Extent of Kreis' injury uncertain

Despite playing 90 minutes Saturday, and scoring the game-winning goal, Jason Kreis left the game on crutches. While the extent of the injury is unclear, X-rays indicate that it may be season ending.

In about the 75th minute, Kreis said he started to feel some pain in his left foot. He finished out the game, but when he took his cleats off in the locker room, the pain became strong.

He was taken to the doctor for precautionary X-rays after the game. The X-rays appear to show a fracture in his left foot, but were inconclusive. Kreis then had an MRI Saturday night, but those resuts were unknown as of press time.

Kreis, the all-time leading goal-scorer in MLS history with 98, has a team-best seven goals for the RSL this season.

Aside from a May 18 home match against Chivas in which he was suspended for an accumulation of yellow cards, Kreis has started and played the full 90 minutes in RSL's 19 other matches.

With an away match at the New England Revolution coming up this Wednesday, that streak might be in jeopardy.

SCUFFLE MARS GAME: With one ill-advised kick, followed by an apparent lack of discipline, the entire complexion of Saturday's battle of expansions teams changed.

The sequence of events that led to a red card for Real Salt Lake's Clint Mathis and Chivas USA's Esteban Arias definitely seemed to cripple RSL's attack more than its fellow expansion team.

The bizarre circumstances that led to four referees trying to break up a 22-player scuffle began innocently enough in the 18th minute when Chivas' Jesus Ochoa committed a hard foul on Mathis. What happened next started an ugly sequence of events.

As Mathis lay on the ground, Chivas' Isaac Romo kicked the ball quite hard directly at Mathis. Mathis jumped up and appeared to take a swing at Romo.

"It's an intense league. It's a physical league, and emotions run high sometimes," said RSL coach John Ellinger. "It's just something, at the moment. I think even Eddie (Pope) would've been upset with that one, and he's as casual as you can get out there."

Within seconds, all 22 bodies began converging near the middle of the field shoving each other.

After the game, Mathis said he didn't try and punch Romo, but the referee obviously saw otherwise.

By the time order was finally restored four minutes later, Mathis had already taken the walk of shame back to the locker room, as did Arias for "violent conduct," according to the referee.