Mike Petke pulled his jersey off over his shock of bleach blonde hair in celebration of a goal-scoring scissor-kick. Underneath, the 24-year-old revealed a white cut-off t-shirt with a message:

“Aug. 16, Crime of the Century,” the front read, referencing an unpunished play that left his teammate Mike Ammann hospitalized with three broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Then Petke turned and tugged down on both sides of his shirt to clearly display the back: “Revenge is Coming.”

That was the Mike Petke New York area soccer fans watched grow into a Supporters’ Shield-winning coach. The current Real Salt Lake head coach spent 11 years with the Red Bulls organization, stretching back to before the change in ownership and name. Petke was drafted by the MetroStars eighth overall in 1998, and fired from as Red Bulls head coach ahead of the 2015 season, with stops at just two other clubs in between. On Saturday Petke gears up to face the Red Bulls for the first time in his coaching career.

Petke’s abrupt firing by the Red Bulls was met with an uproar in New York, as evident by an emotional “town hall” meeting held by the Red Bulls for season ticket holders.

“We like to joke that we’re the most cynical bunch in MLS, but that was tough for us to swallow,” recalled Empire Supporters Club board member Steve Ferrezza, who is organizing a trip to Utah for 10 ESC members this weekend. “We joke around that we have more songs about losing than most teams have songs, but that even caught us off guard.”

. @EmpireSC gave Mike Petke a lifetime membership and has sent him a membership packet every year. They even mailed it to Rio Tinto when they didn’t know where to reach him in Utah, according to board member Steve Ferrezza. pic.twitter.com/pgmgJ6IyKk — Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) March 16, 2018

Jesse Marsch went on to lead the Red Bulls to the 2015 Supporters’ Shield, was named coach of the year that season, and now is taking the Red Bulls to the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals. But at the time of Petke’s dismissal, the Red Bulls had uprooted the most successful coach in franchise history in favor of yet another reinvention.

Plus, Petke was the hometown kid.

Petke can still conjure up some of the feelings from his first appearance in a MetroStars jersey, 20 years ago.

“It was a dream come true,” the Bohemia, New York native said, “and it was playing in front of my friends and family, making a living playing soccer. It was a pinnacle of my life.”

Article continues below

So when the Red Bulls won the Supporters’ Shield in 2013, after 18 years devoid of hardware, Thierry Henry put the trophy in Petke’s hands and led him over to the South Ward.

“You go,” he said over the roaring crowd. “You go with your fans.”

On Thursday Petke, tasked with guiding RSL back from a brutal 5-1 loss at home to LAFC last weekend, took the predictable stance that the fact that he was facing his old club didn’t add significance to the match for him. That he’s gotten past his firing. That there are no hard feelings.

“Perhaps if I was coming back to play in Red Bull Arena it would be a heck of a lot more significant for me,” Petke said.

But Red Bulls fans, while they’ve come to embrace Marsch, haven’t completely let go. Petke chants live on, ‘Mike Freakin Petke’ scarves can be found in the South Ward, and every year Petke receives a membership packet from ESC.

“Mike was never given the chance to fail,” Ferrezza said. “So for the rest of time, no matter what Jesse Marsch does, there’s going to be a segment of the fans that are going to think, ‘What if?’”