Red Bulls Nominated for Many Awards

The New York Red Bulls had as good a regular season as possible setting new team and personal records left and right. They also finished with the most points in all MLS.  The league has recognized these achievements by nominating two of the players and the head coach for awards.

Mike Grella, Luis Robles, and Jesse Marsch are finalists for Newcomer of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, and Coach of the Year respectively. This is a huge honor for the Red Bulls — they are the only team to have someone nominated in all three of those categories.

Robles had a season for the ages by setting new franchise records for clean sheets (nine) and wins (18) without missing a single match along the way. Over the course of his 34 games played, Robles allowed only 43 goals and made 86 saves. Bill Hamid of D.C. United and David Ousted of the Vancouver Whitecaps F.C. are the other two finalists in the goalkeeper category.

Long Island native Mike Grella has a long history before his emergence as a nomination-worthy newcomer. He started his career with the Long Island Rough Riders before spending the next five years in England playing for a bunch of different clubs including Leeds United and Brentford. Following that, he returned to the USA to play for the Carolina RailHawks in 2014 in just seven matches. Grella then signed with the Red Bulls in 2015; during his first season in New York, Grella scored nine times in 33 appearances (and also notched seven assists). That’s just three less goals than he had scored in his entire stint overseas! Didier Drogba of the Montreal Impact and Sebastian Giovinco of Toronto F.C. are the other two finalists in the newcomer category.

The Jesse Marsch hiring was not well received by a lot of Red Bulls fans at first following the firing of Mike Petke. Over the course of the season, however, Marsch not only won the support of the fans but also led the club to their second Supporters Shield while setting club records with 18 wins in a season and 12 at home. The team obviously bought into Marsch’s philosophy right away as they led MLS with a +19 goal differential and scored 62 goals overall. Oscar Pareja of F.C. Dallas and Carl Robinson of the Vancouver Whitecaps F.C. are the other two coach nominee finalists.