What difference does a couple of hours make? An enormous one when it comes to starting times.
With the Red Bulls just needing to beat the Chicago Fire in their season finale on Sunday and maintain their comfortable goal differential over FC Dallas in the process, they would win their second Supporters’ Shield in three years.
Simple enough, right?
But the Red Bulls could still capture the Shield with a tie, or even a loss for that matter, and that’s when things get tricky. That’s also when starting times come into play.
The Red Bulls-Fire match in Bridgeview, Ill., was set to begin at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time while the FC Dallas-San Jose Earthquakes match had a 7 p.m. EST kickoff in Frisco, Texas. That meant the Red Bulls game would be over when FC Dallas took the field. And that’s the ultimate advantage for FC Dallas.
Red Bulls Sporting Director Ali Curtis saw it coming, and he approached Major League Soccer prior to Sunday’s victory over the Philadelphia Union to see if something could be done. MLS responded by pushing the starting time for the Red Bulls-Fire match back two hours, to 7 p.m. EST.
It’s not only fair, but it will add to the drama on Decision Day.
“I reached out to the league to see if the game could be changed and ultimately they ended up making the change,” Curtis said. “It wasn’t ‘Hey, we’re going to do this right away,’ but in most issues that you raise with the league office there’s conversation. We raised it pretty quickly and they responded pretty quickly.
“I raised it before Sunday’s game. That’s on a Sunday and the decision came on Tuesday. They moved quickly, they heard us, we listened to what they had to say as well, but this is the right outcome for the league, not just for the New York Red Bulls.”
There have been well-documented instances in tournament group play where the final group games were not played at the same time, and the teams that played the second game knew what they had to do to advance. Sometimes it was a win, and that’s what they set out to do, but other times all a team needed was a tie, and that’s what they played for.
That’s why you see the final group games, especially in big tournaments like the World Cup, kick off at the same time.
“Any time your opponent has less information of what they have to do or how they prepare, that’s an advantage,” Curtis said. “So to the extent we can create a situation that Dallas does not understand their lineup, their approach, their substitution pattern, how many goals they need to score, what type of result they need, that’s an advantage for us.
“We’re competing with Dallas, so that was a big reason why we wanted the game to be changed to 7. At the end of the day, first and foremost, this is good for the league, it’s good for all MLS clubs involved. It speaks to the integrity of what they’re trying to do on Decision Day, so this is in line with that.”
Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch was happy as well, but said the team would be going out to win the game and capture the Shield in style.
“Obviously, it evens the playing field,” he said. “The main way you look at it, we just have to take care of our own business. It is a benefit for Dallas not to know what result they need. Ali Curtis worked real hard to get that done. It involved other clubs that it impacted as well, so we’re happy it’s the right thing to do, and I’m happy the league made the decision to do that.”
Midfielder Mike Grella also welcomes the change.
“For me, it’s a good deal,” he said. “I think it gives you a huge advantage if you’re playing later than the other team. You know that what you need, if you need a draw or if you need to commit numbers forward, or to win, you can try and do it. We were at a huge disadvantage. Now it’s fair and it will be a fair finish to see who wins the Shield.
“Not knowing what you need changes the way you play. If, at the end of the game, we only need a point to win, we’re not going to throw numbers forward. If we need another goal to win the game, we might even throw (goalkeeper) Luis (Robles) in the box. That’s how much it could change. It would have been on our minds while we’re playing, and it definitely would have affected the outcome for the Supporters’ Shield.”
The change, however, disrupted the Red Bulls travel plans, but it’s an inconvenience they are only happy to put up with.
“When the game time was at 5 we had a hotel and airline tickets all set, so having to make a change this late changes things for sure,” Curtis said. “It makes it a little bit tricky. The hotel component we can take care of, but the flight component is much more challenging. We probably have to break the team up into two on different flights, but it’s fun. The most important thing is to give ourselves every advantage we can to win the game. The change helps us, so in that sense you give a little to get a little.
“We knew there would be some challenges on our end in terms of players and staff who would be going to the game. It’s really unfortunate and you hate that some folks have to work on Monday, but when you look at the benefits and challenges, the fact that this may give us some advantage to win that game and the Supporters’ Shield, it’s one of those things that you have to do.”
