New York Red Bulls

The New York Red Bulls - originally the New York/New Jersey MetroStars - are one of the ten charter franchises of Major League Soccer and the club that was supposed to be the league's glamour team from day one. Playing in the nation's media capital, the MetroStars were MLS's marquee market bet, attracting stars like Tab Ramos, Roberto Donadoni, Lothar Matthaus, and later Thierry Henry. But the club's early decades were marked by chaos: coaching changes, front-office turmoil, stadium problems, and a maddeningly inconsistent on-pitch product that became a punchline even as it occasionally produced brilliant soccer.

The 2006 acquisition by Red Bull GmbH brought corporate stability, a rebrand, and eventually the construction of Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey - widely regarded as one of the finest soccer-specific stadiums in North America. The intimate, European-style venue, which opened in 2010, transformed the matchday experience and gave the club a home worthy of its ambitions. The Red Bulls' commitment to a high-pressing, intense tactical style - a hallmark of the global Red Bull sporting philosophy - has produced some of the most exciting regular seasons in MLS history, including three Supporters' Shield wins.

And yet, the MLS Cup has remained agonizingly out of reach. The Red Bulls are the most prominent MLS franchise to have never won the league championship, a drought that defines the club as much as its highlights do. The South Ward, the club's passionate supporters' section, has lived through every heartbreak and continues to show up with full voice. The arrival of NYCFC created the Hudson River Derby, giving the Red Bulls a crosstown rival that has only intensified the pressure to win. For a franchise with this much history, this much investment, and this much talent passed through its ranks, the absence of a star on the jersey is the void that drives everything.