When Gerhard Struber arrived in New York in late 2020, the Austrian with a long history in the Red Bull soccer apparatus began assembling a staff of heavily-credentialed coaching prodigies from across the globe. Recruits such as Bernd Eibler, a video study expert younger than some of the players, and Jyri Niemenen, a goalkeeping guru with experience on four continents, were brought in as the New York Red Bulls set forward on their most outward-looking technical project to date. But in a unique turn of events, Struber found room for a member of the 2013 Supporters Shield squad to join his otherwise-imported first team bench.