WASHINGTON – For the New York Red Bulls, this was their best loss ever.
The Red Bulls lost a man and the second leg of their Eastern Conference semifinals series to rivals D.C. United at RFK Stadium on Saturday, but the 2-1 defeat still saw the team advance on a 3-2 aggregate score in the MLS Cup Playoffs, Presented by AT&T.
Peguy Luyindula delivered the Red Bulls’ dagger in the 57th minute of the physical return leg, negating Nick DeLeon’s first-half opener and putting D.C. in a hole they couldn’t escape.
Afterwards, head coach Mike Petke and his side were unsurprisingly in high spirits. Music blared in the locker room, jokes were cracked, smiles were plentiful. The Red Bulls had not only knocked off United in a playoff series for the first time in five tries, but are back in a conference final for the first time since 2008.
“This is perhaps a series that in years past that we would’ve lost,” said Petke, who was visibly emotional after his first postseason series win as a head coach. “These guys showed determination. We have guys with bloody lips, getting stitches, we have a guy with a lump on his head. I’m extremely proud of them and they earned the right to be in the conference finals.”
The series win ended a run of four-straight exits in the conference semifinals for New York and, perhaps more importantly, gave the club its first series win over D.C. United in five tries, dating back to the league’s inaugural year in 1996.
“It’s another ghost to put back in the closet," said Petke. "All credit goes to my players. They listened to what we want to do, and it wasn’t pretty at times, but we’re okay with that. We’re good at what we do, and we were good enough today to advance.”
It may have finished the way New York ultimately wanted, but things did not start out entirely well. While the Red Bulls were disciplined and organized defensively in the first half, they lacked their usual attacking edge. Passes were misplaced, players weren’t making runs to open up options, and Luyindula and Bradley Wright-Phillips seemed to be the only attackers up for the moment.
“I think to a certain extent we sort of forgot how to play a little bit,” said midfielder Dax McCarty. “We didn’t really want the ball, we were timid, our movement wasn’t really there and I think they took advantage of that.”
Just when it started to look like the Red Bulls would keep D.C. United off the scoreboard going into halftime, Nick DeLeon punished the visitors eight minutes before the break. The midfielder raced into the 18-yard box unmarked and nodded home a pinpoint cross from Taylor Kemp to give D.C. hope of a comeback in the series.
Rather than lose the plot, however, New York remained focused during the intermission and didn’t change their mindset in the second half. They came out much sharper after the break and continued to try to keep the ball, which eventually led to Luyindula’s impressive flicked finish in the 57th minute following a cross from captain Thierry Henry.
“It was a release,” Petke said of Luyindula’s goal, his second of the series. “I’ll be honest, this was one of the toughest days, if not the toughest day, that I’ve had in all my time as a head coach. It was just these weird feelings today. I know our guys were up for it, I know we’re a better team on paper than D.C., but D.C. obviously earned the right to be No. 1 seed in the east because of what they did throughout the season.
“It was a huge release when we scored. Huge.”
D.C. eventually showed more signs of life, but the damage had already been done. They needed to win 4-1 and it seemed unlikely with how the Red Bulls were playing, especially on the defensive side.
New York still had to scrap and claw their way to the finish line. The Red Bulls eventually lost Roy Miller to a straight red card in the 78th minute, center backs Jamison Olave and Ibrahim Sekagya each took hits that left them bloodied and bruised, and Sean Franklin scored a well-taken consolation winner a minute into stoppage time.
The job was ultimately done, however, and the Red Bulls are now that much closer to fulfilling their dreams of lifting an MLS Cup.
“It’s all worth it at the end of the day because we’re through to the conference finals,” said McCarty. “We’re excited about it and it’s a big step for this club.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by email at Franco8813@gmail.com.
