FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It took a few moments for Bobby Shuttleworth to process what had happened to New England Revolution starting goalkeeper Preston Burpo.
The Revolution backup watched the collision between Burpo and New York forward Dane Richards unfold from his spot on the bench. To Shuttleworth, it looked like a fairly normal play in live action. Once he saw Burpo motioning for medical attention, Shuttleworth knew Burpo had suffered a serious injury.
“I had a pretty good look at it,” Shuttleworth told MLSsoccer after Saturday night's 3-2 win over the Red Bulls. “Right away, I didn't realize what happened. I thought he made a really nice play on the ball, actually. Then I could see him calling right away and it was pretty bad.”
As medical personnel tended to Burpo's fractured fibula and tibia, Shuttleworth needed to focus his mind back on the game. Burpo's devastating injury required Shuttleworth to hop off the bench and shake off the horror of the past few minutes to make his MLS debut.
“Obviously, you never, ever want something like that to happen,” Shuttleworth said. “We all feel really terrible for Preston, but you have to be ready to go, no matter what.”
Shuttleworth entered the match in the 39th minute and coped well with his first live test in first-half stoppage time by pushing away Sinisa Ubiparipovic's near-post drive.
“That was big for me,” Shuttleworth said. “I was a bit nervous at first and to get that first touch on the ball and make that first save, it releases a little bit of that. You're ready to go after that.”
It turns out Shuttleworth completed his most taxing work at the first attempt. New York had two players sent off in the second half and the resulting numerical superiority allowed New England to press the initiative and play most of the match down the other end of the park.
“I don't think I had a lot to do,” Shuttleworth said. “Obviously, they were two men down, so I tried to come out in the air as much as I could and stay strong in the air, but I didn't think I had a ton to do. These guys defended well. Obviously, being two men up, we were able to keep the ball.”
With Burpo out for the foreseeable future and Matt Reis just now eligible to come off the Disabled List after offseason left knee and shoulder surgeries, Shuttleworth may keep his newly obtained place in the starting XI for Saturday's date at Seattle and make only his second start as a Revolution player.
Revolution boss Steve Nicol said Shuttleworth's important first save set the stage for his composed debut and suggested he felt his third-choice goalkeeper could perform similarly well if selected to face Sounders FC.
“It was huge,” Nicol said. “It was good. It looked pretty straightforward and easy. He had a couple like that as well, so obviously he’s going to get a chance and we’re pretty confident he’ll come in and do well.”
