NYRB 4-2 Chelsea: Where are the Baby Bulls now?
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NYRB 4-2 Chelsea: Where are the Baby Bulls now?
Seven years ago, the Red Bulls, fielding what was essentially a reserve team, punked the reigning champs of England in a friendly. What happened to said reserves?
I’m going to be blunt: I hate these midsummer friendlies.
They’re blatant moneygrabs, trying to piggyback more on the opposition’s big names than the local club and its culture. It doesn’t tend to convert any Euro fans to the locals (unless you’re Kansas City, the outlier of all outliers) and adds another fixture to an already-busy schedule. There’s also the risk of injury in a pointless friendly, as Minnesota found out earlier this week with Emanuel Reynoso. The Argentine talisman, who has been on fire lately, hobbled off with an ankle injury in their 4-0 win over Everton; we’ll see if it’s anything serious.
But sometimes, you get a result that is just too priceless to forget, and the best example came at Red Bull Arena on July 22, 2015, as the host New York Red Bulls took on reigning English champions Chelsea.
Just over 24 hours prior, the Red Bulls had played an actual competitive game with their A squad. Hosting Philadelphia in the Open Cup quarters, Red Bull forced extra time late on Lloyd Sam’s last-gasp equalizer, but were dumped out on penalties.
Obviously, the first-team had played in that match. They were going to be in no condition to play. Essentially, New York Red Bulls II would step in to face the champions of England. A team headed by Jose Mourinho, featuring all sorts of world class stars…would be facing a bunch of teenagers and guys fresh out of college. People predicted ugliness, maybe even double digits.
But… it wasn’t ugly. At all. The Baby Bulls showed heart, grit, and fearlessness, scoring four second half goals en route to a 4-2 shock win. It proved to actually be a bellwether for the Premier League; Mourinho was gone by Christmas with the Blues languishing in the midtable.
It’s one of the most remembered club friendlies in recent times. But now that seven years have passed and those Baby Bulls aren’t babies anymore, where are they now? How did their careers pan out?
Let’s take a look.
Starting XI
Kyle Reynish - Retired
Kyle Reynish was…not a baby. Rather, he was a 32 year old career backup that Metro had acquired from Chicago in preseason after loaning out normal backup Ryan Meara. In this match, he played 70 minutes as the starting keeper
Reynish never made a league appearance for the RBNY first team in his two years with the club, but racked up 13 for the reserves in USL. He was traded to Atlanta United in 2017, where despite being a third-stringer he made a pair of appearances (with Brad Guzan on international duty and backup Alec Kann injured), and finished his career with 27 appearances for Fresno in USL.
Per LinkedIn (which may be a common theme here…), he’s now working for a security system supplier in his native California.
Shawn McLaws - Retired
At the time, McLaws was 22 and was fresh out of college. After four seasons with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, the native of Edmond, Oklahoma was drafted 59th in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft by RBNY, and had done enough to earn a contract for that season. While he would never play a competitive match for the first team, he played 21 for the II team, and on this day he played 71 minutes against an attack featuring the likes of Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, and Oscar.
He wasn’t brought back for 2016, and spent 3 years in USL with Harrisburg City Islanders and Oklahoma City Energy before retiring. He now works as a photographer and producer for Media.Monks.
Roy Miller - Sporting San José (CRC)
One of the few actual first-teamers that was even available that day, Miller will forever be remembered by MLS fans for one ignominious moment in the 2012 playoffs, when he skied a late free kick with RBNY trailing DC and Thierry Henry standing over the ball. That might be a little unfair to Miller, who was a decent MLS fullback in his 151 appearances for RBNY and Portland, but...c’mon, man.
Early in 2015, RBNY signed a young Jamaican fullback named Kemar Lawrence, who quickly overtook Miller in the pecking order and became one of the best fullbacks in the league. While Lawrence rose to Best XI status over the next few years, Miller peaced out and returned home after the 2015 season, joining Saprissa in his native Costa Rica. From there, he’s bounced around: two seasons in Portland, a return to Saprissa, one year with Santos de Guápiles, and a little over a year with his current club, Sporting San José.
He, also, went 71 minutes in this one.
Karl Ouimette - Detroit City (USLC)
A product of the Montréal Impact academy, Ouimette had left Québec after the 2014 season, and had earned a spot with RBNY after a successful trial.
The 18-capped Canadian international would spend about a year and a half with Metro, bouncing between the first and reserve teams as a depth center back before being loaned out to Jacksonville Armada for the remainder of his contract. Since then, he’s been a regular in the North American lower divisions; spells with San Francisco Deltas and Indy Eleven followed his half-season in north Florida, and he’s racked up 100 USL appearances for the latter.
