The year of the ligament

The knee is comprised of, among other tendons and cartilage, two major ligaments. The medial collateral and the anterior cruciate help keep the knee stable and prevent it from doing things like bend sideways or twist too far. Chicago Fire fans are becoming more and more aware of this particular part of human physiology in the team's 2002 season. Amidst a resounding 5-1 victory over Kansas City Wednesday night in front of a season-high 15,919 at Naperville's Cardinal Stadium, the Fire and it's fans were dealt another blow from the injury gods as World Cup forward Josh Wolff left the game in the 55th minute. Early reports are that he tore the ACL in his right knee, the mirror image of the injury he suffered back in 1999.

Such is the price of playing for the Fire this year. First Evan Whitfield (ACL). Then Chris Armas (ACL), Hristo Stoitchkov and Peter Nowak (both MCL), and now Wolff. The team's orthopaedist has seen more action during the season than Miguel Saavedra. Mike Nugent seems to have made a rookie mistake in only tearing the meniscus in his knee, which isn't quite enough to let him sit at the grownup injury table. And don't even talk to me about Sergi Daniv's turf toe.

Wolff's injury carries with it a bit of bizarre drama, or perhaps karma, as the New York Daily News reported a trade of the Fire forward to the Metrostars for Rodrigo Faria nixed by the Metro braintrust, such that it is, just before the trade deadline Wednesday afternoon. So it was possible Wolff wouldn't even be on the team, let alone on the field, for this match, so that the injury would have never happened. What I'm trying to say is, this is all Nick Sackiewicz's fault.

So, now what? One of the myriad ways this hurts the Fire is that coach Bob Bradley found himself a massively potent offense against Kansas City, with Wolff, Stoitchkov and leading scorer Ante Razov all in the starting lineup and all responding with goals, along with tallies from midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Dema Kovalenko. Now Bradley will be forced to juggle his players again, something he's been doing all season, albeit begrudgingly. For the time being, the 3-4-3 experiment may be over, with Stoitchkov and Razov starting up top, and a midfield substitution for Stoitchkov pushing Kovalenko up to forward. Down the line, however, we may see a return to this week's experiment that replaces Wolff with Kovalenko on top, and Peter Nowak, once he's healthy, slotting back into his familiar midfield role.

In the meantime, the Fire need to focus on keeping up their intensity after a blowout win as they face one of the worst teams in the league in the New England Revolution. The Wolff injury might actually have a slight silver lining in that it may keep the team grounded when they might otherwise become complacent. There are also the threads of the Fire's return to first place in the East, Stoitchkov's return to form and Kovalenko finally hitting the back of the net that may be able to keep the momentum going until Nowak returns to the lineup, quite possibly by the August 24th return leg of the home-and-temporary home with the Revolution. While Wolff's unlucky break is bad news, it's certainly not the end of the world going into the stretch run of the season.

Speaking of upcoming matches with the Revolution, yours truly will be calling the play-by-play for WBIG Radio 1280 at 6pm Eastern. Go to the Fire website for webcast info.