MOUNTAINSIDE, N.J. - On Saturday night, the New York Red Bulls II lost their fourth game of the season to a revitalized Hartford Athletic team. The loss – their fourth in succession – was a tale of two halves where Hartford outplayed the “Baby Bulls” in the first half but relinquished control of the game in the second. It’s been a disappointing run of form in recent weeks, but their goal in this 2-1 loss will undoubtedly be the positive takeaway from this match.

Of the six players to touch the ball before it hit the back of the net, five of them were teenagers and four had previously been in the Red Bull Academy system. John Tolkin, Caden Clark, Jake LaCava, Dantouma Toure and Boima Cummins all had a hand in setting up Sebastian Elney’s goal which also gave Clark his third assist of the season. It wasn’t the prettiest goal either, but it gave everyone from the players and coaches on the field to the fans watching from home a glimpse into what can be for the New York Red Bulls.

As the first team continues to move away from the personnel that embodied Jesse Marsch’s tenure at the club, this new group of youngsters for RBNYII is beginning to make some noise in the United Soccer League. Coach John Wolyniec is used to working with the revolving door of players that has seen Tyler Adams, Alex Muyl, Derrick Etienne Jr., Brian White and Florian Valot all make the jump to Major League Soccer in recent years. His newest group of players might be the youngest he’s ever worked with though, fielding the youngest lineup in club history at 20.2 years old in Saturday’s game against Hartford.

“These guys are a little bit younger,” said Wolyniec when asked about this team’s contrasts to the previous renditions of RBNYII’s roster. “Is it like comparing apples to orange? No, but it’s a little bit harder. Caden Clark, for example, is really mature and aggressively interested in getting better. He keeps me on my toes even as a 17-year-old. Jake LaCava is a little more on the quiet side, but he’s constantly pushing to do more, play more and just stay on the field. I think there’s some similarities, but every couple of years you see an uptick in focus and determination in pre-professionalism. The academy guys have to mature a little quicker because [USL] gets a little more competitive and better developmentally.”

Clark, a recent acquisition for RBNYII, has enjoyed a breakout season so far having featured in every game since the restart. With three assists to his name, he’s quickly becoming the squad’s go-to creative hub in attack as well as one of the best contributors to their high-octane counter press. Originally from Minnesota, the move to New York has also presented the 17-year-old with a new environment to adjust to in the middle of a pandemic as well as a new team.

“I really like the New York Red Bulls organization,” said Clark. “The people that are here are amazing. When I came in, I was taken really good care of by everyone, our coaching staff was wonderful. They really helped me adjust, for my game to fit the system better, and it will pay off. I feel like I have adjusted decently well, and I just have to keep learning from them and be the best I can be.”

Even with the 2016 side that won USL Cup and the 2018 team that made a run to the Eastern Conference finals, there was a core of older professionals managing the intangibles. They provided consistency and quality when the young, budding stars would fall short from time to time. Now, however, that core group of players is primarily made up of inexperienced players willing to take on the challenge of leadership roles for the better of their team.

When assessing the readiness of an academy player or potential recruit to join the team, personality plays a big role in their decisions. They allow for players to express themselves son the field with their individual skill sets, but they also require full buy-in from players to stick to what their system require of each player first. It’s a matter of figuring out how to adapt the individual player’s game to the Red Bull system and not about accommodating the system to the personal needs of the player.

One of the more challenging aspects of working with such a young group is handling the mental aspect of the game. Stepping into an environment where games are more than about development and there’s fluctuation between time with the first team and USL team will test the character of these players at a very young age. The experience of failure is limited among most of these players as they have often been at the top of their respective age groups, but they are now playing against grown men who themselves are fighting for their jobs and careers.

“You don’t want to tilt towards just developing and saying, ‘play up an age group, that’s fine,’” said Wolyniec. “I don’t think that takes into consideration how competitive these guys are. You tell them that this is an opportunity to get better and then they lose by two or three, they’re not going to feel like they got better. They have to understand what it is to be a winner and how to win games on the road, over a long stretch, or through set pieces because that all matters. At the beginning of the season, these kids aren’t coming into training and saying, ‘we’re only 16.’ They’re coming to training everyday thinking ‘we have the best team in the league, and we’re going to win a championship.’”

