Swedish star taking MLS' Red Bulls by storm
The rain was hammering down at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday, but New York Red Bulls midfielder Emil Forsberg was all sunshine. In a sparkling 2-1 victory over FC Dallas, he had tallied his first Major League Soccer goal and assist. Afterward, Forsberg stayed out on the field, clapping and cheering with the home fans.
"I think I saved it for home," Forsberg said of his goal, per MLS.com. "It's better to score in front of our fans first time. So it felt good, an amazing feeling to score the first goal. A good feeling, a little bit of a stone releasing from my shoulders."
Forsberg joined the Red Bulls from sister club RB Leipzig this offseason. Sourced by new coach Sandro Schwarz, himself a veteran of the Red Bull soccer ecosystem, Forsberg is the quintessential MLS signing: an experienced, top-level playmaker who never quite got the break he deserved in Europe. The 32-year-old came to New York in search of a second act and welcomed the pressure that his pedigree elicited from Red Bulls fans.
"I'm here to win, nothing else," he said in February. "I know how good I am and what I can bring to the team, and I'm going to do that."
The Red Bulls are one of MLS' most head-scratching teams. On one hand, their consistency is legendary — they're one of the original 10 MLS franchises (longtime fans might remember them as the New York/New Jersey Metro Stars) and have qualified for the playoffs for 14 consecutive seasons. That's the longest active playoff streak in American professional sports.
On the other hand, the Red Bulls haven't done much in the postseason. They've never won the MLS Cup and haven't played in the final since 2008.
In recent seasons, New York has struggled to score. In 2023, the Red Bulls scored only 36 goals, the lowest number of any team that made the playoffs. Eventual champion Columbus, meanwhile, netted 67.
Forsberg's job at the Red Bulls is to change all that. He was a prolific goalscorer at RB Leipzig, scoring 71 times across 10 seasons. He's also turned up in the big moments. In the World Cup against Switzerland in the 2018, his goal put Sweden in the quarterfinals for the first time in more than 20 years.
LAFC's Denis Bouanga scored 20 goals and won last year's MLS Golden Boot winner as the league regular-season leading scorer. Forsberg is an attacking midfielder, not an out-and-out striker like Bouanga, so he's unlikely to reach that figure. But he'll need to clear double digits in goals to be viewed as a good investment by Red Bulls fans.
Early signs are Forsberg can make it happen.
He's off the blocks thanks to his goal against FC Dallas, and he has been generous in creating chances for his teammates, particularly Scottish striker Lewis Morgan. He has opened up dozens of new pathways for the Red Bulls to attack through and completely changed the look of the team. New York doesn't just look like a group fighting for the playoffs. It looks like a group that can win in the postseason.
"It's a long season," Forsberg said after his opening goal. "There's no time to relax... we can win every game because we are a really good team, we have fantastic players in every position. We have to believe."
Forsberg and the Red Bulls continue their MLS season on Saturday at home against defending champion Columbus.
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