HARRISON, N.J. — With Atletico Pantoja in the rearview and Santos Laguna on the horizon in the Concacaf Champions League, the focus for the New York Red Bulls shifts to the MLS regular season and the opener against the Columbus Crew Saturday (4:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, DAZN in Canada) at MAPFRE Stadium.

A template of how the Red Bulls handle the early-season fixture congestion was established early in the 2018 season.

After defeating Olimpia from Honduras in the Round of 16 and having a 2-0 edge against Club Tijuana in the quarterfinals, then-coach Jesse Marsch made nine changes to his starting XI for the MLS season opener against the Portland Timbers at Red Bull Arena.

An emphatic 4-0 win followed.

“Those three points end up being huge at the end of the year when we’re fighting for Supporters’ Shield,” midfielder Sean Davis said. “Every single game is important and I believe we have the right players to go after that game in the right way.”

Expect something similar Saturday.

“We have a deep roster and we believe in,” Red Bulls coach Chris Armas said. “We have to be calculated how we use it, especially on short rest. We’ll rotate some players on the weekend and we know we can trust in the guys we have that we’ll go into Columbus and be aggressive and go after three points.”

Goalkeeper Luis Robles and right back Michael Amir Murillo, who will be suspended for the first leg against Santos because of yellow card accumulation, could be the only regular first-team players in the starting XI vs. the Crew. The rest of the lineup is likely to be a mix of newcomers with MLS experience (Amro Tarek, Marcus Epps), returning players (Florian Valot, Vincent Bezecourt, Derrick Etienne) and rookies who impressed in the preseason (Omir Fernandez, Sean Nealis).

Whoever steps on the field will face a difficult task. MAPFRE Stadium has never been kind to the Red Bulls and there’s the motivation factor — the returning Crew players could be looking at a combination of impressing new coach Caleb Porter and earning a measure of revenge for last year’s playoff ouster to New York.

“I think this is why the front office puts in so much work in the offseason because they know that we compete in a lot of competitions and rotation is going to be very important,” Robles said. “In the preseason, the guys that got the opportunity to play, they’re ready to go.”