Joseph's suspension lights a fire under the Revs

For a fleeting moment this past weekend, it appeared that the lower seeds in the Eastern Conference were going to knock off their higher-seeded counterparts and shake up the MLS playoffs in a way not seen in years.

Tony Quinn/WireImage

Amado Guevara, left, takes on Freddy Adu in their playoff matchup.

The Chicago Fire notched an early goal Saturday to take a commanding 2-0 overall lead in its series with the New England Revolution; Chicago had won the first game 1-0 in the two-game series decided by aggregate goals.

Meanwhile, the Red Bulls outplayed D.C. United for much of their game Sunday. Unfortunately for both the Fire and the Red Bulls, they had no answers for the clutch performances delivered by D.C. and New England's star players.

D.C. looked lost Sunday, floating along in a daze despite playing in front of an impressive home crowd of 21,455. Christian Gomez could sense his team was in danger of an embarrassing elimination and responded by delivering a series-clinching goal despite being the very player coach Bruce Arena wanted his Red Bulls to stop.

New England surrendered the first goal in its second game against Chicago, putting itself in a 2-0 overall hole, but that deficit seemed to awaken Revs standouts Matt Reis, Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan, who weren't going to let overzealous league officials or a dishonorable opponent steal the series away from them. Noonan shook off weeks of rust to deliver a clutch goal, Reis donned a Superman cape and stopped a pair of penalties and Twellman capped the remarkable comeback with a perfect penalty kick to keep the toughest team in MLS alive.

What went wrong for the Red Bulls and Fire? The Red Bulls put together an inspired team effort but lacked the finishing touch, the ability to put away chances that separates champions from pretenders. It didn't help that their best finisher, Youri Djorkaeff, was on the sidelines with an Achilles' tendon injury, but even the Frenchman's absence didn't deter the Red Bulls from playing their best game of the season.

The Red Bulls did get an incredible performance from their best player, Amado Guevara, who played the role of creator rather than finisher. However, Guevara could only watch chance after chance go begging. D.C. held on despite delivering yet another poor late-season performance, only to be saved by a moment of brilliance from Gomez.

As exhilarating as the finish was for D.C., you have to wonder how much confidence the regular-season champions have going into a final against a New England team that won't squander chances the way the Red Bulls did. D.C. crawled through the final two months of the regular season and has now advanced to the conference final after being outplayed for the better part of both first-round matches against the Red Bulls.

What is D.C.'s major malfunction? For starters, Alecko Eskandarian just doesn't have that burst and unpredictability that makes him so dangerous, a likely product of his not being fully recovered from the knee injury that sidelined him late in the regular season. Without Eskandarian's impact, D.C. is left with no real threat up top when Jaime Moreno makes one of his many forays into midfield to find a soft spot in opposing defenses.

Another issue has been the team's ability to maintain possession. When the D.C. midfield is in top form, it can dominate a game by smothering opponents with high pressure and quickly converting turnovers into scoring chances. Defensive midfielders Ben Olsen and Brian Carroll are usually the keys to that control, but the tandem hasn't been as dominant in recent months. Without that productivity, playmakers Moreno and Gomez don't have as many chances to test opponents.

Now D.C. has to find a way to regain its lost form against a New England team that has been building momentum over the past month. When D.C. looks at the tape of the Revs' series victory against Chicago, they will see an inspired squad that didn't miss a beat despite playing without suspended midfielder Shalrie Joseph and the injured Clint Dempsey.

How did the Revs get it done? They basically took advantage of Chicago's inexplicable decision to sit on a 1-0 lead on Saturday rather than going for a knockout blow. Apparently Fire coach Dave Sarachan was oblivious to the fact that the Revs were in exactly the same position a year ago against the MetroStars (now the Red Bulls). The Revs lost the first game of the two-game series, then went down a goal at home. The MetroStars stopped pressuring, appearing content to sit on a two-goal lead. New England responded by rattling off three goals and delivering the most memorable playoff win in team history.

At least it was until last Saturday. With Joseph and Dempsey on the sidelines, midfielder Joe Franchino played one of the best games of his career, helping set up both of New England's goals. Twellman delivered a header for the first goal, and Pat Noonan added the second on a rebound of a Franchino shot.

Noonan stepped up and reminded us why he is one of the league's truly clutch goal scorers. He hadn't played in weeks after sports-hernia surgery but came on as a second-half substitute and pounced on a loose ball in the penalty area, offering an eerily similar score to the goal he delivered in last year's comeback against the MetroStars.

That set the stage for Reis, who saved Chicago's first penalty attempt (by Thiago), scored his own penalty chance, then delivered the sweetest revenge imaginable by saving the penalty attempt of Fire defender Ivan Guerrero, the same player Joseph elbowed (which led to Joseph's suspension).

This brings us to what has to be considered the most unsettling aspect of this contentious series, Joseph's suspension. According to a number of sources, Chicago head coach Dave Sarachan lobbied hard for Joseph to be suspended for an inadvertent elbow on Guerrero in Game 1 of the series. Guerrero followed suit by telling the Chicago media that Joseph deserved to be suspended.

By the time the MLS disciplinary committee suspended Joseph, the Revs and head coach Steve Nicol were rallying the team behind the decision, and more importantly, Chicago's apparent involvement. If you don't think Joseph's suspension did not motivate the Fire, all you had to do was watch the end of Saturday's match. After saving Guerrero's penalty attempt, Reis could be seen yelling out, "Report that." After the match, Revs players grabbed a "Free Shalrie" sign from the stands and paraded around with it.

So here is a question: Was it really worth it for Chicago to lobby for Joseph's suspension? Obviously the Revs are better with Joseph than without him, but New England finished unbeaten without Joseph at the end of the season while he recovered from hand surgery, so it wasn't as if the team was going to be lost without him. If the lobbying did anything, it provided motivation for a team that didn't need it. You also have to ask exactly how sporting or even ethical it is to have a coach lobby for the suspension of an opposing player, assuming Sarachan actually did lobby.

Sarachan has plenty of other issues to deal with after another season-ending loss to New England. He might want to start by issuing a missing person's report for Andy Herron, who reverted to his 2005 form by coming closer to drawing a red card than to scoring a goal. Between Herron (the team's leading scorer) not showing up, and the entire attack mustering a measly five shots (with no player taking more than one), you have to place some of the blame on Sarachan, who went defensive way too early when he replaced Gonzalo Segares with defensive midfielder Diego Gutierrez at halftime.

Chicago can take heart in having finished the season with a trophy, the U.S. Open Cup, as well as discovering some real talent in goalkeeper Matt Pickens, forward Calen Carr and defender Dasan Robinson. The Red Bulls can find similar consolation after watching the maturation of standout rookies Marvell Wynne and Josmer Altidore and Guevara's rediscovery of his MVP form.

Now we have D.C. United and New England facing off in a rematch of the unforgettable 2004 Eastern Conference final, won by D.C. on penalty kicks. The Revs appear to be the favorite, considering how much D.C. has been struggling. However, the wear and tear New England suffered against Chicago makes the East final a much tougher call than you might expect. Ultimately, New England's momentum should win out over a D.C. United team that hasn't played well since July.

Ives Galarcep covers MLS for ESPN.com and is a writer and columnist for the Herald News (N.J.). He can be reached at Ivespn79@aol.com.