LIVERMORE, Calif. and MESA, Ariz. -- As Julio Benitez sits in a hotel conference room during Real Salt Lake's preseason preparations in February, his hand is pressed against his chest, in the shape of a claw. It's as if he's searching for a piece of his heart that is no longer there, but he knows that there is now a hole where there was once a whole. What's gone can't be replaced.
"It's always going to be like that," he said, his face creased with sorrow. "There will always be that one piece missing.