MLS Cup Playoffs: New York Red Bulls reach Eastern Conference final

WASHINGTON - The nearly 1,200 New York Red Bulls fans who traveled down to RFK Stadium on Saturday and the nearly 19,000 D.C. United fans who cheered on the home team all came through the turnstiles asking the same question: What if?

For the former group, the question was asked out of confidence, but tempered with fear. For the latter, the question was asked out of fear, but tempered with confidence.

What if New York could beat D.C. in a playoff series for the first time in MLS history, after four attempts that concluded in heartbreak? And what if D.C. could climb out of a 2-0 aggregate hole to prove why they earned the Eastern Conference's best record in the regular season?

The scoreline was set up with just enough tension to believe that either outcome could be possible. And when Nick DeLeon snuck through the Red Bulls' back line in the 35th minute to head home a Taylor Kemp cross and halve the deficit, the grand old cathedral of American soccer roared to life once more.

The building wasn't quite shaking, to paraphrase that famous old Jack Edwards line, but the noise and color brought back memories of United's past glory years. As the massed supporters' clubs in the bouncing bleachers woke up the echoes, it was possible for a time to ignore the bumpy field and the rusting steel and the chipped-off paint.

And Red Bulls coach Mike Petke knew it.

He would have, of course, having stood on both sides of MLS' most-contested rivalry in his playing career. He may be best known for his nine combined seasons with the MetroStars and Red Bulls, but he won his only trophy as a player when United lifted the MLS Cup in 2004.

Twelve minutes before halftime, Petke's team was on the ropes. Twelve minutes after halftime, though, they delivered a knockout blow the likes of which those past New York teams could have only dreamed about.

It came, not surprisingly, from New York's famed French connection. Thierry Henry started the play with a cross from the left side, and Péguy Luyindula finished it with a pretty flick past D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid.

That gave New York a 3-1 aggregate lead, including a vital away goal. D.C. had to score three unanswered at that point, and they only managed one.

Both teams' fans kept singing, but they knew the die was cast. The Red Bulls are headed to the conference finals for the first time since 2008, when they reached the title game for the only time in their history.

Purists will howl about the No. 1 seed succumbing to the No. 4, but it was clear from the start of the series' first leg that New York was the better team. This was the mix of skill and determination that observers around MLS have been waiting a long time to see from the Red Bulls, and it has rightly been rewarded.

"This is a game - a series - that in years past, we would have lost," Petke said. "It's another ghost to put back in the closet."

As happend after last week's win at home, Petke again tried to decline credit for the triumph.

"When we lose it's my fault, and when we win it's the players," he said. "I love that and I respect that, and it's not a throwaway line that I'm giving. All credit to the players."

This time, though, he wasn't allowed to get away with it.

"I'll let my guard down a little bit," he finally conceded. "It's going to be a huge breath that we're going to take, to exhale and relax... There's relief from me that things have worked out."

I took Petke's remarks to some of the Red Bulls players who've been on that roller-coaster ride with him.

One reflection came from goalkeeper Luis Robles, who had a front-row seat for New York's playoff failures in 2012 and 2013.

"From a standpoint of a leader, he's doing everything he can to ensure success," Robles said. "And of course, when he says things like that, it takes a lot of pressure off us and allows us to just go out there and play. He's said it from day one, and now two season later, it seems like success keeps finding him."

Another came from midfielder Eric Alexander, now in his second season under Petke's tutelage.

"We just want to match the effort that he wants from us," Alexander said. "He helps us to be aware of what happened in the past, and stuff we want to overcome to help the fans and this club to progress and move forward."

Petke's deference to his players struck a familiar chord with me. It's a sentiment I've heard expressed by many of the young managers around MLS who played in the league before coaching in it.

It's worth noting that the men in charge of all five Eastern Conference playoff teams have traveled along that same career path: Petke, D.C.'s Ben Olsen, New England's Jay Heaps, Columbus' Gregg Berhalter and Kansas City's Peter Vermes.

The Western Conference playoffs feature two of the deans of the American coaching faculty in Los Angeles' Bruce Arena and Seattle's Sigi Schmid. But the other three teams involved have MLS players-turned-coaches in Dallas' Óscar Pareja, Salt Lake's Jeff Cassar and Vancouver's Carl Robinson.

If you're reading this in Philadelphia, you might have a hunch of what I'm about to say, and you'd be correct. Jim Curtin has taken a pounding from some quarters of the Union's fan base because of his lack of head coaching experience, and the fact that he shared that trait with his predecessor, John Hackworth.

Curtin has asked the PPL Park faithful to not judge him based on Hackworth's failures, and rightly so. Better to look around the league at Curtin's contemporaries, and to see from their successes a potential for Curtin to succeed as well.

To put it one way: would you rather have the candor of Jim Curtin or the detached coolness of Hans Backe, Mike Petke's predecessor in New York?

Backe had the European resume, and had his share of successes at Red Bull Arena along with his well-documented failures. But Petke delivered the Red Bulls' first - and still only - trophy in team history, last year's Supporters' Shield. Now he has also earned New York's first win in a playoff home game with elimination at stake, and their first series win over their biggest rival.

(You might answer that you'd rather have a striker of the caliber of Thierry Henry, or at least Bradley Wright-Phillips, playing in front of Vincent Nogueira and Cristian Maidana. Fair point.)

I asked Petke to reflect on why so many former MLS players have succeed in the league as coaches. He had his answer ready before I could finish the question.

Because we've lived it - and we haven't lived it 25 years ago. I stopped playing four years ago. This is a new league and this is a league that we were brought up in. So all these little things, all these little passions and whatever it is, we've lived. We know that it's the players, absolutely.

I don't know what else to say about that. It's a new breed of coaches, perhaps. I know we can all get better - I'm speaking for myself as a coach, I have a long way to go - but I know this league and I'm passionate about this league, and hopefully some of that rubs off on my players.

That has clearly happened. As a result, Petke's team gets some time to enjoy the fruits of its labors. New York will host the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals at Red Bull Arena against either New England or Columbus on November 23, after MLS breaks for next weekend's FIFA international window.

Here's one last thing to ponder about the Red Bulls' triumph Saturday. It came not only at a key time in the playoffs, but at a key time in the evolution of MLS. For when New York City FC joins the fray next year, there's a very real possibility that D.C. United won't be the Red Bulls' signature rival anymore. So to have these two clubs meet in these playoffs brought even greater significance to the most-played series in MLS' 19 seasons.

D.C.-New York games have brought the league much-needed as it has grown up. It will be a while before the Red Bulls and City set off the same kind of sparks, no matter how big a spotlight they command in the years to come.

Perhaps that's why Petke said clashes with the old enemy will remain special to him.

"People who have lived it, and I've lived both sides of it, people who have truly lived this, there's nothing else," he said. "I could go sit at the [Seattle] Sounders' stadium with 80,000 people when they play Portland, and it wouldn't compare to this."

Petke admitted to having "a biased opinion." But on Saturday, the nation got to see what he was talking about. If it was, in some ways, a last great glimmer of a fading era, perhaps it was also a sign that Major League Soccer's old guard isn't ready to yield to the new up-and-comers just yet.