RBNY Notebook: Davis’ Spotify Playlist, Collin’s X Factor, and More

Matt Kremkau - Empire of Soccer

by RUSS McKENZIE

One edge the Red Bulls have going into Friday’s match vs Orlando City is that Aurelien Collin trained with the Lions striker Cyle Larin.

Larin has been the most recent player that seems to have New York’s number, having scored four goals over the last two meetings. Collin, who has been a Red Bull for under a week, has first hand knowledge of the striker’s shiftiness.

Captain Dax McCarty believes that could give the Red Bulls the edge – if the centerback features. “They were teammates. They practiced together every day for a year and a few months , so he’ll know him. He’ll be very familiar with him, if he does play – I don’t think Jesse has made that decision yet.”

According to McCarty, that’s not the only benefit to having Collin in the fold. “(Collin) is a good player, a good leader. He’s won an MLS cup. His experience will be invaluable for us. I think sometimes the way we’ve defended has been very naive, and I think he’s a guy that knows how to organize a backline. Having a guy back there that can help out the younger guys (like) Sal Zizzo, who’s kind of new to the right back position, and Kemar Lawrence, who’s a young guy. That’s going to be huge for us.”

Sean Davis On Spotify

As part of the Mitchell & Ness product expansion, the couture sports clothier and Major League Soccer have partnered with Spotify to showcase some of the league’s key players and their diverse musical tastes.

The Red Bulls’ midfield phenom, homegrown Sean Davis, has been selected to represent New York in the partnership.

Sean’s playlist can be found here, and features a diverse selection of music ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Kanye West, and from Bob Dylan to Fetty Wap. Other players who submitted playlists include Nick DeLeon of DC United, Sporting Kansas City’s Graham Zusi, and Orlando City’s Brek Shea.

Quick hits:

• Jesse Marsch on the added roster competition: “I think we’ve rounded out or roster in a good way. Even today in training you can see that guys know you have to compete hard for spots. You have to train well and you have to show you’re ready to contribute to the starting lineup and to the 18, and that’s a good situation to have.”
• On confidence: “Our confidence is good right now. It’s easy to see around here that there’s life in training. The guys believe in now where we are as a team. Even before we got that first win, you could see that part building – even though we had been on the back side of 4 losses, you could see that everything was coming together (and) it was only a matter of time.
• Yeah, that’s not Zlatan…

Just ran in to this guy! Zlatan just had a meeting in NY with the red bulls. He wouldn't say if he was signing or not though. #zlatan #redbulls #nomorepsg

A photo posted by @jfranzen93 on Apr 9, 2016 at 6:22pm PDT