Eleven still own his rights, as his stint with Detroit City is a loan move. He was one of only two RBNY players to play the full 90 in this one.
Marius Obekop - Al-Diriyah (KSA)
For whatever reason, at one point in the mid-2010s, the Red Bulls started taking flyers on random young players from Cameroon. It paid dividends in the form of Ambroise Oyongo, a future Ligue 1 fullback that only lasted only a half year at Metro, but whose trade to Montréal in 2015 allowed RBNY the chance to snipe Sacha Kljestan via the allocation order.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Obekop, signed as a 18 year old from Renaissance de Ngoumou after showing off in a Cameroonian MLS showcase. He mostly spent his time in the reserve team, making just 8 league appearances for the first team in three seasons. From there, he would move to Orlando’s reserves for a year before taking off around the world: Two seasons in Moldova with Zaria Bălți and Zimbru Chișinău, two years in the Chinese second tier with Nantong Zhiyun, a brief stint in the UAE with Masafi, and a current stint with Al-Diriyah in Saudi Arabia, who were recently relegated.
He was also a part of the mass sub at the 70 minute mark.
Daniel Bedoya - Tucson (USL1)
A trialist lottery ticket signed by the reserve team just before the season, Bedoya was a product of the RBNY academy and spent two years of college soccer with the St. John’s Red Storm. (He is also not related to Alejandro.)
He never played for the senior team, and has mostly been a lower league journeyman. After not playing at all during the 2016 season, he joined the Long Island Rough Riders in what is now USL2, and was solid enough that the other New York MLS team took a flyer on him. NYC signed him in 2018, but he spent most of that time on loan or on the bench, making just one first team appearance. From there, he pinged around some, following a loan spell with Hartford Athletic with permanent moves to Dominican side Atlético Pantoja and NISA’s New Amsterdam. It does seem like he’s found a home in USL League One with his current outfit, Tucson, who he’s been with since the start of 2021.
Bedoya, in this match, was subbed off at halftime.
Konrad Plewa - Retired?
I’m gonna level: I cannot find any info on if Plewa has retired or not. He’s not listed as retired on Transfermarkt, and last played in 2020.
Another RBNY academy guy and college player (spending four years with the Seton Hall Pirates), Plewa was another one who had joined the II team when it launched that season. He’s basically stayed in the lower tiers his whole career, never appearing for the RBNY senior team then moving on to Saint Louis, Real Monarchs (RSL’s reserve team), and the NISA NY Cosmos.
Since the Cosmos went on their never-ending hiatus, Plewa has not played organized ball since. He’s now a technical director with Euro Football Academy in Elwood Park, New Jersey, an org he apparently started with when he was with the Monarchs.
Like Bedoya, Plewa was subbed off at halftime.
Leo Stolz - Retired
This was Stolz’s only pro season. Kinda wild to think, considering his draft pick was seen as a risk at the time - much like Kendall Burks this year, Stolz was linked with a move to Europe, and there were rumors he wouldn’t sign with whoever drafted him.
That move to Europe never happened. Nor did any move. 2015 was his only professional season, spent mostly with the RBNY reserves. He was released, then retired, and I can’t find anything on a post-playing career.
Tyler Adams - Leeds United (ENG)
This is the one you came for.
In July 2015, Adams was a little-known teenager playing for RBNY2 and the US U17s, and this match was his first ever with the first team. Today, in July 2022, he has 30 caps for the USMNT, is a lock for their World Cup roster, scored in a Champions League quarterfinal, and played in a Champions League semifinal.
After signing for the first team in 2016 and proving to be a key cog in RBNY’s 2018 Shield run, he was shifted to RB’s marquee side in Leipzig. He spent four seasons with the Bundesliga side, playing in the Champions League and hoisting a DFB-Pokal this season. He recently joined Leeds United, managed by his former boss at multiple Red Bull teams in Jesse Marsch.
Adams scored the go-ahead goal at 70’ in this match before being subbed off. RBNY never trailed again.
Sean Davis - Nashville (MLS)
After Adams, Davis is the second-best player on this squad. He hasn’t hit the crazy heights Adams has hit, but Davis has nonetheless carved out a very fine MLS career. He racked up 172 MLS appearances in 7 years with the RBNY first team, and captained it for two years after the departure of Luis Robles. This past offseason, he was a heavily in-demand MLS free agent, and chose to take his talents to Tennessee with Nashville. He’s not an elite player, but he’s a very solid MLS role player that good teams crave.
