Published for Red Bull New York fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
🐂 Red Bull New York Fans — Your Playoff Fight Is On!
A teenage top scorer, two veteran Designated Players, and the East’s last playoff spot hanging by a thread. Black shirts, red lightning, full voice — this is the fall to wear the Red Bulls like you mean it.
The Club
Red Bull New York — the New York Red Bulls — began life in 1995 as the MetroStars, a founding club of MLS in 1996, and took the Red Bull name when the energy-drink giant bought the team in 2006. Thirty-one seasons in, the identity is unmistakable: high pressing, young legs, and a trophy case holding three Supporters’ Shields — with one famous empty space where MLS Cup should be. Checking the Red Bull New York roster or the Red Bulls schedule? It starts with a club still chasing the one prize that has always escaped it.
Home is Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey — a 25,000-seat soccer-specific bowl a short PATH ride from Manhattan. It is one of the loudest small rooms in MLS when the South Ward is in full voice, and this fall every seat matters: four matches remain, and the Red Bulls are clinging to the Eastern Conference’s final Wild Card spot.
The man in charge is a name every American soccer fan knows: Michael Bradley, the former USMNT captain, now leading the rebuild in Harrison. His 2026 project mixes veteran Designated Players — Emil Forsberg and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting — with a homegrown core headlined by an 18-year-old who has become the team’s top scorer. Dylan Nealis has worn the captain’s armband through the October run-in.
Is Forsberg playing? It is the question Red Bulls fans type into Google every matchday — and lately the answer has come with a twist, the Swedish maestro managed carefully and introduced at half-time against Toronto on October 17. His contract runs through December 31, 2026, so every team sheet is also a clue about the winter ahead. The show, for now, runs through the kids.
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#10 Forsberg — Red Bull New York Style Jersey
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The Swedish maestro in black and red lightning. The fan-inspired No. 10 Forsberg style jersey — the shirt Harrison sings for on derby day.
Last Season (2025): The Year the Streak Died
For sixteen straight years, October soccer in Harrison was a birthright. Then came 2025. The Red Bulls missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2009, snapping the longest active postseason streak in the league — the East’s Wild Card game went ahead without them, Chicago against Orlando, while the Red Bulls watched from home.
The failure forced the reset. Michael Bradley took charge for 2026, the youth movement accelerated, and homegrown teenager Julian Hall was fast-tracked into the attack. The message from the club was clear: the streak was gone, the page had turned, and the next Red Bulls team would be built younger, hungrier and very, very loud.
Best Players Right Now
Emil Forsberg — #10, attacking midfielder. The Swedish maestro and the team’s creative ceiling. The Designated Player’s contract runs through December 31, 2026, making his future the winter’s biggest storyline — and in October he has been managed carefully, introduced at half-time against Toronto on October 17.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting — #13, striker. The former Bayern Munich and PSG target man gives Bradley’s young side its focal point. His deal also runs through December 2026, and his season has had nights like the Toronto loss — a goal chalked off for offside, the kind of almost that has defined his fall.
Julian Hall — #16, forward. The breakout star of the rebuild: the 18-year-old homegrown is the club’s top scorer with 11 goals and five assists, signed long-term through 2030. He ended a 12-match drought in October, then scored in two straight games — the teenager carrying the attack.
Cade Cowell — #7, winger. The USMNT speedster whose direct running stretches defenses and opens the half-spaces Forsberg lives in. A fixture of the 2026 front line.
Jorge Ruvalcaba — #11, forward. Signed from UNAM Pumas, part of the club’s Latin American recruitment spine — another young, hungry piece of the Bradley rebuild.
Ethan Horvath — #34, goalkeeper. The USMNT keeper who stabilized the back line in the fall: three clean sheets in six matches by mid-October, drawing public praise from Bradley as the playoff squeeze tightened.
Star Spotlight
The teenager carrying the attack. While the big-name Designated Players fight injuries and form, 18-year-old homegrown Julian Hall leads the Red Bulls with 11 goals. His October scoring spurt — ending a 12-match drought, then finding the net in consecutive games — is the feel-good story of the rebuild and the reason fans believe the Bradley project has a future.
The 4–1 San Diego statement. October 10, 2026: New York’s best performance of the fall, a 4–1 home demolition of San Diego FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium. It powered a run of three wins in four and briefly made the Wild Card spot look comfortable — the night the rebuild showed its teeth.
