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New York Red Bulls club captain Dax McCarty is fit again and back on the field. Downed in Chicago at the end of July by a reckless tackle and sidelined for the whole of August, Captain Dax returned to the starting lineup for RBNY's first game of September - the 1-0 win in Vancouver.
The Captain doubtless is focused on contributing to his team's regular season run-in, and the near-certainty of playoffs thereafter. But he is also returned in time to continue his march on RBNY's all-time appearance records.
His start against Vancouver Whitecaps gave McCarty the first of what looks likely to be several RBNY appearance records that he will hold in the near future. He made his 159th league start for the Red Bulls in Vancouver, and that breaks Mike Petke's club record for all-time league starts for the club.
Top five all-time league appearances for RBNY, per MetroFanatic.com.
Name | Games Played | Games Started | Minutes |
Mike Petke | 169 | 158 | 14060 |
Dax McCarty | 164 | 159 | 14012 |
Dane Richards | 159 | 133 | 11958 |
Carlos Mendes | 146 | 128 | 11498 |
Seth Stammler | 142 | 126 | 11157 |
Congrats, Captain!
Petke holds most of the club's major appearance records, but McCarty would appear destined to claim them. He is 48 minutes short of the all-time league minutes played record, and five appearances shy of RBNY's all-time league appearances record.
And McCarty is within range of the Red Bulls' all-time, all-competitions appearance records too.
RBNY all-time, all-competitions appearances top five, per MetroFanatic.com.
Name | Games Played | Games Started | Minutes |
Mike Petke | 197 | 185 | 16561 |
Dax McCarty | 191 | 183 | 16236 |
Dane Richards | 176 | 148 | 13413 |
John Wolyniec | 167 | 97 | 9231 |
Carlos Mendes | 166 | 146 | 13048 |
RBNY has six regular season games remaining (and two CONCACAF Champions League matches, but it will be a surprise if McCarty features in those) plus whatever number of playoff games it can manage. If he stays fit, the Captain has a shot at being the club's all-time, all-competitions, all-categories appearances leader by the end of this season.