Offseason Guides: Year 2 of Bruce in San Jose, and nothing but questions for RBNY

Back to the twice-weekly drop this week, with two guides coming today and two more coming on Thursday.

And of course, here are the post-mortems for MLSsoccer:

• Western Conference dregs
• Eastern Conference dregs
• Wild Card losers
• Round 1 Sweeps
• Round 1 three-gamers

Obviously there will be more of those coming this time next week as we head into the conference semifinals.

Ok, in we go:

San Jose Earthquakes

2025 finish: 10th in the West on 41 points, despite having the conference’s fifth-best xGD. They missed out on the Wild Card on the first tiebreaker (wins).

Biggest question: So are they just gonna redo the whole thing?

Maybe the most shocking move of the MLS offseason so far came when the Quakes did not pick up Cristian Espinoza’s contract option. You don’t need a PhD in reading between the lines to understand what happened here.

First, here’s how Tommy Scoops worded it when he broke the news:

“his 2026 contract option wasn’t picked up before its deadline expired”

Emphasis mine. You get the implication, right? Right? The implication?

Then, in the next paragraph, this:

“San Jose has offered him a new contract”

And then two days after that, this email hit ye olde inbox:

Anyone want to take a guess at who was in charge of making sure that contract option was exercised before it expired? Want to hear mine?

Anyway, even if they do manage to retain Espinoza – and I wouldn’t bet against it1 – San Jose are going to have millions upon millions of dollars to play with this winter, as well as a few premium roster slots. Josef Martínez ($1.45m) is already out, as is Mark-Anthony Kaye ($800k), and I’d be shocked if Bruno Wilson ($1.22m) isn’t also departing. Then there’s Rodrigues ($760k) and maybe Vitor Costa ($413k) as well.

It’s a lot. Head coach/CSO/high muckity muck Bruce Arena kiiiiind of slow-played the inevitable roster overhaul when he took over last year. It should kick into overdrive this winter.

Top winter priority: Goalkeeper.

There’s obviously going to be a lot to do, on almost every line. It’s got to start at the back, though, where Daniel’s up-and-down Quakes career continued to be… very up-and-down.

• He was brilliant in his first season here.

• He was injured and bad in his second.

• He was a top five starting ‘keeper in MLS in the first half of this year.

• He the second-worst starting ‘keeper in MLS in the second half of this year2, culminating with a Decision Day benching.

Now, I don’t think he should’ve been benched for that game, because back-up Earl Edwards was in over his head any time he stepped foot on the field. But the fact that he’d been so bad for months on end… I didn’t agree with it. But I understood it.

At his best Daniel was awesome – I really thought he was going to win Goalkeeper of the Year at some point. But it’s almost impossible to win big in this (or any) league with that level of inconsistency, and I think it’s got to be addressed.

For what it’s worth, his 2026 contract is guaranteed. That said, he was so good in Brazil and he’s still young enough (just 31) that I could see the Quakes finding a taker down in South America.

State of the roster: Not threadbare, provided Arena is confident that guys like Reid Roberts and Max Floriani can take the type of step forward that Daniel Munie did last year, or that Niko Tsakiris is ready to become a starter, or that he can convince Noel Buck it’s 2023 again.

There obviously need to be reinforcements, and I’m sure there will be. But there’s a world in which San Jose becomes premium viewing for the #PlayYourKids sickos.

• 2026 TAM players: Daniel, Jones, Rodrigues (???), Romney, Vieira, Wilson (???)
• 2026 U-22 players: Buck
• 2026 DPs: Arango

Where the XI stands now: I’m expecting them to find a way to retain Espinoza, but for now, I’ve got to go with the guys on the roster. So you won’t see him below.

What you will see is a team with only two guys – Chicho Arango up top and DeJuan Jones at wingback – who are among the best in the league at their respective positions.3 So what I’m saying is a lot of next year’s success hinges as much on their ability to bring in new, high-level players as it does on Arena’s ability to get real improvement out of this group.

3-4-1-2:

• GK: ???
• LCB: Romney
• CB: Munie
• RCB: Floriani
• LWB: Jones
• DM: Vieira
• CM: Leroux
• RWB: Kikanovic
• AM: Tsakiris
• FW: Arango
• FW: Judd

Things to know:

• I can’t go this entire guide without typing the name Beau Leroux, so here it is: Beau Leroux. He was so good last year, coming out of nowhere to mostly win the starting job as a No. 8.
• If they don’t think they’re going to start Tsakiris – if they’re going to bring in a DP No. 10 – they really should cash in on his strong U-20 World Cup showing and sell him. There would definitely be interested teams in the league.
• Speaking of DP 10s, Hernán López is on loan back in Argentina through the end of 2026. I’m pretty sure they’ll have use of his DP slot this coming year even if they don’t outright sell him.

