From RBNY
After training at Red Bulls Training Facility in Whippany, New Jersey on Thursday, head coach Sandro Schwarz and forward Dante Vanzeir spoke with the media prior to Saturday’s MLS regular season match against Inter Miami CF.
News and Notes
• The Red Bulls are currently on a six-match unbeaten streak, which is the longest in a single season for the club since 2021, which ran from September 17 to October 9.
• Midfielder Lewis Morgan scored his 21st career MLS goal for the Red Bulls last weekend and tied Dane Richards for third place in franchise history for most MLS goals by a midfielder.
• New York have earned a result in nine of their last 10 MLS regular season road matches and have posted a 3-1-0 record in Miami.
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Sandro Schwarz
On the match against Inter Miami CF…
It is a team with high quality, especially then with Lionel Messi as a striker or winger in the half space between the lines so we have to defend very strong, very compact in our defense line, in our structure. That will be very important for Saturday, but to have the confidence, it is necessary to have the confidence with the ball for us to find the solutions to find the space, especially in the first game, the home game with our supporters against Miami, the transition moments were very well, and we need the same structure. We need the same transition moments on Saturday in the road game.
On Lewis Morgan…
He is a very important player. He is playing the whole season with a lot of confidence and also with high quality in his deep runs. He worked hard for the team in the last game, so he is a very important player for us both on the field and off the field and we need on Saturday the best performance from Lewis Morgan.
New York Red Bulls Forward Dante Vanzeir
On what to expect from him in the game…
Hopefully indeed. We noticed that too that especially on set pieces, they are very weak. But also, I think they will probably have the ball a lot, a lot of time during the game. That is also their style of play and they can get comfortable on the ball, but not dangerous I think and I think we can hurt them in transition as well. We like that kind of playing style and even if the game isn’t like that, I think we can also, we did it at home. We can also be dominant on the ball and possess the ball. So, we will see how the games goes, but I think there are opportunities for us to hurt them and I think we did a good job now in training this week to analyze and to train on those weak points of them and hopefully we can turn it into a win.
On playing against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF…
Like I said, of course playing against [Lionel] Messi is special, but it is now the third time we have played Miami with those big guy, so it is just a normal game. It is a tough opponent, and it is not only Messi, it is just they have a lot of guys running around, so I think the team is more relaxed indeed. We are not that surprised or that surprised about the names that play there. We know their qualities in general and I think we are also more mature and confident in ourselves. So, I think our focus in more on ourselves this week, how we can make them hurt or we can show our qualities and then of course, we know that they have qualities but that is not our main focus. I think we have to play our game even away from home and at the end that is also we do not want to how do you say, change our way of style to make it maybe more difficult. I think we are strongest in our style of play. We know we can hurt a lot of teams and that is also what we are going to do. So, at the end of the day, you want to say that you gave everything on the pitch in our style of play and if we win, great. If we lose then, they were just better than. At the end of the day, we stick with our plan, and I think that is the kind of focus and the confidence we have now.