RBNY II TRAINING REPORT – THURSDAY,
After training at Red Bulls Training Facility in Whippany, N.J. on Thursday, Head Coach Dominik Wohlert and goalkeeper Aidan Stokes spoke with the media prior to New York’s MLS NEXT Pro regular season home match against New York City FC II on Sunday.
• New York have posted a 3-2-2 all time regular season record against New York City FC II in seven all time matchups.
• RBNY II have split the last four matchups against their bitter rivals, including a 5-4 penalty shootout loss at Belson Stadium on March 15.
• Red Bulls II forward Mijahir Jimenez leads the active roster in most goals scored against New York City FC II with three.
• Red Bulls II goalkeeper Aidan Stokes has posted six career clean sheets in MLS NEXT Pro.
Red Bull New York Head Coach Dominik Wohlert
On the competitiveness of matches against New York City FC II…
Yeah, first of all, I think it’s always you described already. It’s a derby. So we really look forward to that game. We love the games against NYCFC. We love the games against Philly, against New England, like it’s great to have these competitive games in the end. So we want to compete. We want to believe competition leads to development for our guys.
On Julian Hall’s rise influencing the members of RBNYII…
Obviously, it’s a fantastic achievement from Jules now and it’s another day where he proved he can be something special. I think he’s still on the way to work his way up and we all know for multiple years, and we are just happy for him. Obviously it helps all of the stories he’s writing and creating. That’s exactly the pathway we want to open even more often, hopefully players follow his footsteps and hopefully they get a bit inspired by his journey.
On the importance of Aimar Sanchez and Aimar Modelo to the defense’s success…
First of all, especially with Sanchez, a new arrival and someone who immediately impacted our game, I think with his physicality and with his desire to defend, and it’s really from his standpoint, it’s a defender who loves defending moments one on one. And Aimar is taking more responsibility, being someone who’s really enjoying defensive work, but also someone who expresses himself in an offensive way, and that’s exactly what we expect from a fullback position. And in general, I just think it’s a big year for him, a big year to show up to prove his value for the club. And hopefully he can continue and push himself to the next level.
Red Bull New York Goalkeeper Aidan Stokes
On the derby matchup against New York City FC II…
It’s going to be a game that we’re all looking forward to as a team. You know, these are the kind of games that, when you come to Red Bull, you know that you lose sleep over, that you think about, and you get the most excited for. And it’s going to be a physical game for sure, both teams going at each other. It’s going to come down to who wants it more.
On the club’s player development…
From the moment I came, it’s been really great. You know, the coaching staff are very hands on. They put time into your individual development, as well as your development and chemistry as a team. And you can see that’s paying off massively with Jules [Hall], Adri [Mehmeti], Matty [dos Santos], all having success. Tanner [Rosborough] as well, getting minutes with the first team, and that comes from having that connection with Michael [Bradley] from last year and having such a successful NEXT Pro season. And also the older guys as well, they’ve been really welcoming and adaptive because I’m sure many of them aren’t used to such a young group of guys. Red Bulls has always been really good in that aspect of making players like us, young players, feel at home, welcome, and give us even more motivation to want to perform at that first team level.
On recent U.S. national team callups…
Starting with the [U-17] World Cup, that was just an unreal experience, because in previous camps, obviously the entire goal and the entire like tip of the mountain, I guess, for that, for the entire years prior, were to play in that World Cup and to be at that World Cup, and then actually being there and training days before the game, being at pre-camp, was just surreal. And the camp in March was good, because obviously, after getting knocked out against Morocco, you know immediately you want to get back to play internationally, hungry to win with the crest again.
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