MLS Focus: Jesse Marsch: 'My total focus is here'

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, May 23, 2018

The coaches of both MLS New York teams have European ambitions and are in demand.

NYCFC's Patrick Vieira has been in the news this week with reports (which he shot down) that he is headed to French club Nice.

Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch was mentioned by German tabloid Bild as a possible replacement for Ralph Hasenhuttl as the coach at RB Leipzig.

After Red Bulls' training in Whippany, New Jersey, Marsch told reporters he not had any discussions with Leipzig, the jewel of the Red Bull collection of clubs.

“My total focus is here,” he said.

Marsch said he'd like to eventually move on but not just now.

“I  have talked openly about at some point having the ambition to move on to coach in Europe," he said, "but right now I’m here and literally there’s no plan for me to go anywhere."

Adams' possibilities. The Red Bulls' young star, Tyler Adams, has also been connected with Leipzig. On Tuesday, kicker reported that a deal was agreed to for Adams, 19, to move to Germany after the 2018 MLS season.

“The whole goal for him is to be here through the year,” Marsch said. “There’s really no discussions other than that. Then there’s possibilities I think in the future for him in many different ways. But the goal and the thought right now is he’s here through the year.”

Adams had come off the field late in Sunday's match at Atlanta United with swelling on his knee. Marsch said doctors found nothing wrong and Adams trained lightly on Wednesday.

“They think it’s a combination of potentially a quad contusion, where the swelling went down to the knee to possibly just the turf, but it’s nothing symptomatic of anything structural,” Marsch said. “It was something, a little collection of swelling, which gave him a little scare, but he’s good.”

Marsch confirmed that Adams will likely join the USA for its trip to Europe, where it will face Ireland on June 2 and France a week later.

"That will be another big experience for him and a way to grow," he said.

Duty calls. Adams would be one of several Red Bulls players out over the next few weeks. Amir Murillo and Fidel Escobar are on Panama's preliminary roster for the World Cup. Derrick Etienne will join Haiti for a match at Argentina on Tuesday. Argentine Kaku just filed a switch of association to play for Paraguay.

Marsch said playing internationally was important for his players even if it meant they missed matches with the club.

Lawrence update. One player who should be available for Saturday's match against Philadelphia is Kemar Lawrence, who was hospitalized on Sunday after falling in the match at Atlanta. Marsch said the sight of Lawrence laying motionless on the ground was scary but he was relieved when he saw him in good spirits in the hospital.

“Kemar’s good,” Marsch said. “He’s done a ton of testing, which is one of the reasons why  they gave him off because they treated him like a lab rat for two days just to make sure everything is OK, but everything is great. He’ll be in training full tomorrow and he should be ready for the weekend.”