While most of his teammates had already left Montclair State University following Thursday morning's training session, Juan Pablo Angel was busy twisting his body into a pretzel with some post-practice yoga.
Between Aston Villa and the New York Red Bulls, Angel has been playing for 18 consecutive months without a break. So you can excuse the Colombian striker if he needs a little extra stretching.
"I haven't stopped," Angel said. "I started in the Premier League and I came here (in May). I haven't had a break, so I'm looking forward to it."
But first, Angel is looking forward to the MLS Cup Playoffs, a completely foreign concept for someone still getting used to life in the USA.
"I think it's very American. In every sport you have the playoffs," he said. "I just think we should have more credit to the guys that do well during the season. This is a long year, we played 30 games and you have to get something out of that."
Angel, who turned 32 Wednesday, will get his first taste of the playoffs Saturday when the Red Bulls play host to the New England Revolution at Giants Stadium in the opening leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Series.
"This is a new experience for me," he said. "But this is the real thing and this is what matters from here. I'm very much looking forward to it and it's going to be very interesting. The last couple of games we played better so we have a lot of expectations. We still believe we have a pretty strong group in here and we are hungry for success."
Angel, who arrived from Aston Villa on a free transfer in May, enjoyed the most prolific scoring season in club history. He scored 19 goals in 24 games, finishing one goal behind D.C. United's Luciano Emilio in the Golden Boot race. And the striker is a favorite to win the league's MVP award.
"I don't really pay attention," Angel said. "I'd be more than happy to win the league."
It's that team-first attitude, that commitment that some of the big-name foreign players in the past didn't bring with them, that most impressed Red Bulls boss Bruce Arena when the two discussed the possibility of Angel joining MLS as a designated player.
"I just said this is impossible. This guy seems too good to be real," Arena said. "He had a real good attitude. You could tell he was going to be a good professional who would take advantage of the opportunity, he knew what he was getting into."
If Angel has any questions as to what it's like to play in a playoff game, he could walk across the locker room and ask 17-year-old Jozy Altidore, who had his coming out party in last year's postseason.
After scoring a massive goal in the regular season against Columbus -- his first career goal -- that helped the Red Bulls secure a playoff spot last year, Altidore went down to RFK Stadium and leveled last year's Eastern Conference Semifinal Series with a powerful header against D.C. United.
Not too shabby for a 16-year-old, first-year pro.
"That's what surprised me, (that) he didn't seem fazed by it," Arena said of Altidore. "He's got a real confident and aggressive attitude where a young kid usually tries to hide in the background and if a play comes their way, great. That to me is pretty impressive and tells you something about players."
Perhaps it's being around veterans like Angel and Claudio Reyna on a regular basis or just that he's one year older and wiser, but Altidore has flourished in his first full season with the Red Bulls.
"I think he's an extraordinary kid," Angel said. "He has an unbelievable talent, but we do have to remember that he's only 17. This is going to be a good experience for him."
Angel said he's seen this before, when he served as an apprentice of sorts for Javier Saviola, who made his debut for River Plate at the age of 16. Arena compares him to Sergio Ramos, a 21-year-old defender at Real Madrid or Theo Walcott, the 18-year-old Arsenal striker.
"Most of the kids his age don't handle it properly and don't take advantage of it properly. He has," Arena said. "It's stuff on the field as well as off the field. He's a wonderful kid to be around. He's very mature for his age, very respectful, very articulate."
Reyna also saw that type of maturity from Micah Richards, who at the age of 19 is already a regular starter at Manchester City and became the youngest defender ever to make his full national team debut last November.
"He just stepped right in to the first team and it was like he was there forever. It's the same with Jozy," Reyna said. "There's no step. They make the transition like it's nothing. That's very rare."
As for Altidore's thoughts about the playoffs, it's a bit of a different feeling this year for him.
"The nerves aren't there. But it's still the same thing," said Altidore, who turns 18 on Nov. 6. "We're still the underdog basically. We've still got to compete. It's really the same thing as last year."
If there's one thing that's different, it's that there's some more pressure on Altidore's young shoulders. But he's proven he can handle everything that's come his way thus far.
"If he ever deviates a little bit in the wrong direction, you can get him back on a straight line real quick," Arena said. "How's that possible? Remember, he's still a kid."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
