Rafa Marquez, Heath Pearce and the Captain's Armband

It's nearing the hour where we have to end our revelry in the Red Bulls 3-2 win over D.C. United over the weekend, but one oddity stands out and has gone un-horribly-over-analyzed by the Red Bulls blogosphere.

The ankle-breaking Heath Pearce, who's only been on the team a few weeks, wore the armband Sunday, not the guy who lined up next to him on the backline, Rafael Marquez.

Pearce was so surprised by getting the armband, he thought it was a joke...

"I didn't put it on until I got outside because I thought that someone was playing a joke on me," he said after the 3-2 win over D.C. United.

...

"It was in my locker. That's why I thought someone was playing a joke on me," he said. "I had that joke played on me before. So I just left it there until the last moment. . . . I thought I was going to put it on and somebody was going to go, 'Yeah, right man, you're not a captain.'"

In the absence of Thierry Henry, Markus Holgersson has got the armband on a number of occasions, but even then, Holgersson's captaincy was in the absence of Marquez, who was captain last year even after the MARQUEZAGEDDON 2011 blow up. The whole thing is even more head-scratching because Marquez really does seem like he has the respect of his teammates, with Dax McCarty going to bat for his presence on Extra Time Radio earlier this season.

Much has been made this year about Marquez's attitude to playing in New York. It was rumored twice the he'd be headed to Chivas USA, first on a transfer, then in exchange for the guy who replaced him as captain, apparently, all because he's unhappy with the team.

Does this mean Marquez's days in Harrison are numbered? The transfer window did just open. Or was Marquez a game time decision and a captain needed to be named? We don't know. But it certainly is odd.