Lloyd Sam is one of the lucky ones. He was with the Red Bulls in 2013 when the club won the Supporters’ Shield for the first time in franchise history, and he’s been an enormous contributor this season as the team is on the brink of another one.
“You don’t often get a chance to win things in the game,” Sam said. “We’re very hungry. Whenever there’s a chance to win something it’s always a big occasion. We’re extremely hungry. To come this far, we would like to win the last game and come out on top of the whole league.”
The clincher two years ago came in the season finale against the Chicago Fire at Red Bull Arena. The Red Bulls fell behind by a goal, then scored five unanswered goals, including one by Sam, to rout the Fire, 5-2. They celebrated by parading around the field with the Shield aloft as the fans cheered the arrival of the first significant piece of hardware in club history.
Coincidentally, this season the Red Bulls again play the Fire in the season finale with the Supporters’ Shield on the line, only this time the game is in Bridgeview, Ill.
“It’s similar in just going in knowing that you got to win the last game to get it,” Sam said. “It’s pretty much exactly the same except for different personnel. It’s similar, but not the same.
We’re pretty confident about getting it done. Back then we were confident, too. It would be lovely to get it done over there.”
While the Red Bulls are once again one of the top teams in Major League Soccer, the Fire have fallen on hard times. Two years ago they were 14-12-7 and a victory over the Red Bulls in the final game would have vaulted them to third place in the Eastern Conference and put them in the playoffs.
This year they are last in the conference with an 8-19-6 record, have the fewest points in the league (30), and will be trying to avoid becoming the only team in MLS to not lose 20 games this year.
“As we’ve seen over the past couple of years there’s no rhyme or reason to the schedule,” midfielder Dax McCarty said. “We just play the teams that are in front of us. It just so happens that we’re playing against Chicago again with a chance to win a trophy. They’re obviously out of the playoffs. They don’t have much to play for but pride. I think sometimes when you play a team like that they’re even more dangerous because they have nothing to lose.
“They’re probably playing for their jobs. Coaches are telling them that you guys are playing for your job next year. We might even get a tougher game than if they were in the playoff race or whatever it may be. We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be probably the toughest game of the season, especially against a team that’s given us problems.”
Goalkeeper Luis Robles is also one of the few holdovers from the 2013 season. He had his moment holding the Shield aloft in front of the fans and hopes to raise it again on Sunday.
“I think everyone knows what’s on the line,” Robles said. “I think we’re going to be pretty emotional about it in a good way. We know that there’s a lot just going into one game. I know that we played 33 games and it’s crazy for it just to come down to one game, but that’s how it goes. We put ourselves in a good position with the results that we’ve gotten throughout the season.
“It’s just kind of funny that we’re playing Chicago again. Obviously it’s not at home as it was in 2013, but it was kind of uncanny how it played itself out that we’re playing Chicago again with the opportunity to win Supporters’ Shield.”
This is MLS and more emphasis is put on winning MLS Cup than the Supporters’ Shield. That’s just the way it is in this country. Nobody remembers who scored the most points in the regular season, only the winner at the end. Still, for the players, especially the foreign players who grew up believing that finishing at the top of the table is the highest domestic honor you can achieve, winning the Shield is an incredible honor.
“It’s a prize for your season in the sense that over 34 games you ended up getting the most points,” Robles said. “When you look at other leagues around the world there’s usually a trophy of course. There’s all sorts of talk about an unbalanced (MLS) schedule with the conference. The way we see it, it just validates everything that we’ve being doing to get that silverware.
“With the rule change since 2013 we’ve already qualified for (the) CONCACAF (Champions League). Then there’s also something special that if you do well in playoffs you get to host MLS Cup, and we really want that. I know our fans want that and our organization wants that.”
Perhaps Felipe summed it up best.
“We can make a lot of history,” he said. “That would be one thing that we can break down from a long time (ago) and set the tone for the playoffs. We know how difficult it will be in this game. After all those games in the season, up and down, we had some really good moments and had some difficult moments, but we got through because we are a group who plays for each other.
“We have a lot of experience in the locker room. We know that more than the Shield, we can get to the top of the league and, of course, we want to be in the MLS Cup final, so that means we can play at home. More than that, we want to win every game and get to the top toward our goal at the end of the season.”
