It may have come a bit later than Mike Petke would have liked, but the New York Red Bulls head coach said Friday the newly instituted away-goals rule in the MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T, is a good thing for the league.
Petke and his Red Bulls will play host to D.C. United in the first leg of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday (4 pm ET; UDN, Free stream at MLSsoccer.com, get tickets here), and the away-goals tiebreaker will come into full effect for the first time MLS.
That means conceding a goal at home could prove to be doubly costly, but Petke – whose defense has struggled for much of the year – still likes the idea as he thinks it encourages an aggressive mindset. And, of course, the rule would have meant the Red Bulls advancing out of their Conference Semifinal matchup last year with eventual East champs Houston Dynamo.
“I thought about it a lot. I was indifferent about it before, torn, but I think it’s good,” said Petke via a conference call. “I think it’s good because it definitely brings out a bit more attacking soccer. I guess you could argue that when you’re on the road, perhaps you want to get out and get that goal or one or two goals and that way going home you have those two away goals, so I think it is a good thing.
“It’s definitely torn from the pages of European soccer, of course, but at the end of the day I think it is a good thing.”
Some might reasonably expect the introduction of the rule to lead to Petke changing his game plan to be more defensive-minded in the first leg than the second given his backline’s struggles, but the second-year head coach said that will not be the case.
Instead, Petke plans to make all his players aware of it and the ramifications it could have.
“That’s the one thing you have to talk to them about and [be] a little bit extra sharp on their toes so they’re aware of that,” said Petke. “Hopefully that translates into them playing very stingy defense, for sure. But, at the end of the day, it’s more talking them into it than actual working on a way to play because like I said before the game plan is always to get a shutout and to score goals.”
Last season, the Red Bulls scored twice en route to a 2-2 road draw with the Dynamo in the first leg of their Conference Semifinal series before tying 1-1 at Red Bull Arena and losing in the subsequent extra time period.
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Such a scenario will not play out again this year unless both teams score the same amount of away goals and are deadlocked after 180 minutes, and that’s a good thing as far as several members of New York are concerned.
“I wish they would’ve done that before,” said captain Thierry Henry with a chuckle. “Obviously, I love it.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by email at Franco8813@gmail.com.
