The 11,000 minutes XI: New York Red Bulls all-time minutes leaders make a pretty good team

The New York Red Bulls have not tended to show great care or respect for history or tradition. RBNY is, after all, a club that was totally re-branded by new ownership in 2006, and Papa Red Bull wasn't satisfied with merely taking away the MetroStars name and colors, but also tried (for much longer than he should have done) to take the team's history as well.

Fortunately, the effort to erase the time and effort fans, players and staff put into the team before Red Bull took a shine to it was not successful. And MetroFanatic.com deserves a lot of the credit for keeping awareness of the club's history alive before, during, and after Papa's disgraceful attempt to pretend 2006 was year zero. The site is the best archive any twice-named team could hope for; and comfortably the best that fans of this twice-named team, the New York Red Bulls, can access without restriction.

It is thanks to MetroFanatic, for example, that is possible to note that Bradley Wright-Phillips recently (against Chicago Fire on April 29) became just the 12th player in RBNY/MetroStars history to play 11,000 minutes in all competitions for the first team.

It will be a while before another player joins RBNY's 11K club: Felipe and Sacha Kljestan have a shot at it if they remain injury-free and regular starters for another season or so; Connor Lade might enter the frame if he establishes himself as an every-day starter this year.

But it's likely at least a year or so before we get to celebrate another member of the 11K club, and BWP's entry is auspicious because it means it is finally possible to fashion a lineup out of the group. Before Wright-Phillips played his 11,000th minute for RBNY, the group was two goalkeepers and nine field players: not a functional XI. With BWP, it's not a bad starting lineup:

lineupbuilder.com

The man left out of this lineup is 'keeper Tony Meola, whose career achievements dwarf those of Luis Robles, but OaM is handing Robles the start on the grounds that he has achieved more with RBNY than Meola.

Who would you start? How would you line 'em up? Let us know in the comments.