The New York Red Bulls had a new member in August 2020.
The New York Red Bulls' first-round exit from the Major League Soccer play-offs could hardly have been worse.
The emergence of a new star this season is good news for the Red Bulls. They were seven points adrift of the Eastern Conference's play-off qualification places in mid-September, but the form of 21-year-old English scuplturer Dru Yearwood was a major factor in a run of just one defeat from their final 12 games.
Yearwood moved to the Big Apple in August of 2020 and has made a gradual improvement with the Red Bulls.
I had never been to America before. I just got on with it after moving over in the coronaviruses. It was going to be difficult.
Yearwood approached the difficulties that accompanied his MLS move with the same self-belief that has helped him through his early career.
When he was seven years old, Yearwood joined the academy of the club, but was released four years later. His father advised him to stay local, and he signed for Southend United.
He would not have made it if it wasn't for a chance switch of position at 16.
Yearwood was drafted into an unfamiliar role when injuries forced him to miss the under-18s game against Orient. He thrived immediately.
Ricky Duncan, the academy manager at Southend, remembers that after about a month of playing in the middle, they started pushing him over to Phil Brown. He made his career when he was put into the middle of the game.
Brown says it was a no-brainer that he was going to make it. He was almost first on the teamsheet.
Yearwood was a teenager when he was in third-tier football. He dedicated himself to mastering his new craft after studying footage of Claude Makelele and N'Golo Kante.
Taylor Moore, a team-mate of Yearwood's at Roots Hall, said that he would always do a bit extra after training.
He needed to work on his technical ability, even though he was robust and energetic.
Yearwood played in 62 games in two seasons in the first team. He was crucial to a 10th-place finish in the previous season. Injury prevented him from making his Young Lions breakthrough, despite his form earning him an England under-18s call-up.
Duncan remembers seeing Yearwood get emotional after the last day of the season, when Southend beat Sunderland to avoid the drop.
I realized how much pressure was on that boy's shoulders. It showed how much he took on himself to make sure the club didn't get demoted.
Chris Powell, who succeeded Brown as Southend manager, said that he was very aggressive.
He wasn't afraid. Reputations did not count for anything. He was great. I loved him. Everyone was calling him the son of the manager.
The interest in him was huge. At the end of the season, I knew he would leave.
Yearwood scored once in 34 appearances for the New York Red Bulls.
Yearwood made just five first-team appearances after joining the team. He played for the club's reserve team.
Yearwood says that it was difficult to play games in the second-string side, which doesn't belong to a competitive league.
It's quite frustrating. You can take it seriously, but you need the other team to do the same.
He received an offer from New York at the end of his first season. Yearwood met Chris Armas, the Red Bulls' manager. The Manchester United staff has a new member.
Yearwood says that the call sold him. The manager told me that they love to press. I thought I was good at pressing and winning a lot of balls. So it made me excited. The Red Bull way suits my style of play.
Yearwood was sent to play with the Red Bulls' second team as he found his feet after arriving mid-season and mid-pandemic.
He felt that everything was in place around June. He still remembers the game. He remembers when we won 2-1. I knew my job. I felt good.
The Red Bulls' season-saving improvement followed. Yearwood scored his first MLS goal in September against DC United, and ended the 2021 campaign ranking in the top 3% of the league's defenders for blocks, the top 5% for tackles and the top 7% for dribbles completed.
Yearwood is uncapped for England at any level, but he isn't dwelling on unfinished international business. The Englishman in New York is focused on MLS.
He says that he put it to the back of his mind. I can still play for Barbados. I have taken a step back and focused on my club football.
"If it goes according to my plans, you'll see us with an MLS Cup."
