Red Bulls prepare for playoff battle with unorthodox training method

There are no trophies on the line, no accolades to hand out. There's no prize money, no pregame and postgame news conferences, no advertisements. But, for the New York Red Bulls, Tournament Day in training brings with it the same amount of intensity and motivation as the real thing.

Tournament Day at the Red Bulls is a semi-frequent day of 12-minute matches, the squad split up into four smaller teams to play among one another in a three-game, round-robin style competition. Head coach Jesse Marsch keeps a tally on the combined results of all the Tournament Days throughout the year.

And, as Red Bulls' captain Dax McCarty puts it, bragging rights are on the line.

"(It's) a frustrating day for a lot of people," McCarty told reporters. "It's tough, it's aggressive, it's for pride. Obviously as professional athletes, we all have a lot of pride, so we never want to lose. There's a lot of controversial calls made by our questionable referees ... the assistant coaches. But there's only one winner at the end.

Red Bulls midfielder Lloyd Sam knows that winning brings with it glory, but losing? Losing isn't fun.

"I've done tournaments but this one where you keep where you finish is different," Sam told Metro. "It makes it more intense to win and see where you're going to be. I wouldn't say it is fun, it makes it more intense. You want to win and see where you're going to be. I wouldn't say it's fun. There's always someone who has to lose. If you lose, you're pissed off."

Marsch says he picked up the method of motivation from hard-nosed Chivas USA manager Preki, and sees the day as a measure of the grit and work-rate of his team. It's a valuable tool for the Red Bulls, as they prepare to kick off the Eastern Conference finals against the Columbus Crew.

"I joke around because often those days are a bloodbath," Marsch said. "What it does more than anything is cultivate a competitive spirit. We just basically split up teams. It's not a coaching day, it's not a concept day, it's not a tactical day. It's which team wants it more.

"I do think that's been an important part of our process of becoming good competitors. This team trains hard, really hard, and that's exemplified every Tournament Day."