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HANOVER, N.J. — A Concacaf Champions League hangover isn’t acceptable for New York Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch for Saturday’s league tilt against the Montreal impact at Red Bull Arena.
In the minutes that followed a gutting departure from the CCL semifinals — following a 0-0 draw with Chivas de Guadalajara Tuesday night in Harrison — Marsch said it was important for his team to turn the page and shift focus to Major League Soccer play.
Of course, that’s easier said than done considering how much the Red Bulls put into the CCL, both physically and mentally, over the course of six weeks.
“Everyone has different processes, but everyone here is a professional as well,” midfielder Alex Muyl said. “Although everyone is really disappointed and we did care a lot about that competition, and I think you could see it in the way we were playing, we know that its not the end of the world, not the most important thing. We have big goals this year and we’re going to chase after those. It starts this weekend with three points.”
This will most likely be the first time Marsch will utilize a first-choice lineup in league play this season and the fact that the match is at Red Bull Arena, where the club has outscored the opposition, 12-1, and is undefeated in five overall matches, no doubt helps the transition process.
And with a more regular training routine, without the concern of travel and midweek games, Marsch can implement more of his tactical plan.
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“Because we had to compress the season so much, we almost skipped some steps because we kind of had to find ways to regenerate and compete,” he said. “Now we need to make sure we cover a lot of little things and that we’re putting ourselves in a position to grow day in and day out so as the season and year goes on we’re getting better and better and at the end of the year we’re playing our best.”
The silver lining about doing as well as the Red Bulls did in the CCL, reaching the tournament’s semifinals for the first time in club history, is that the players got a rare early-season taste of what a knockout competition is like.
“It’s a gift and a curse because it’s something that takes up a lot of your time, occupies a lot of your mind space and when you don’t reach the final goal and have a trophy to hold it can hurt,” Muyl said. “But at the end of the day, it’s experiences young players can really use to count when its later in the season and we’re in the knockout rounds again.”
“This is an experience for us and we have to look forward from these games,” midfielder Marc Rzatkowski added. “We want to play these kind of games because these are the big games in the season. It’s hard when you lose it, but you have to learn from it and make the next time better.”