Jeff Parke sat at his locker, still stunned that the New York Red Bulls season came to an end in the first round of the playoffs -- again. And it's the way that New York crashed out of the postseason Saturday night at Gillette Stadium that had the veteran defender shaking his head.
With Juan Pablo Angel on the sideline, pleading with Bruce Arena to return to the field despite what Revolution team doctor Scott Martin diagnosed as a concussion, the 10-man Red Bulls gave up a goal to Taylor Twellman on a counter in the 64th minute, the only goal scored in the two-game Eastern Conference Semifinal Series.
"It's crushing because that's your season right there. You end you season like that? It just (stinks), man," Parke said. "You put a lot of hard work into the year and to lose like that, I feel like it's the second year we've done this, man. We do all right and we just give up a chance and you take it all the way into next season."
As a result of a left knee to the jaw by Jay Heaps on a 50-50 challenge in midfield, Angel, a finalist for the league Most Valuable Player honors, laid motionless on the turf for several minutes before being helped off the field.
Because Angel was adamant about returning to the match, the decision to substitute him was delayed. And before Arena was able to bring John Wolyniec into the game, Twellman struck.
"The right thing to do is take him out of the game," Arena said. "It's not the perfect time, it was awkward and all of that, it might have distracted our team a bit, it might have resulted in the difference in the game. But that's life. The player is more important than the game."
As the Red Bulls were desperately trying to score the equalizer, Angel was taken to an area hospital for observation.
"The welfare of the player comes first. Juan wanted to go back in the game," Arena said. "After talking to the doctor, I told Juan 'you're more important than the game.' Meanwhile, you turn around and the goal gets scored. Those things happen."
The series-clinching goal started with a giveaway off a Red Bulls throw-in the Revs defensive third. Shalrie Joseph picked up the ball in midfield and played a beautiful through ball to Steve Ralston in the inside-right channel. Ralston passed to Twellman on the left, who didn't strike the ball with pace.
Jon Conway dived to his right and got a hand on the shot, but it spun back into the net for the winner in 64th minute.
"Twellman gave me a shot of getting a hand to it. I got a good piece of it, but it just spun like crazy," Conway said. "Maybe if it wasn't on turf it would have spun less, but I got a chunk of it. All I could do is throw my hand out and cause it to spin a bit and it came back towards the goal."
The Red Bulls played the final 26 minutes of the second half without both of their designated players as Claudio Reyna had left the game in the 26th minute with a right hamstring injury.
Reyna was replaced by Clint Mathis, who was a key part of the only time the Red Bulls advanced past the opening round of the playoffs in 2000 and the last time New York won at Gillette Stadium in 2002.
But Mathis couldn't conjure up any of his old magic and the Red Bulls made it 13 consecutive games without a win in Foxborough.
"If we would have won at home 1-0, we would have still been out there playing right now," Mathis said. "You guys were saying there's a stat that we haven't won in a long time, but I think the reason we didn't win the game is that we didn't finish our chances."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