On this day, however, he was on top of the world, playing 90 and striking twice against a defense that had just won the Premier League. This, for a player that has never scored more than twice in league play in a given season.
Chris Tsonis - Retired
Another one that was out of the game not long after, Tsonis arrived at RBNY2 after two seasons in Iceland and four years of D2 ball with the Southern New Hampshire Penmen.
The remainder of his pro career was that one 2015 season with RBNY2 (5 goals in 25 matches) and one with Charleston Battery in USL (1 in 22). He coached in Wilmington for a bit with the Hammerheads’ youth soccer organization, and now works as a sales manager.
Tsonis was subbed off at halftime.
The Subs
Santiago Castaño - Deportivo Pereira (COL)
Yet another RB academy product, Castaño subbed on for Reynish at the 70 minute mark, and conceded one single goal…to Eden Hazard. His professional debut came at 19 in that 2015 season with RBNY2, where he was the first choice keeper and made 21 USL appearances.
New York did not retain him, and he played in the Colombian lower leagues and the NPSL for the next few seasons. He returned to US soccer with the Cosmos in 2019, spending two seasons as a backup before returning to Colombia with Pereira, where he is once again a backup.
Jamie Thomas - Baltimore Blast (Indoor)
Thomas’s outdoor career didn’t last super long - a year with RBNY2 and two with Harrisburg City Islanders. The four-year St. John’s Red Storm player has, however, managed a very strong career in indoor soccer, having joined the Baltimore Blast midway through the 2016-17 MASL season. He’s played there to this day, winning MASL titles in his first two seasons there.
He replaced McLaws as part of the 70 minute mass sub in this match.
Boluwatife Akinyode - Miami (USLC)
A midfield destroyer out of Seton Hall, Akinyode has proven to be a solid journeyman role player at the USL level. But for one night, he got to take on one of the biggest clubs on the planet.
After his year with RBNY2, he’s pinged around the USL Championship - from RBNY2, to Bethlehem Steel, to North Carolina, to Nashville, then on to Birmingham Legion and now Miami; Nashville and Miami were the only teams he stuck with for more than one season.
He was also a part of the 70 minute mass sub; per the MLS match report, he came on for Miller.
Victor Manosalvas - Retired
Another RBNY academy product and college player, Manosalvas’s pro career lasted all of seven games for RBNY2 that season. However, he’s hung around the RBNY organization as a coordinator.
And of course, for one night in 2015, he got to play 20 minutes against the champions of England.
Franklin Castellanos - Retired?
Even Transfermarkt is unsure of if Castellanos is retired - the Honduran’s status is listed as “Unknown,” having last played for NPSL side Motown in 2018 after stints with RBNY2 and the Cosmos reserves.
Kind of wild to see that knowing that not only did he score in this match, he also assisted on a goal.
Mike da Fonte - Retired
The first captain of RBNY2, da Fonte actually did get MLS playing time eventually. He left for Sacramento Republic that offseason, and impressed enough to earn an MLS deal with Colorado in 2017. Though he spent the majority of his Rapids time on loan at Phoenix Rising, he did get into 17 first team matches in the mountains. After Colorado let him go, he played two seasons with OKC Energy before calling it a career; he’s now a real estate investor that is also founder/head trainer of Da Fonte Pro Training.
Colin Heffron - Retired
Another player who retired after the 2015 season, his lone pro season. The Dartmouth graduate got into 16 matches for RBNY2, and also managed an assist in this one. He’s now working for a parking company as a VP of strategic partnerships and integrations.
Devon Williams - Miami (USLC)
Like Akinyode, Williams currently trots out for THE Miami Football Club. Unlike him, he wasn’t nearly as much a journeyman - spending two years with RBNY2 and four with Louisville City before joining Miami in 2021. He also has 35 caps for Jamaica, and scored a goal for the Reggae Boyz in a Nations League match against Aruba.
Dan Metzger - Unattached
I’m not sure if he’s unattached on desire or flat-out retired, so I’m just gonna leave him here.
The midfielder represented the US at the U17, U20, and U23 level, helping the US to a third-place finish at the 2015 Toulon Tournament. That said, he only ever made one MLS appearance with the first team in three seasons tied to RBNY - as a late sub in 2017 against the Revolution.
He departed in 2018 for Penn (formerly known as Harrisburg City Islanders), then spent three seasons with Memphis 901. He appears to be working as a trainer in the Memphis area, so it’s possible he’s done for good, but I’m not jumping to conclusions.