The New York Red Bulls have perhaps the longest suffering fan-base in Major League Soccer.
Supporters of the club have endured countless playoff heartbreaks, numerous front office shakeups and too many coaching changes to name. But they’ve loyally stuck with the team through it all, with three supporters groups – Empire Supporters Club, Viking Army and the Garden State Ultras – always making themselves heard loud and clear from their perches in Red Bull Arena’s “South Ward” section.
This winter, however, many of them were ready to give up on their club. New sporting director Ali Curtis fired popular head coach Mike Petke – a longtime MetroStars/Red Bulls defender who guided the team to their first trophy in the 2013 Supporters’ Shield – and installed Jesse Marsch at the helm, causing a righteous uproar amongst supporters. They took out their frustrations on the new regime at a town hall in January, unleashing all manner of fury on Curtis and Marsch as they held court at Red Bull Arena.
The moves, coupled with the offseason departures of Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill, made for a pessimistic start to the season. That faded quickly, with Marsch leading the team to a stellar regular season that ended with the club winning their second Shield in three years.
Now, after having dispatched longtime rivals D.C. United in the Conference Semifinals, the Red Bulls are on the brink of MLS Cup. With their Eastern Conference Championship series against Columbus set to begin on Sunday (5 pm ET; ESPN and ESPN Deportes in the US, TSNGo in Canada), KICKTV took a look at the long-suffering Red Bulls fans, profiling members of all three South Ward supporters groups as the Red Bulls edge closer to the ultimate dream: A first MLS Cup trophy.
Check out the piece above. It's marvelously done, and well worth your time.
