Rising’s players need to keep calm going into Sunday’s playoff final, according to former goalkeeper and fan favorite Carl Woszczynski.

“It’s so cliché, [saying] it’s just another game, because your heart’s racing,” Woz said. “But I think once you step on the pitch, and you actually get your first touches in, you do realize that it’s just another game.”

Woz retired after the end of last season due to a recurring knee injury. With the way the team had performed throughout the year, he was hoping to go out on a high. Unfortunately, a playoff loss to Real Monarchs prevented him from bowing out with a winners medal.

“That was especially tough for me, knowing my knees were pretty bad at that time,” he said. “I’d met with doctors, had some treatment through that. I knew that that could be the end for me. Obviously, I ended up with another surgery at the end of that year, and calling it.”

And yet despite his young age – the former shot stopper is only 32 – he’s definitely stepped into the retiree lifestyle.

“I’ll sound really old here, but the young guys that complain about things in the USL now have no idea what it used to be,” Woz said. “That LA Blues team back in 2012, our water breaks were out of a hose. We’d pass the hose around, and all get our drink, and all get back out at it. We’d do our own laundry in LA, not in Arizona, but in LA we’d do our own laundry.”

He’s got no shortage of stories from Arizona too. Yet the move may never have happened, as Woz was actually in advanced talks with Louisville ahead of joining Arizona United.

In the end, it was the proximity to his wife – who was working in LA in the fashion business at the time – that swung the deal; and that denied him from being a part of what in just a few years became a cup-winning team.

“I still harass her about that,” laughed the long term servant of the club. “But I think overall it was a good decision.”

Of course, he ended up on the field with Didier Drogba instead.

“It didn’t really hit me until I walked into the locker room and stood there and looked him eye to eye,” Woz said. “He put his hand out, shook my hand immediately, ‘Hey, I’m Didier,’ and I’m just like, what am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I’m Carl?’ Like, yeah, no kidding you’re Didier.”

Meanwhile, he grew a friendship with Zac Lubin, which he says has only grown since the end of his playing days. He still has many stories about his former teammate, including the time that Lubin took a cleat to the face against Colorado Springs.

“As crazy as Zac is, he tried to come back out on the pitch that game,” Woz said. “He said ‘I’m fine, I’m fine’, and we said ‘Look at your head! You’re not fine! What are you talking about?’

“The craziest thing was Cory Robertson, our goalkeeper coach, was actually gone doing a coaching license, so I was the goalkeeper coach that game. So I was sitting with the coaches – I warmed Zac up and all that – and I said I might be the first goalkeeper coach that ever said ‘No, you’re not coming back in. I’m subbing myself into the game.'”

Now, watching his former teammate from afar, he’s impressed with the progress Lubin has made.

“I think he’s had a good year overall, the whole season,” Woz said. “But the last three or four games, he’s been fantastic. He’s stepped up. I don’t know what it is, but he’s stepped up these last couple games and made huge saves when we need it.

“I think he’s coming together more as an overall goalkeeper. When me and him would battle, he was always more athletic than me. No question about that, making long range stops, being able to get to top corners, things like that. I always had more of an advantage on reading plays, one-on-ones, which we’ve talked about a ton, and I’m glad to see he’s saving damn near every one-on-one now.”

But that Reno error? Surely something was said after that?

“Oh, yeah, of course I said something to him,” the former keeper laughed. ‘Hey, who you passing the ball to? That was their striker!”

These close games are bringing the team together, Woz thinks.

“I think grinding out these results just helps the guys grow together more,” he said. “If you win 3-0, 4-0, you’re not tested. Ok, we can do this all the time. But having to step up and perform, and come through, and finish out games. That’s always been one of our struggles.”

Of course, those close games can interfere a little with your post-game plans.

“We were actually going to go grab food at a restaurant after the game [last Saturday],” Woz said. “They closed at 11, so I told my wife as we got into pens, as soon as the game ends, we’ve got to get out of here. It was like 10:30, at that time, I’m hungry. We’ve got to get food. We’ll have a couple drinks to celebrate.

“And then when the game ended, she said to me, ‘Well, why are we leaving? All your friends are down there. Your team is down there celebrating. Let’s stick around.’ So we ended up hanging out down there until like 1am, with a lot of the guys, and it was an absolute blast.”

So what awaits the team in this next game?

“I think the East, it’s a different beast,” Woz said. “When we played Louisville, we watched tape, things like that. We said ‘They don’t have any great players. They don’t have a Didier. They don’t have a [Chris] Cortez. They don’t have these star players.’ But I remember walking off the pitch and saying they were a well-oiled machine. They had good players at every position. They worked their ass off. They worked as a unit, and I think the East is a lot of that. I think Tampa does the same thing.”

Yet despite the challenge Rising will face on Sunday, he’s still backing his old side to pull off a victory.

“I hope so,” Woz said. “I think we’ve gotten all the losses out of the way. We have a lot of guys on our team that have played at a high level now, that have been there, done that sort of thing. Played in tough environments. I’m really hoping they do, honestly. I think it could be a bit of a goal fest. There’s a lot of firepower on both teams.

And, while he may be watching from afar, that doesn’t mean that Woz can’t come up clutch for his team at this critical stage.

“I’m actually being a good dog foster parent,” he said. “Zac flew his girlfriend down, so I’m watching their dog they recently rescued. That’s what I’ll be doing for the final.”