Last man standing

After the mind-numbing amount of injuries suffered last season by the Chicago Fire, it seems the law of averages is out with a vengeance in this 2003 season in the Eastern Conference. Columbus is still having a tough time recovering from the games missed by the likes of Edson Buddle, Kyle Martino and Brian McBride earlier in the season. The MetroStars, on the other hand, were able to mostly hold their ground while defensive mainstays Eddie Pope and Steve Jolley missed time, although perhaps not enough to stave off a late-season charge by DC United.

Except that United has recently been hit by the injury bug as well. Starting goalkeeper Nick Rimando tore an ACL in Giants Stadium against those same Metrostars, and now workhorse Ben Olsen is out for the season as well with a strained ligament, while Santino Quaranta continues to nurse himself back to health.

But the big blow this week was New England losing Taylor Twellman to a stress fracture. So much has been said about how explosive a scorer "TnT," with pun obviously intended, is, that you have to wonder how this will affect the Revs and their playoff run.

If only it were that easy. New England is four points clear of a lackluster Columbus Crew that has to face Chicago in their return to Soldier Field this Friday, and if the Crew drop that match, the Revs only have to win one of their remaining games to punch their ticket. Two of those games are against a mostly full-strength Metrostars squad that may have momentum on their side after a 2-0 win over league-leading San Jose, but haven't been all that consistent throughout the season. The remaining match is with DC United, so the whole thing for those two teams could come down to depth in the face of injuries.

For the Fire, this means that the Men in Red will likely be playing one of these depleted sides, because pretty much the only way Columbus even gets in is if they beat the Fire twice, but then the Fire are likely in second and the Crew likely in fourth, so we'd still wind up with DC or New England, and still have home-field advantage in the first round. Got it? Good.