HANOVER, N.J. – Since the league kicked off in 1996, the New York Red Bulls (and their previous incarnation, the MetroStars) and D.C. United have produced far more than their fair share of memorable moments.
Every rivalry starts somewhere, and for New York and D.C., it didn’t take long for the bad blood to settle in. As a member of the league’s first-ever MLS Cup champion side, current Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch knows a thing or two about how it all got started back in the 1996 Eastern Conference Semifinal series.
The meeting would spell heartbreak for New York, who beat D.C. on penalties in the first game of the best-of-three series, only to go on to lose the final two matches to drop the series. United would go on to win MLS Cup, the first of their four league titles.
“I was on the bench for that series and it was pretty amazing,” Marsch said of the now infamous playoff encounter. “Rob Johnson fouled Marco [Etcheverry] and gave us a penalty late in the game. I think that set the tone for the way the series has gone over the years. I know that when I was in D.C. we always got revved up to play New York.”
New York’s loss in the ’96 playoffs would become a bit of a running theme throughout their rivalry. As United went on to win three of the first four MLS Cups in league history, New York struggled to make their mark against their hated rivals. As the calendar turned over, time and again, it seemingly always came back to these two I-95 foes.
“I think we all knew after that first playoff series that [it would be special],” Marsch said. “There were a lot of good players on the field for both teams and a lot of relationships between both teams. When we won, I know they were really pissed and that game set the tone for us to win a championship and then win another.”
The rivalry has evolved over time. While enduring some more painful defeats, such as the memorable “snow game” in the 2012 playoffs, the Red Bulls have had some famous victories over United as well, namely the 2014 two-legged victory that saw New York move on to the Eastern Conference Finals at the expense of top-seeded D.C. Big-name players have come and gone, but the contentious nature of the relationship between these two MLS originals still remains.
New York and D.C. will be at it again this weekend, with the Red Bulls hosting United on Sunday in the sides’ third and final regular season meeting of 2015 (7:30 pm ET; Fox Sports 1 in the US, TSN2 in Canada).
“Now being part of it on this side, I’ve seen that it’s grown so much,” Marsch said. “There’s a lot of respect, but there’s a lot of emotion involved in these games and I think this one will have a lot to it.”
Sunday’s encounter has a little bit extra on the line, with D.C. and New York sitting first and second in the East, respectively, dueling for conference supremacy and a shot at the Supporters’ Shield.
“Having [United head coach] Ben Olsen there and what he means brings a real consistency to what they’ve been about,” Marsch said. “Obviously here it’s changed so much, but the players still understand what that game means to the fans and what it means to the two organizations.
“Dax [McCarty, Red Bulls captain] spoke to the team before the first game and said that if we beat D.C., it’s the most important game of the year and it sets the tone for everything else that we do.”
McCarty himself is hardly a stranger to this storied rivalry. As one of the most tenured players in the Red Bulls squad, the captain experienced the heartache of the 2012 ouster as well as the joy of the 2014 triumph. And while the recent addition of New York City FC into the fray has changed the dynamic of soccer in the greater Metro area, there is no mistaking who remains the Red Bulls’ No. 1 rival.
“It’s the biggest game of the season,” McCarty said. “They’re our biggest rival without question and it’s the game the means the most to the fans. We have the most history with them and we’ve had some really animated games with them in the past. The animosity will always be there, it’s never going to go away whether it’s the first game of the season or the last game of the season.”
Now 20 years removed from inception of the Atlantic Cup, the barometer for what makes an MLS rivalry has changed. With spectacles such as Cascadia Cup often seen as the gold standard, coupled with the fervor that has surrounded the first three New York derbies, there have been some questions surrounding the United-Red Bulls rivalry.
Does the Atlantic Cup hold up, or is it simply ancient history held fast only by the staunch old-timers who wax poetic about the legendary battles of yesteryear? Those questions may have gained traction in places around the league, but they certainly haven’t found their way into the Red Bulls' locker room, where there is but one resounding message: New York-D.C. is here to stay.
“The New York [City FC] series will build over time and it’s already pretty big,” Marsch admitted. “But the D.C. series is rooted in so much more history and good blood-bad blood. Given the fact that these are the top two teams in the East, what this game means for the standings and the quality of the teams, this rivalry is still alive and well.”
