As a long time New England Revolution fan, this has been a roller coaster year for Steve Ralston. The year started on a down note to hear that Steve Ralston would not be returning to the team as the 2010 season open. For his sake, the note picked up as we found out he would be a player coach for a team in St Louis, his hometown. Turned down again, when the word came out that due to financial troubles, the franchise in St Louis would close out operations. Turned up again when we heard that while Steve was 'free' again, he would return to the Revolution! Then down again as seconds after getting onto the field in his return, he dislocated his elbow setting him out for 4-6 weeks. True to his hardiness, it was going to be shorter than forecast so he was going to return to the pitch earlier than expected. Unfortunately, this didn't last long as the announcement came out that he would play his last game and retire.
Even this up didn't turn out to be true as he didn't get some papers together officially to get clearance to play, so he simply retired from the game.
He is not gone. The Revolution will see Steve at least two more times this season as they as scheduled to play the Houston Dynamo where Steve has taken a position as an assistance coach.
For Steve's sake, I hope he has more ups than downs for the remainder of this year. In fact, if the Dynamo only lose when they play the Revolution that would be fine!
Best of luck Steve, you were a pleasure to watch through the years!
Steve's retirement press conference
The interview with Jay Heaps, part 1 and part 2.
The announcement from the Houston Dynamo
