Conventional wisdom says it’s hard to have a good team’s number for long, tough to expect to keep beating a proud team over and over. The Red Bulls are about to find out just how true that is.
They’ll open the postseason at a Houston team that they utterly dominated in the regular season. After winning the Supporters’ Shield, they’ll open their quest for an MLS Cup on Sunday (3:30 p.m., NBC) by facing the Dynamo in a two-leg, aggregate goal Eastern Conference semifinal series. And Houston will surely have plenty of payback in mind.
“It doesn’t really matter. Yes, I’ve heard that, but each game is different in its own right. Therefore I don’t think it really matters,’’ Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh told the Post Thursday of the prospect of facing a team they’d had their way with all season. “Each game will be like a cup final. Each match is like that.’’
They’d better take it that way, because Houston will surely be motivated.
The fourth-seeded Dynamo crushed the fifth-seeded Montreal Impact 3-0 late Thursday night at BBVA Compass Stadium in the knockout round to earn a date vs. the Red Bulls. After Sunday’s nationally televised tilt, the series comes to Red Bull Arena at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
“The doubleheader, home-and-away stuff, you have to treat that liker it’s a three-hour match. The one difference is here you don’t have the away goals rule. The away goals rule has had an impact in the way people take the matches,’’ Roxburgh told the Post. “But we’ve been playing knowing every game is vital, and I think that remains their attitude.’’
Roxburgh’s team swept the Dynamo 3-0 this year. They won 2-0 at home on June 30, then went on the road twice down the stretch run and routed Houston both times. They cruised 4-1 on Sept. 8 and again 3-0 on Oct. 20. But past performance does not necessarily predict future results. Just ask the 1988 Mets, who beat the Dodgers 10 of 11 in the regular-season, only to lose the NLCS in seven games.
The Red Bulls are 8-3-7 all-time against Houston, and won their only playoff meeting in 2008 when Jamaican international Dane Richards made a Reggie Jackson-esque proclamation that he’d run the Dynamo’s fullback into the ground and – after the Red Bulls had tied 1-1 at home – proceeded to lead them to a 3-0 upset at the top-seeded Dynamo to earn their only MLS Cup finals berth.