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New York Red Bulls

2025 finish: 10th in the East. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009, ending their record streak of 15 straight postseason appearances.

Biggest question: Who’s the new head coach, and what does it mean for the game model?

I will open this segment by stating my prediction that Michael Bradley is about to be the guy in the big chair. Bradley, of course, started his pro career with the MetroStars twenty-something years ago, playing for his dad. And from Day 1 anyone who knew the kid said “future coach” and nothing about his career suggests that was wrong.

The future came for real this summer. That’s when Bradley became the head coach of NYRB II in Next Pro, added a little more pitch-control-via-ball-possession to the game model, and subsequently guided them to a Next Pro Cup title.

As that was happening, Julian de Guzman was moved from sporting director – i.e., the guy in charge of NYRB II – to “head of sport” (i.e., CSO), which means he’s now the guy in charge of the first team.

The way these pieces are moving tells me a story, and I think that story ends with de Guzman and Bradley behind a mic at a press conference talking about their vision for the team.

And to be clear: Even if I’m wrong about who ultimately carries the clipboard, I think what’s been pretty strongly implied by both Bradley’s game model and success, as well as by the way the now-departed Sandro Schwarz tried (with some success) to change the first team’s game model over the past two years, is that the old, crash-bang Energy Drink Soccer method has been… if not entirely cast by the wayside, then at least de-emphasized somewhat.

And I do think that’s a good thing.

Top winter priority: Get that third DP.

I’m not going to be a coward and put “goalkeeper” again, even though I am actually quite worried about the imminent departure of Carlos Coronel. He’s out of contract and it looks like he’s not coming back.

But still, we all know it’s that third DP slot where the rubber’s got to meet the road for this team. All last summer they were reportedly thisclose to getting Timo Werner in – finally! – after years of trying. When it didn’t happen, they didn’t have a plan B, and then they didn’t have a post-season.

So they need to get this done4 for on-field reasons. But they also need to get this done for off-field reasons, as the vibes are very bad, and expensive signings are a way of showing the fans “hey, we’ve heard your complaints and we’re really working to be better next year.”

State of the roster: It’s weird. Most of the backline (aside from Noah Eile) isn’t really suited to playing in possession, and then new guy Gustav Berggren, a midfield orchestrator brought in mid-season to help mitigate that, really struggled to impose himself.

DP No. 9 Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was hugely productive, while DP No. 10 Emil Forsberg was largely very good. Everybody else around them was either chronically injured or chronically underperforming, and none of the young guys really took a notable step forward (with, again, Eile being the lone exception, though I am holding space for Ronald Donkor).

Oh, and almost everybody’s on a guaranteed contract. They’re going to have to work to create space.

• 2026 TAM players: Berggren, Duncan (???), Hack, Morgan
• 2026 U-22 players: Bogacz, Eile, Gjengaar
• 2026 DPs: Choupo-Moting, Forsberg

Where the XI stands now: Your guess is as good as mine since we don’t even know who the coach will be. Which means I’m just going to toss them out in a 4-2-3-1 that makes sense for me, even if things are sure to look VASTLY different three months from now.

4-2-3-1:

• GK: ???
• LB: Valencia
• CB: Hack5
• CB: Eile
• RB: ???
• DM: Donkor
• CM: Berggren
• LW: ???
• AM: Forsberg
• RW: Morgan
• FW: Choupo-Moting

Things to know:

• There is a cadre of academy players coming who are going to be very good. The only one I’d expect meaningful contributions from next year, though, is attacker Julian Hall. Most of the other guys are for 2027 and beyond.

• Does Daniel Edelman become trade or cashfer bait? He’s a really good player, but is not an ideal fit for the new game model. RBNY are GAM-poor, so they will need to wheel and deal a bit in order to re-fill the coffers.

• Wiktor Bogacz and Dennis Gjengaar, two imported U-22 attackers, have combined for 6g/2a in about 2500 minutes in the three combined seasons they’ve played in Red Bull colors. Which is to say that as important as it is to get the new coach and game model right, it’s equally important to reassess the front office scouting personnel and protocols.6

Yup, I’ll be with Christian & Alexis breaking down the USMNT game immediately after the fact tomorrow. Very serious business!