Playing in the snow is hardly what Khano Smith expected when he signed with the New England Revolution this past spring. The lush fields back home in Bermuda didn't exactly prepare him for the winter-like conditions he and his teammates encountered when they took the field on Saturday night.
Yet there he was running for his life through the snow pellets that remained on Gillette Stadium turf with steam charging off his lanky body into the frigid New England air. With the Revolution's season hanging in the balance, Smith chased down a perfect through-ball from teammate Clint Dempsey on a run of some 40 yards before hitting the shot of his life that ended up clinching a berth in next Sunday's Eastern Conference Championship.
"He just hammered the ball," said midfielder Steve Ralston of Smith's 83rd-minute strike that finished off a 3-1 match for the Revs, giving the home side a series-winning victory against the MetroStars by the aggregate score of 3-2.
Not only was the ball hammered, but it was precisely bent around MetroStars goalkeeper Tony Meola into the far side netting. It came after Smith ran to freedom past Eddie Gaven on the left side of the field.
"(Khano) was getting behind their defense quite a bit," said Ralston. "I don't think they realized how fast he was."
Added Revolution head coach Steve Nicol: "When Khano opens his legs like that and starts running, there's not many people that can stay with him."
At 6-foot-3, the Bermudan international can cover a lot of ground in an instant. He does so in an almost effortless fashion, which can often be deceiving to defenders.
When he is employed as a striker, his speed is often not utilized as his primary purpose is to get his head on the end of balls sent in from the wings. But Smith was forced to play on the left flank as a midfielder once Marshall Leonard went down in the 19th minute with an injury to his left hamstring.
Matched against Gaven, a teenager who is more known for his attacking skills than his end-to-end play in the midfield, Smith was forced to play a lot deeper than usual at times. But as the match wore on and the Revs found themselves down two goals on aggregate at the beginning of the second half, he was forced to push forward more often. Several of the balls he sent into the box failed to connect with either striker Taylor Twellman or his partner-in-crime Pat Noonan, but Smith's speed started to become a factor as the Revolution tried to get more width in the attack.
"In the first half, you just couldn't do anything with the ball," said defender Jay Heaps of his teammate that they refer to as "Kenny" rather than his given first name. "You could just see the ball sticking to the snow. Once the second half began, though, we knew we could open it up a bit."
Had the heaters below the Gillette Stadium surface not been turned on, Smith's goal might not have been possible, as Dempsey's ball from midfield surely would have been held up. But with the field much more playable towards the end of the match, it was able to find the 24-year-old striker without a problem.
"My first touch was good enough to set up the shot with my left foot," said Smith, who hyperextended his left knee near the end of the game, but said it wasn't as bad as he thought after the match. "I was just fortunate it found a spot in the goal."
Said Heaps: "I've seen him use those long strides in practice and how he can beat people on the run. It was just a question of the finish. I was standing at midfield and I knew from how it went off his foot that it was good."
Smith's goal not only sent the Revs to the final four in the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive time, but it also kept alive the lengthy winless streak that the MetroStars have in Foxborough. It now spans a total of nine games (0-5-4) and spans back to the beginning of the Steve Nicol era -- June 29, 2002 to be exact.
For Smith, his strike will now instantly put him into Revolution lore along with the likes of Avery John (a bomb against Columbus last year) and other unheralded players such as Daouda Kante -- guys who were playoff heroes during this recent string of playoff heroics for the Revolution. No player has come the route of Smith, though, as his journey to MLS took him from Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C., to the Bermuda Premier League, where he starred for the 2004 league and cup double-winning Dandy Town Hornets, to the Revs reserve side to playoff hero.
In snow, no less.
Dressed in a beige winter parka with a fur collar, Smith joked about the fact that a few players were tossing snowballs at each other before the game while stadium workers feverishly treated the field with snow blowers and shovels to uncover the soccer lines underneath. He also said that he had played in the snow before back when he was a standout goal-scorer for Lees-Rae College.
"I remember playing in this stuff against Limestone College," he said. "It was in the quarterfinals of a tournament late in the fall. So I've seen snow and know what it's like to have to play in it.
"But I'm not used to it, that's for sure."
It sure seemed like it on Saturday night.
"I was tough to see someone like Marshall (Leonard) go down, but we have a deep bench," said Heaps. "Khano always makes the best of his time, and he definitely did tonight."
Marc Connolly is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
