Crying slurs, hands left unshaken, dugout dismissals, Frank Lampard’s diving and a Sir Alex Ferguson vs Arsene Wenger comparison. It’s fair to say Jesse Marsch and Patrick Vieira have a heated past from their days in Major League Soccer together.
When Leeds United travel to Crystal Palace tonight it will be the first time the pair have met pitchside in nearly four years. Their last clash, which proved to be Vieira’s penultimate game in the United States, ended in a 4-0 win for Marsch’s New York Red Bulls over New York City FC.
Their rivalry mellowed in the latter stages of their Big Apple tenures, but it was red-hot in the summer of 2016 when the latest edition of the Hudson River Derby ended in a 4-1 win for Marsch’s side. Vieira didn’t even see out the 90 minutes.
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In the days leading up to the match, Marsch had been fined by MLS for disparaging comments about referees in the division, especially when it came to penalising the star names. He said: “Going into New York City this weekend, I respect the way David Villa plays.
“He’s a great player, but every game I watch he gets a piece of every defender before the ball comes. He fouls throughout the entire game. He hardly ever gets called for it.
“If he or [Andrea] Pirlo or Lampard get touched, they go down, they draw fouls, they draw yellow cards. It’s an epidemic, an epidemic across the league of these referees who want to give the benefit of the doubt to star players.”
What transpired was domination for Red Bulls and an entire capitulation from City, including one Jack Harrison, and Vieira, who lost his head with the refereeing of the game, saw himself sent off, deal some choice words to Marsch, ignore his handshake and then batter his character in the post-match press conference.
Vieira had been dismissed for stepping outside of his technical area in just the 34th minute of the game so he could remonstrate with referee Mark Geiger. On the way to the tunnel, Vieira had a verbal confrontation with Marsch on the field.
“The conversation to Jesse was just to stop crying and stop complaining,” he said at the time. “His team was playing well, playing really good, but it was quite really frustrating and I feel sorry for him.”
Vieira claimed Marsch had this planned for a while. ”Today [the referee] made more decisions in favour of the Red Bulls because the manager has been crying all week.
“At the end, [Marsch] got what he wanted. It didn't just happen like that. This is a plan, this is a way [Marsch] wanted to go for. He got fined for it, which means he did something wrong.
“You can accept it or not, but that had an impact on the referee's decisions. It's as simple as that.”
Marsch has watched Premier League football throughout his entire adult life. He felt he knew what was coming from a fiery character like Vieira.
“He didn't want to shake my hand in the hallway, but I've seen this from him after the game before,” he said. “It's not a problem. I'm going to focus on us. The game was decided by players and in every way, our players put a big imprint on the game."
Vieira even got stuck into their backgrounds as characters and people during his post-match tirade. “We are completely different as a person and as a character, because he is acting one way, I’m acting a different way,” he said.
“This is part of the derby. He wants to win, I want to win, and sometimes there’s tension. There [are] two different clubs acting in a different way, and this is a part of the derby.
“After his comment, as a football club, we decided not to respond because that isn’t the way we want to do things. We have the full respect of the referee.
“We do understand sometimes the decision is really difficult to make from the referee. One day he’s for us. One day he’s against us.
“We understand it, and we respect it, and some people don’t, and they prefer to cry openly, and it’s good because it went for them this time.”
Bradley Wright-Phillips, who had scored two that day, was asked about the ill-tempered scenes on the touchline. “This is what happens,” he said.
“Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger didn't like each other when they used to play each other. That's just how it goes.
“When two big clubs are playing each other they're going to fight for every little inch. I'm sure later on in the years they'll have good conversations and a laugh over some red wine, but for now, we're at war."
Will the red wine be on the table at Selhurst Park next week? Marsch reflected on their rivalry in 2018, two years after those events.
"If Patrick Vieira wants to go out and have a nice bottle or glass of French wine I’m open to it, but he’s got his world, I’ve got my world,” he said.
“We had some run-ins maybe early because the rivalry is so emotional and intense, but as time has gone on, and we’ve both now been able to process what the rivalry means to us and to our clubs, we’ve both been able to focus more on the tactics and the ability for our players and our team to execute on the day, than it has been about the emotion of anything between him and I.”
Marsch recently spoke about the post-match rituals between Premier League bosses since his arrival and he admitted it had proved a touch too cordial at times for him. All eyes will be on how these old New York foes handle one another in Croydon.
