Losses are painful. Losing your captain is even worse.
The New England Revolution didn't want to lose ground in their battle for home-field advantage against Chicago in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.
But they really couldn't afford to lose Steve Ralston. A 12th-minute challenge from Herculez Gomez connected with Ralston in the wrong way.
In other words, disaster struck.
"I played the ball away and I didn't know what happened," Ralston said. "My leg was planted. I don't know if he kicked me or what happened. I would have to see it first. I won't say anything until I see it."
Ralston hobbled around for a few minutes before realizing this was the type of pain that wasn't just going to fade away.
"When it first happened, I knew it hurt," Ralston said. "I was wondering what was going on here. I was hoping I could walk it off. Then I realized I couldn't. I couldn't put any weight on it."
After a trip to Providence Hospital, Ralston returned to the stadium. The diagnosis: a broken right fibula. His return for the rest of the season is now in considerable doubt.
"It's normally a 6-8 week kind of deal and MLS Cup is six weeks away," Ralston said. "The earliest it could be would be that game. But T.O. (Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens) came back earlier than that."
Revolution defender Jay Heaps said his team knew at halftime that Ralston would miss substantial time.
"It's a disheartening loss," Heaps said. "Rally is a class act and a class player. When he goes down, we saw him at halftime, we knew it was pretty serious. He's a tough guy. When something like that goes down, it's a shock to the system."
The shock didn't wear off for the rest of the night. New England struggled to create anything going forward. Chances were few and far between; strikers Taylor Twellman and Kheli Dube looked like useless ornaments.
"We didn't have the final pass or the final thrust that we needed," Heaps said.
In the cozy confines of CommunityAmerica Ballpark, the ball has a tendency to find its way into the penalty area. On a night where neither team sustained much possession or carved open the opposing defense, there was only one way it was going to end.
Wizards center back Jimmy Conrad specializes in those sorts of set-piece situations. His 61st-minute header decided the game.
"You could sense it was going to come down to a set piece," Revolution head coach Steve Nicol said. "They're fighting for their lives. We matched it for most of the time, but giving up a set piece is troubling."
Nicol said his team struggled in possession and could not adapt to the surface.
"It was too congested in the middle of the field," Nicol said. "With the size of the field, there's not a lot of room to play. You get closed down quickly. It ends up being a patchy game for everybody. It ends up about winning challenges and winning second balls."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
