New York Red Bulls manager Jesse Marsch says winning the Supporters' Shield as Major League Soccer's best regular season team has done nothing to diminish the chip on his players' shoulders.
The first-year coach, who replaced Mike Petke at the start of the campaign, believes his team heard the critics who questioned how the Red Bulls would fare after losing key Designated Players Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill in the offseason.
All that talk has motivated the players all year and continues to as they try to win the first MLS championship in the club's history, according to the coach.
"There has been a lot of talk about the chip on the shoulder and all that stuff," Marsch said. "I think this has been a unique story, this team and the way things have gone the last few months have been a unique story in this league.
"The more times I see Mike Petke's name in the press, the more I see Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill, keep writing it guys, because our team still has a chip on their shoulders."
As top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Red Bulls can sit back and wait to see who the team will play in the conference semifinals. New York is one of three original MLS teams -- along with the New England Revolution and FC Dallas -- to never have won the league championship.
That fact, and that "chip" Marsch alluded to, will be all the motivation his team needs to bring silverware back home to the trophy case in Harrison, New Jersey.
"The chip on the shoulder, it has been more dictated by the players," Marsch said. "We built that into our identity, this is for sure, but I think the players, everything from how the fans treated the offseason to the articles written about our team, they weren't happy about it. They didn't like it and I am sure they had doubts too."
Marsch hailed his team's work ethic and says the way they did things in practice, how they trained and talked to one another day in and day out paid dividends as the season began.
"Once they realized this was moving in the right direction, [the players] felt they had something to prove," Marsch said. "The more people used certain players and coaches and names as talking points, the more it motivated them."