PHILADELPHIA — Conditions were relatively cool Saturday in Philadelphia, which wound up be being a good thing for Denver goalkeeper Ryan LaPlante. Besides the bulky gear he wore on his head and torso, LaPlante jogged onto the field with something a little more unusual: a pair of baggy gray sweatpants, cinched at the waist and rolled up at the knees.
He could not help looking, in some ways, like a college student hustling late to class after an all-nighter at the library, or a boxer trying to shed pounds before a prizefight. As his teammates scurried around him in tightfitting shorts and jerseys, LaPlante had to fight a tinge of self-consciousness.