The Red Bulls aren’t trying to run from their shaky playoff history. They’re trying to own it — then rewrite it. They can go a long way toward that with Sunday’s expected sellout against archrival D.C. United.
After getting a huge 1-0 victory in the road leg of their Eastern Conference semifinal at RFK Stadium last week, they watched video of past failures to close out second legs. And they’re hoping to follow a regular-season spent breaking records by breaking their habit of disappointment in the postseason.
“We talked about that this week,” coach Jesse Marsch said. “We’ve gone back and shown times when teams have gotten a result on the road and failed to get a result at home.”
“Jesse’s done a good job of preparing us mentally all season for what is at stake, continuing to play with a chip on our shoulder, to defy expectations,’’ goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “We’ve broken a lot of records this year, and we’re hoping that in the trend of breaking things we can also break the trend of playoff letdowns.’’
Before finally beating D.C. in last year’s postseason, the Red Bulls had lost all four of their playoff series against United, including 2012 when they saw Rafa Marquez get red-carded late and coughed up an 88th-minute winner at home.
“We talked about different moments in Red Bulls history where in the past five years the Red Bulls have gotten a good result on the road and come home and not taken care of business and gotten knocked out of the playoffs,’’ midfielder Sacha Kljestan said. “We don’t want to be that team, we want to rewrite our history.’’
Recent history favors them. They’re 3-0-1 against D.C. this season, including last Sunday when they held United without a shot on goal — the first time in MLS playoff history — and to a 54 percent passing, the second-worst of any league match since 2010.
“They’re going to be angry. They’re going to come in here and play tough,’’ Kljestan said.
“D.C.’s got nothing to lose,” Marsch said. “They’re going to come here and literally throw everything at us. At this point, they’re almost expected to lose, so they can play with desperation, compete and go after the game at the highest level. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re good at. We have to [match that].’’
Match without going overboard. Centerback Damien Perrinelle is out for what Marsch estimated was six months with a torn ACL, and centerbacks Matt Miazga and Ronald Zubar are carrying yellow cards, meaning another Sunday would result in suspension should the Red Bulls advance.
“I have to be more cautious, but I can’t think of that,” said Miazga, who got called up to the U.S. National Team for its first two World Cup qualifiers. “I have to go out and play the game I play, do what I have to do. I can’t think about getting yellows because maybe then I’ll get a yellow.’’
If he or Zubar does, Canadian Karl Ouimette would be next in line, followed by backup fullback Roy Miller instead of Shawn McLaws from reserve team Red Bulls II.
Guillaume Gillet said Kljestan, his teammate at Anderlecht, has been recruiting him to make an offseason move to the Red Bulls.