to preside over a few more losses, when fans will flock to the new stadium next year anyway?

That is a dangerous assumption, and one that fails to appreciate the damage the club has done in trying to establish itself as credible in its home market. How could you possibly fail in an area as large, as populous, as diverse and as interested in soccer as New York and northern New Jersey? The team's years of on-field ineptitude have been well documented, and there was some hope that when Red Bull took over in 2006, and then when the side reached last year's MLS Cup final, that there would be a rebirth.

Instead, Osorio and the club's management have squandered all of that potential. Of the 13 players who appeared in the Cup final last year, only three have left the club. And yet Osorio has been able to manage only three wins this season. It is historically inept. New York has defeated the San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake in league play and San Jose again in the US Open Cup. And the fans have stayed away, with an average of just more than 11,000 attending the eight home games that preceded David Beckham's visit on July 16.

MLS should be commended for doing as well as it has not only without a positive presence in the crucial New York market, but one which is now actually a negative. The media and fans have every reason to ridicule and turn their back on the Red Bulls and the league as a whole for the mess both the original MetroStars and Red Bull have made, and rebuilding that relationship will require a lot more than a shiny new stadium. There is no reason to trust that the product on that beautiful new field will be anything but awful, and no reason for either the area's soccer fans or press to spend any time or money on it. Red Bull has done nothing to indicate they are interested in or capable of fielding a decent team in 2009.

Ironically, its club in Salzburg has won the Austrian title two out of the past three years and needs only to overcome Maccabi Haifa in a two-game series to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Perhaps something is lost in translation.

Either way, the club's Austrian overlords could at least indicate they aren't asleep at the wheel by issuing a statement reaffirming their commitment to the club and dismissing Osorio and Agoos (an admirable on-field leader who is fully deserving of his recent Hall of Fame induction but who clearly has been unable to transition to management).

The players clearly have given up.

Defender Kevin Goldthwaite, on the two goals New York yielded in the closing minutes of the first half on Wednesday night: "It's just concentration. Unfortunately, we haven't had it this year. I don't know what it is. If I could put my finger on it or Juan Carlos could put his finger on it, it could be solved. Maybe at the end of the day it's lack of leadership from everybody or just the lack of people taking accountability...

"I think it just feels like we're in quicksand, the harder we try to get out, the deeper were sinking in. It makes you feel helpless and your efforts are futile," goalkeeper Danny Cepero said on Wednesday. Who can blame him?

It's time for Red Bull to show it has not thrown in the towel as well. Too much depends on the energy drink company. MLS must have a significant presence in the country's most important city. If Red Bull wants fans to show up next year, it must give some sign there will be something worth coming to see. Fourteen years of losing (minus a couple of weeks in last year's playoffs) is just too much to bear.