Forsberg’s contract winter. The DP playmaker’s deal expires on December 31, 2026. Every October team sheet — starter or half-time substitute — is being read as a clue about whether the Swede gets one more year in Harrison. The Forsberg watch is now a weekly episode in the Red Bulls’ soap opera.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Red Bulls stars, same black and red lightning.
This Season (2026): Hanging On to the Last Ticket
The Red Bulls sit ninth in the Eastern Conference on 36 points from 30 matches — 10 wins, 14 defeats, six draws, 39 scored and 56 conceded — holding the East’s final Wild Card spot, level on points with Toronto FC but ahead on the wins tiebreaker. The fall form had been turning: three wins in four, including that 4–1 rout of San Diego, before a damaging 2–0 home loss to Toronto on October 17 — an early Justin Che own goal and a late Dániel Sallói strike — against the very team chasing them.
The equation is simple and brutal. Four matches remain, starting with Messi’s Inter Miami in Harrison, and the Red Bulls must protect the spot Toronto want. The “if the playoffs started today” picture sends New York to FC Cincinnati for the Wild Card game on November 18 — a puncher’s chance, which is all this young, pressing, fearless squad has ever asked for. The season paused for the home World Cup in the summer; the fall is a street fight for the last ticket in.
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Mark Your Calendar
Saturday, October 24, 2026 — vs Inter Miami CF, Sports Illustrated Stadium. Messi in Harrison with New York’s playoff spot on the line. The biggest home game of the fall.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 — at New England Revolution (7:30 p.m. ET). A midweek trip to Foxborough where nothing less than points will do.
Sunday, November 1, 2026 — at Nashville SC (4:30 p.m. ET). Away to the East’s top seed — the hardest assignment of the run-in.
Saturday, November 7, 2026 — vs Atlanta United, Sports Illustrated Stadium (4:00 p.m. ET). Decision Day. The regular-season finale that decides whether the Red Bulls’ season survives.
November 18 – December 2, 2026 — Wild Card and Round One. Hold ninth place and the Red Bulls travel to FC Cincinnati for the Wild Card game on Wednesday, November 18; win it and Round One’s Best-of-3 runs November 20 – December 2. Conference semifinals follow December 5–6, conference finals December 11–12, and MLS Cup 2026 lands on Friday, December 18. Every match streams on Apple TV with MLS Season Pass.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. New York City FC — the Hudson River Derby. The fight for New York since 2015: red against blue, Harrison against the Bronx, two clubs and two fanbases who agree on absolutely nothing. A decade of derbies has produced needle, tifos and genuine hatred — and every meeting still feels like a title fight for the city itself.
2. D.C. United — the Atlantic Cup. MLS’s oldest grudge match, dating back to 1996 and the MetroStars era. The 2026 home meeting was a classic of the genre: a wild 4–4 draw at Sports Illustrated Stadium on April 22. Thirty years in, neither set of fans has forgiven the other for anything.
3. Philadelphia Union. The I-95 neighbor rivalry — close enough for away-day invasions in both directions, and sharpened by years of playoff collisions through the 2010s and 2020s. When these two meet, the table goes out of the window and the tackles do the talking.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do the New York Red Bulls play next?
The Red Bulls host Inter Miami CF on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at Sports Illustrated Stadium, then travel to New England on October 28 and Nashville on November 1 before the Decision Day finale at home to Atlanta United on November 7. Hold the East’s final Wild Card spot and they travel to FC Cincinnati for the Wild Card match on November 18.
Are the New York Red Bulls in the 2026 playoffs?
Not yet — but they hold the door. As of October 22, the Red Bulls sit ninth in the Eastern Conference on 36 points, holding the East’s final Wild Card spot ahead of Toronto FC on the wins tiebreaker. Four matches remain to protect it, starting with Inter Miami at home on October 24.
Where do the New York Red Bulls play, and how do I get tickets?
At Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey — capacity 25,000 and a short PATH ride from Manhattan. Tickets are sold through newyorkredbulls.com and its ticketing partners, and every match also streams live on Apple TV via MLS Season Pass.
What have the New York Red Bulls won?
Three Supporters’ Shields — 2013, 2015 and 2018 — but never MLS Cup, the famous gap in the trophy case. The club also missed the playoffs in 2025 for the first time in 16 years; the 2026 mission under Michael Bradley is simply to get back in.
⚽ Red Bull New York Fan Shop
The full Red Bulls trio — Forsberg, Choupo-Moting and Hall in black and red.
Sources & official links: New York Red Bulls official site · MLS official site · New York Red Bulls tickets
Black shirts, red lightning, full voice — the fight for the last ticket runs through Harrison.
