After sitting through a weekend full of games, the Red Bulls finally learned their playoff destination last night, slated for a midweek wild-card opener at FC Dallas. But now they’re wondering if they’ll have their most pivotal player, with striker Luke Rodgers no better than 50-50 due to a swollen knee.
They clinched a postseason berth on the last day of the regular season, beating Philadelphia 1-0 on Thursday. But their foe and seeding wasn’t set until Houston’s 3-1 win over Los Angeles last night left the Red Bulls as the fourth wild card, set to play at No. 1 wild card FC Dallas in a game sources tell The Post will likely be Wednesday.
Rodgers took a hit to knee Thursday, and had it drained Saturday. Losing him would be a huge blow for the Red Bulls. In his 20 starts, they’ve looked championship-caliber, with a 9-4-7 record good for 34 points, as they’ve outscored their foes 32-18. In the 14 games without him, they were 1-4-9 for 10 points and outscored 26-18.
“I got kicked in the game and it’s flared up,” said Rodgers, second on the team with nine goals. “There’s been a lot of fluid on my knee. It’s 50-50 if I can go.
“You can’t have it drained again — it won’t be healthy for the knee. I just have to keep my fingers crossed. You ice it, get massages to loosen it up, that’s it. There’s not a lot you can do. I’m just hoping I’ll be able to play. Obviously it’s a massive game that I want to play in.’’
Rodgers played a role in another massive game in Dallas. After missing most of the Red Bulls’ eight-game winless skid with plantar fasciitis, he returned and scored in their 1-0 slump-busting victory at Dallas on Sept. 17 — played without leading scorer Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez, Roy Miller and Jan Gunnar Solli.
Dallas is beatable at home, shown by their 9-5-3 mark. They’re coming off a 4-2 loss at San Jose, are 2-8-1 in their last 11 games and have been outscored 21-9.
“I know them well. We know them well. We just played them recently, in Dallas and gotten a very good result there, a 1-0 victory,” said Dax McCarty, who played for Dallas in last year’s run to the MLS Cup final. “We know what they’re all about.”
