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For the third consecutive pre-season, the New York Red Bulls will be part of a cluster of MLS teams in Arizona for Mobile Mini Sun Cup. RBNY was among the teams listed in the exhibition tournament’s official announcement of its 2019 participants:
We’re baaaaaaaaaaack.
— Mobile Mini Sun Cup (@mobileminicup) December 21, 2018
Eight @MLS clubs. One large preseason party.
DETAILS: https://t.co/Bf8Yhb10Ww
The Red Bulls acknowledged the announcement with a Tweet of their own:
We will return to @mobileminicup as part of our preseason plans ☀️ ⚽️ #RBNY https://t.co/2NKGvbd0ZT
— New York Red Bulls (@NewYorkRedBulls) December 21, 2018
Mobile Mini Sun Cup has been providing warm-weather warm-ups for MLS teams since 2011 (under a variety of names a sponsors come and go). The Red Bulls were among the first group of clubs to gather in Arizona for the tournament, and stuck with it as part of their pre-season plans for another couple of years. From 2014 to 2016, RBNY pre-seasoned elsewhere, but returned to Arizona in 2017 and has played at least part of its winter warm-up schedule in the Southwest ever since.
Tune in to MetroFan TV’s sit-down with RBNY comms’ Andrew Vazzano for a sense of how the club has enjoyed its Arizona trips in recent years.
Huge episode as we welcome the one & only @AVRBNY to join us to reflect on what was an incredibly memorable season, talk players, breaking language barriers, coaching change, empanadas, haircuts, memes, & more.
— MetroFanTV (@MetroFanTV) December 15, 2018
(0:00 roster recap)
(37:15 Andrew)#RBNYhttps://t.co/JSHHGsBNf9
This year, the Mobile Mini Sun Cup will run from February 6 to February 23. The schedule has not yet been announced, nor have the Red Bulls formally announced their pre-season plans, but it is reasonable to expect that the first team will be present for only part of the tournament: RBNY has a CONCACAF Champions League match to play in Dominican Republic on February 20.
As has been the case for the last couple of seasons, assume the Red Bulls will use their opening games of Mobile Mini Sun Cup to finalize preparations for CCL, and then leave a squad of reserves and trialists to complete the club’s obligations at the tournament while the first team gets its season underway at Estabio Cibao in Santiago, DR.