ONLY IN AMNEWYORK
AJ Marcucci has been forced to ride the bus, as most professional athletes must do, a little longer than most in his journey to the top flight of American soccer. After five years of waiting, his trip finally comes to an end this Saturday when he will man the goal at Sports Illustrated Stadium for his MLS debut as his New York Red Bulls host Toronto FC.
“It’s hard to wait as long as I have,” Marcucci told amNewYork on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper has developed into a stalwart within New York’s system. The No. 67 overall selection of the 2021 MLS SuperDraft out of Connecticut College had made 54 appearances with Red Bulls II — the club’s reserve team — recorded 11 clean sheets, and his 185 saves rank second in franchise history.
Yet, the call to the first team did not come — stuck on the depth chart behind starter Carlos Coronel and long-time backup Ryan Meara.
“You really hope for [the MLS call-up] in your first year, second, third,” Marcucci said. “It’s my fifth year being in the league. It’s been a long time, but it’s good. I’ve been training, working. As time goes on, you think about all the other games I’ve played, and not to be worried or anything, and just be confident.”
The Red Bulls found him consistent playing time last July, although it was more than 4,100 miles away. Marcucci was loaned out to IF Gnistan, a team that, upon his arrival, was in 11th place within the 12-team top-flight league of Finland.
Thrust into a relegation battle, he posted three clean sheets and 25 saves in the final seven regular-season games as Gnistan went unbeaten down the stretch (five wins, two draws). He then helped guide them through the relegation round and into the Conference League play-offs, where they made the semifinals.
“I played really well over there… It was really good because the guys trusted me from the first game to the last,” Marcucci said. “It was a ton of fun to just play almost the same way the Red Bulls play and we were succeeding, so it made it 10 times better… I think it was also good for them to see that I could not just do it with the second team but in Europe, in a European League.”
He was off the plane from Finland, back in the States, and back on the bus as he watched the Red Bulls make a Cinderella run to the 2024 MLS Cup Final in December, but his exit to the first team finally came into view shortly after.
Meara, the long-time backup who had spent 12 years with the franchise, retired, making Marcucci the bona fide No. 2 behind the Paraguayan international Coronel.
Duty calls for New York’s No. 1 keeper this weekend, as he will meet up with Paraguay for its upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Colombia — dates that had been circled on Marcucci’s calendar for quite some time, for this is the realization of a lifetime of work.
“There’s definitely going to be nerves. It doesn’t matter what position or what sport you play,” Marcucci said. “It’s a little nerve-racking. At the same time, you just take it and know that you’re prepared. I’ve prepared very well for this upcoming week, and even the weeks previous for this, because I’ve known for a little while that Carlos was going away. So, I’m just getting ready, doing the normal things, and knowing that I’m good enough to be at this stage of being around that and succeeding.”
For most athletes who have stalled on the doorstep of the pros, champing at the bit to make it to the big time, the wait can sometimes lead to desperation. There is a belief amongst some that when the door finally cracks ajar, only the flair for dramatics and highlight-reel-worthy plays are what can keep them atop the perch of their respective sport.
It is a precautionary tale, one that Marcucci is well aware of the pitfalls it may provide as he heads into his debut—something he picked up after years of studying both Coronel and Meara.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that people do, is that they try to go out of their realm in that first game,” he said. “For me, I think the club knows how good I am and I think they want me to succeed. One game doesn’t define who I am, truthfully. So I think the whole club knows that I’m ready, and they’re excited to see me play as well.
“I think my first couple years, I was like that. With the second team, I thought that I had to make this amazing play for them to recognize me. But as time goes on, you see with [Meara] when he was here, it was just about consistency, consistency, consistency. So I’ve learned that, and I’ve taken some stuff from Carlos and Ryan. It’s really important just to play my game. I know how good I am and they know how good I am. They know at the end of the day, if I play my game and we play as a unit, we should win this game this weekend.”
Confidence and pragmatism: Certainly not a bad combination to emote on the cusp of a benchmark moment.
Marcucci, a West Chester, PA native, will have between 30 and 50 family members and friends on hand to see his debut and help celebrate reaching this long-awaited zenith. And this could very well just be the start.
“It was really just patiently waiting for your time,” Marcucci said. “They say that as a goalie, it’s almost like being a quarterback, where you can play for four years, but you really don’t hit your prime until you’re 28 or 29. So I still have more time for that.”
