The two teams heading into Wednesday’s MLS playoff opener have very different recent histories.
The New York Red Bulls are entering into an eighth straight postseason while the Fire have made it just one other year, 2012, during the Red Bulls’ run. So while the Red Bulls have plenty of playoff experience, the Fire have just a few players on the roster who have played in the playoffs, Arturo Alvarez, Michael Harrington, Juninho and former Red Bull Dax McCarty.
McCarty is in the spotlight a bit more than normal because of the subplot of facing his former team in the playoffs after his drama-filled exit in January. He also gets to tell his team about just how different the playoffs are from the regular season.
“It’s incredibly different, in every sense,” McCarty said on Monday. “I can’t stress that enough. The little details, they become even finer. The margin between winning and losing is so thin that the team that is sharper on the day, the team that is more physical on the day, the team that works harder on the day, that’s usually the team that gives themselves the best chance to win. Now, you have to obviously add in quality to go along with that, but playoff games are not like regular season games. They’re just not.”
McCarty also shared this message, along with some of the other MLS playoff veterans, with the team on Monday. For someone like David Accam, who endured back-to-back last place finishes in his first two years with the Fire, this is a good kind of different.
“We had a meeting, everyone shared their experience and how the playoffs is and how they felt during the playoffs,” Accam said. “I’ve played in major competitions before and I know the feeling. It’s a knockout game and you want to win. A lot of people are watching and you want to show that you are good enough to be playing in this type of game so everyone is excited.”
McCarty played in a number of big games with the Red Bulls, but the club hasn’t made MLS Cup since 2008. For all of their regular season success, which includes Supporters' Shields in 2013 and 2015, the Red Bulls have developed a reputation of struggling in the playoffs.
Chicago Fire
“I know first-hand that that team has been through some battles and they’ve had a lot of heartbreak and they’ve had guys that have been in really big games before,” McCarty said. “I think we have, too, but to a lesser extent.
"I think experience is important because you know what to expect... In a sense that helps settle the nerves a little bit.”
The experience gap as far as MLS playoffs go is big, but others on the Fire have big match experience. Johan Kappelhof participated in the Dutch Eredivisie’s playoffs to qualify for the Europa League and of course Bastian Schweinsteiger has won the Champions League and the World Cup.
As for the German, he returned to training on Monday. The team arrived from Houston on Sunday night and would normally have a regen day or an off day after a match, but the short turnaround didn’t allow for that. Schweinsteiger sat out the last two games due to a calf injury that has limited him to one 19-minute appearance in the past seven matches, but should be back Wednesday.
“I feel OK," Schweinsteiger said. "I mean obviously I didn’t play so many minutes in the past month, but I feel OK. Let’s see.”
Will he start?
"It's a secret," he said with a laugh.
The concept of playoffs to Schweinsteiger is literally a bit foreign. He quipped about how different the seasons are compared to what he’s used to.
“We came third in the whole country,” Schweinsteiger said. “I don’t know if you were expecting that before the season. I think it’s good, but at the end of the day in America it depends on the playoffs. In the Bundesliga you would be in the Champions League, but here it’s more or less, yeah, nothing.
“It’s going to be hopefully a great evening for us.”