Red Bulls and D.C. United Swap Sites for M.L.S. Playoff Games The Red Bulls do not normally travel for an away game more than a day ahead of the scheduled start, even if the match is on the West Coast. But this is no normal time. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the games do go on, and so it is with the Eastern Conference semifinals of the Major League Soccer playoffs. The difference for the fourth-seeded Red Bulls is that instead of first hosting No. 3 D.C. United on Saturday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., as originally scheduled, the club left for Washington on Thursday to play the game Saturday at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. "We left early mostly to get out of the area because everyone is without power," said Red Bulls Coach Hans Backe, who lives in flooded Hoboken, N.J., but was out of town in his native Sweden most of the week tending to personal business. And today we got to practice on United's field, so I actually think we're better prepared. On Wednesday, officials from M.L.S. and the two clubs agreed to swap home dates for the two-game, total-goals series. The Red Bulls are now scheduled to play the return match, what is considered the home-field advantage, on Wednesday night at a stadium that had power restored only in the last day. The team's new general manager, Jérôme de Bontin, said there were contingency plans in the works, but the club is now confident the match can be played as it is scheduled. However, the Red Bulls do face the prospect of their fans from Manhattan not having access via the PATH line, which was flooded by the storm. On the field, the Red Bulls face a D.C. United team that has been one of the hottest in the league since last season's most valuable player, Dwayne De Rosario, sustained a knee injury in mid-September. United has not lost a match since, and De Rosario could return for the conference finals if his club advances. For the Red Bulls, Backe said during a telephone conference call Friday, the Australian international midfielder Tim Cahill was questionable with a tender calf. That would mean Dax McCarty would slide into a central role with either Jan Gunnar Solli or perhaps Roy Miller on the flank. Backe plans to stick with the same back four - Rafael Marquez and Markus Holgersson in the middle, with Connor Lade and Heath Pearce on the flanks - that has played so well the past two games, a tie against Kansas City and a 3-0 win at Philadelphia to end the regular season. "Since they lost DeRo, they've been on a good run," Backe said. Though I think they were lucky against Chicago away last week and could have had to play the wild-card game. Without DeRo it's more of a battle. They are a hard-working team that is hard to break down. Last weekend's draw at Chicago enabled D.C. to finish third in the East and sent the Fire to the wild-card match, which they lost to visiting Houston on Wednesday. Houston now plays top-seeded Sporting Kansas City, with the winner of that series facing the winner of the D.C.-Red Bulls series in the conference finals. D.C. might have been reluctant to cede a home game for the second match in the series, but Backe said any advantage was minimal and probably more psychological. "I'm not sure there is a home-field advantage," he said. In most other leagues I've been involved in, I would say that playing home is an advantage, especially with away goals counting double like in Europe and other leagues. But this league is so even. It's probably a small advantage. In the D.C.-Red Bulls regular-season series, each team recorded a win, a loss and a tie. The Red Bulls have played United in three postseason series (1996, 2004 and 2006) and have a 1-5-1 record.