Just in time for the holidays, the Red Bulls are offering a Holiday 4-Game ticket package that guarantees the soccer fan on your holiday shopping list a seat at the much-anticipated opening of Red Bull Arena on March 27, 2010. The Holiday 4-Game Pack features a ticket to the opening match as well as three additional Red Bulls matches of your choice for the upcoming Red Bulls season for as low as $64, a savings of $8 per seat. The Holiday Pack goes on sale Monday, November 30, 2009, at 10 a.m. and is a limited time offer – available through December 21, 2009, only. This limited time and discount holiday offer is the first chance to get a ticket to the opening match before individual match tickets go on sale in 2010. Holiday Pack purchasers will also receive a Red Bulls t-shirt for each package purchased to go along with the tickets. To purchase the Red Bulls Holiday 4-Game Pack, call 1.877.RBSOCCER or visit the Ticket Center at www.newyorkredbulls.com.
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The protected players list for the upcoming MLS Expansion Draft were released by the league office today, and here are the 11 players the Red Bulls elected to protect heading into Wednesday’s expansion draft (CLICK HERE FOR EXPANSION DRAFT RULES):

Juan Pablo Angel
Danleigh Borman
Bouna Coundoul
Kevin Goldtwaite
Jeremy Hall
Carlos Johnson
Macoumba Kandji
Carlos Mendes
Ernst Oebster
Dane Richards
Seth Stammler

What are your thoughts on the protected list?  Being that the Red Bulls can only lose one player to the draft, and five teams won’t lose ANY players (there are 10 rounds to the draft and you can’t lose more than one player) we imagine that there were some tactical moves made in the players left exposed.  Do you see Philly selected a Red Bull?  Who do you fear getting picked the most?  Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

As we are close to wrapping up our trip to Ghana, we took some time to speak with some of the academy players from the different groups yesterday. We just finished watching the U17 squad come back and earn a result over the senior team in a come-from-behind win in a full-field game with 30-minute halves. The standard of play was quite high, with both teams creating some good one and two-touch passing sequences and a number of scoring opportunities (one of the goals is at the end of this clip):

Here’s a brief bio of each player in order of when they appear in the clip:

Name: Augustine Awiah (Muchacho – U14)

Age: 10

Hometown: Saboro-Navrongo (Upper East Region of Ghana)

Position: Midfielder

Role Model: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

Name: Lawrence Atti-Zifi (Muchacho – U14)

Age: 12

Hometown: Mafi-Tove (Volta Region of Ghana)

Position: Goalkeeper

Role Model: Edwin Van Der Sar (Manchester United)

Name: Richard Asiamah (U17)

Age: 16

Hometown: Kumansi (Ashanti Region of Ghana)

Position: Defender

Role Model: Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)

Name: Joshua Otoo (Senior Team)

Age: 20

Hometown: Ajumako-Tachman (Central Region of Ghana)

Position: Defender

Role Model: Michael Essien (Chelsea and Ghana)

What are your thoughts on the video and some of the video clips of the game? We’ll provide a full recap of the trip soon, as we travel back on Monday night.

Red Bulls midfielder and Cameroon native Matthew Mbuta has taken a long journey to get to his goal of being a professional soccer player. From coming from a small town in Cameroon and fighting and working hard in difficult conditions, to traveling to the country of Brunei in his big break, Mbuta has endured many highs and lows, despite being only 24-years-old. In this clip, he speaks to RBR about his thoughts on Red Bull Academy: Ghana and tells his story to a classroom of academy players.

Due to editing, we cut out parts of the 10-minute speech. Mbuta spoke to the players about his entire career, getting scouted in Cameroon, moving to play in the Malaysian Premier League and trialing in Europe and the United States. He also emphasized the fact that nothing was given to him, that he earned his role on each of his teams because he wanted it more than everyone else. Mbuta plans to return to Cameroon for the first time in two years on Monday. What did you think of Mbuta’s message?

We’ll have more material from Ghana later on this weekend, including some exclusive interviews with the players (the player we spoke to in this video was 10-year-old Augustine Awiah from Saboro-Navrongo, Ghana in the upper-east region) and other observations.

Earlier today, Red Bull Academy’s Hermann Kern and Peter Schaller were kind enough to give Matthew Mbuta and RBR a personal tour of the facility in Sogakope, Ghana. As you’ll see in the video, the academy’s facilities are very impressive and are continuing to grow in this soccer hotbed. In addition, take note of the unique private school that is offered to each of the academy players, some of whom come from African countries outside of Ghana including Cote D’Ivoire, Benin and Nigeria:

We’ll be back for more updates over the weekend, as we talk more with Matthew and watch an Academy scrimmage tomorrow morning. Until then, what are your impressions of the video and the academy?