New York Red Bulls are a professional soccer team in the United States. The team competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The team plays its home games at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, a suburb of Newark just west of New York City.
The New York Red Bulls were one of the founding teams of MLS in 1996. At that time, they were known as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. In its first 10 seasons, the club consistently made the playoffs. The team reached the conference finals in 2000 but lost to the Chicago Fire (now called the Chicago Fire FC).
In 2006, Red Bull GmbH, the Austrian company that makes Red Bull energy drink, purchased the MetroStars and changed the name to Red Bulls. GmbH is a German abbreviation for a type of limited company. The Red Bulls reached the MLS Cup final in 2008 but lost the championship to Columbus Crew SC. In 2010, New York won the Eastern Conference, only to lose in the playoffs.
In 2013, 2015, and 2018, New York won the Eastern Conference as well as the Supporters’ Shield as the MLS team with the best regular season record. A number of international stars have played for the Red Bulls, including Tim Cahill, Thierry Henry, and Tim Howard.
Each Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup final appearance earned New York entry into the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football) Champions League, an annual tournament among that region’s best professional clubs. New York reached the semifinals of the tournament in 2018.
