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Red Bulls Prepare Pre-Season fixtures

The road to the 2018 Red Bulls season will start in Florida for the pre-season

MLS: Eastern Conference Semifinal-Toronto FC at New York Red Bulls
Jesse Marsch and the Red Bulls are ready for the Pre-Season.
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

It’s starting to get a little bit more exciting when you turn the page from 2017 to 2018. Already in the month of January the MLS Combine and Super Draft along with the United Soccer Coaches Convention will be underway within a couple of days,

The CONCACAF Champions League will get underway in the end of February with the round of sixteen matches and then we have the league season beginning on March 3rd with the Red Bulls MLS season beginning on March 10th at home against Portland.

But before we see them perform in any form of competitive matches, they must get ready for the pre-season to get themselves ready for the big season coming up. As of right now the Red Bulls have announced their schedule and it will begin in the St. Pete/Clearwater area of Western Florida.

They will open their camp on January 22nd, when players report and travel to Oldsmar, Florida, north of Clearwater Beach. The Red Bulls partnered with Visit St. Pete/Clearwater to establish the travel destination as a site for preseason training.

They will face the Men’s soccer team from the University of South Florida on January 27th at Oldsmar Sports Complex, the New England Revolution on January 31st at a site to be named later and the Philadelphia Union on February 3rd at the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex.

Then they will return to the training facility in Hanover, NJ before the fly back away from home and across the country to Tucson, Arizona and take part in the pre-season tournament called the Mobile Sun Mini Cup that was once known as the Desert Diamond Classic.

Their first opponent that they will face is co-owned by the former Chelsea, Montreal Impact & Ivory Coast International Didier Drogba and his Phoenix Rising FC at their facility on February 10th. Then move up to Tucson to face MLS opponents.

They will be taking on Sporting Kansas City on Valentine’s Day, then the Houston Dynamo on February 17th, Portland Timbers on February 21st and finally on February 24th against an opponent to be named later all to be played at the KINO Sports Complex.

Obviously the Red Bulls MLS side will be traveling to Honduras to face CD Olimpia in the CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 matches at Honduras in the first leg on Thursday, February 22nd and the return leg on Thursday March 1st

Once again we will probably see the USL Bulls get a chance to face some MLS opposition as they will fill out the final two matches in the Mobile Sun Mini Cup. But it’s very important for them to get in as many matches as possible during the pre-season.

You will start off in international competition and then go right into league play on the second weekend of the new season. The hope of course is to move on to the next round of the CONCACAF Champions League while getting ready for league action.