New York Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler suggests that this year will be a much more successful one for the club.
The star-studded Red Bulls created many headlines for all the wrong reasons last season and stuttered into the play-offs when they were expected to challenge for the title.
Soler admits things in 2011 did not pan out but feels that 2012 will show that the New York Red Bulls are much better than what the world has seen recently.
"These kind of things, if you get over them, you can work your way through them and you can really strengthen the bond between people. That's what we're doing at the moment.""I think in any team when you pull stars together, a lot of new teammates together and you don't get the results you want, everybody gets frustrated. I was frustrated. (Head coach) Hans (Backe) was frustrated. We knew this team was better than what we showed," Soler told Sporting News.
And Soler is also confident that star player Rafael Marquez, who was responsible for an unsporting outburst directed at LA Galaxy ace Landon Donovan in the play-offs, and publicly criticised former teammate Tim Ream (now with Bolton Wanderers), will also give his best on and off the pitch.
"I'm absolutely convinced you'll see a very different Rafa Marquez, and he's such a good player and he can be key for the rest of the team to develop in the direction we want to develop.""He wants to come back and show everybody what the real Rafa is and we want him to do it," he added.