@LacavaJake with the ???????????????? to Daniel Edelman!

That @RedBullsAcademy connection ????#NYRBII pic.twitter.com/Vaaeh9JtOc

— New York Red Bulls II (@NYRBII) July 30, 2020

 

Even after five years as the head coach of RBNYII, Wolyniec is still learning how to get the best out of his players. With this group, it’s about learning which buttons to push and understanding who needs an arm around their shoulder or a bit of tough love to keep them motivated. With players like Tolkin who constantly shift from the first team to RBNYII, he uses anecdotes from his own playing career where he constantly fought to make match day squad and starting lineups. Even managing the patience of players when they don’t get their opportunities with the first team or the big-money contract they were hoping for has become a challenge for Wolyniec in this new, modern era of global soccer.

As the club continued to bolster and improve their academy setup in 2019, Sean McCafferty was brought in as the new academy director from the Barca Residency Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona. Having worked with some of the country’s most talented players – including Clark and Lacava before they moved on from the club – he was swayed to join RBNY because of the fluidity and transparency that exists between all stages of the club. Just a little over a year on from his appointment, the club are no beginning to reap the rewards of his work with this new generation of youngsters filling the RBNYII roster.

“A lot of our first six or seven months was getting the right players in,” said McCafferty. “It was a lot of addition by subtraction, but it’s about developing that winner’s mentality. Performing well and performing to a high standard are controllable and we focus on doing those things because that’s our idea of winning. A lot of our training sessions are focused around improving our top talents because we have to focus on the individual development with a competitive training environment.”

McCafferty cited that the club’s work to bring in other personnel within the academy has also improved their structure, specifically Ryan Brooks’ appointment as the director of academy operations. Brooks and his team were the ones to institute the Homestay and transportation programs within the club that have caught widespread media attention in recent weeks. Brooks’ appointment has also allowed McCafferty to focus on recruiting coaches as well.

Jonathan Rhodes, the under-15 head coach for RBNY, was one of McCafferty’s first coaching recruitments. He had previously spent the last 17 years as the technical director of Penn Fusion before joining the Red Bulls towards the end of 2019. McCafferty said Rhodes’ appointment was a strong example of the open-minded and intellectual coaches he’s looking for to challenge players and other coaches to continue improving their craft within the Red Bulls system.

(photo by John Perdicaro)

Outside of the club itself, McCafferty has been hard at work to mend, build and continue growing the relationships RBNY has with local clubs in the tristate area. Daniel Edelman and Toure both previously played for the Players Development Academy (PDA) before joining RBNY, and McCafferty’s made it a priority to not only recruit players but place their own players into local teams if they aren’t progressing at Red Bulls.

“I think we really need to own our tri-state area,” said McCafferty. “I think we do a really good job with New Jersey, but we have to do a better job with New York City and Connecticut. These are areas where we’ve historically pulled some great players from. We have to make sure we’re doing our due diligence and our studying. We work by the phrase ‘leave no stone unturned’ because we have to find the best young talents that fit into what we want to do, and that’ll give us more opportunity to promote them to the professional game.”

Both McCafferty and Wolyniec are on the same page of players being old enough to play if their good enough to contribute to the team. Recently, ’05 prospect Curtis Ofori has also begun training with RBNYII as he begins his introduction into the professional game. While his promotion to the team comes at a loss for his youth team, it’s the level the club feel he will continue to develop best in, and the next young kid has to step up in age group to fill his void.

In a pandemic-ridden “regular” season, it’s difficult to make any assumptions, good or bad, about this next group of youngsters. Their experiences in a usual professional environment are limited, but the club are beginning to see an uptick in academy players turned professionals. As a new era awaits RBNY both in MLS and USL, Wolyniec’s team of tenderfoot professionals will soon be the spine of RBNY within the years to come.