Red Bulls spoil Dax’s return

The Red Bulls made sure former captain Dax McCarty’s homecoming didn’t go as planned and their homestand went better than they could have imagined.

Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire and McCarty — whom the Red Bulls dealt this offseason just two days after his wedding — saw them cap a two-week rise up the standings.

Stuck in seventh place just two weeks ago, the Red Bulls (5-3-1, 16 points) earned the full nine points in a threegame homestand to vault into second, just two points behind Orlando. Defender Kemar Lawrence’s second career MLS tally proved a 71st-minute winner in a charged atmosphere that felt like a late-season tilt.

“Obviously Dax com- ing back brings a lot of energy to the game. And then [the Fire] done well this year and they want to establish themselves as a better team,’’ Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch said. “[They] came in and played, gave us a run for our money.”

So were scenes like McCarty staying for an hour afterward, signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans that stayed among the 22,814 at Red Bull Arena.

“It’s emotional. It’s frustrating to not win,” said McCarty, who played 169 games and won two Supporters’ Shields with the Red Bulls. “That’s the thing that I’m most upset about. You have to stick around after the game and sign all these auto- graphs, and you’re really pissed off inside that you didn’t win the game. So that’s something that’ll bother me. But we lost to a pretty good team.

“I needed to do it. The fans that waited for me, it was more than I even could’ve imagined. ”

Playing minus center back Aurelien Collin (abdominal strain), the Red Bulls conceded at home for the first time all year but still ran their home unbeaten string to 19 straight.

Bradley Wright-Phillips gave the Red Bulls a 37th-minute lead when he tapped in a Daniel Royer cross from 6 yards out. McCarty, honored with a tifo in the South Ward, got some payback. He spun between Aaron Long and Tyler Adams to set up Nemanja Nikolic for a 60th-minute equalizer.