This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Play had stopped, but Jordan Allen's racing heart would not.
Another dreaded episode. They always surfaced at the worst time. And this, one of the biggest games of his life, was an awful time.
It was the opener of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand against Myanmar last May. As a Myanmar player briefly went down injured and was being attended to, Allen's breaths were familiarly cut shorter and shorter. His heart accelerated on, when it should've pulled the reins back on itself.
The Real Salt Lake player from Rochester, N.Y., improvised a game-plan in his head. In order to mask the onset symptoms, he needed as much time as possible to ride it out while the opposing player was looked at. So when it was time to resume, the ball, of course, rolled to Allen's feet.
But the breaths were still short and the pace of his heart still on turbo. Allen did next what no one expected: He kicked the ball out of bounds. He wasn't ready.
"Everybody was upset I kicked the ball out of bounds and took time," said the RSL player entering his third year with the club. "But they didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't really let on that something that was happening."
Now the RSL man finally knows what was happening — and knows it won't happen again.
What was going on beneath Allen's chest was the result of an extra electrical pathway between the heart's upper and lower chambers that causes a sudden rapid heartbeat. It happened in every match he played in the U-20 World Cup. It's happened in several matches since he was 13 or 14, when physicians first informed him that after several heart tests, it was just asthma.
Out of breath for as many as four or five minutes at a time, Allen's body — working overtime to compensate for the extra work his heart was doing — would send him into immediate fatigue on the pitch.
The lingering symptoms held him back in situations he felt he would've otherwise thrived in. During his first match with the U.S. U-17s in Jamaica in Jan. 2011, his heart rate darted upward and it was again a struggle to breathe. Since previous physicians said he had asthma, that was his only explanation to the coaching staff.
But he didn't carry an inhaler, because the asthma diagnosis wasn't accurate. Former U-17 coach Wilmer Cabrera noticed Allen gasping for air and told him to grab his inhaler.
"And I had nothing to tell him," said Allen, who had to be subbed off in the 26th minute. "I just had to say, 'I don't know.' "
It wasn't until his preseason physical prior to the 2016 season that RSL's training staff finally solved the puzzle.
To find out that Allen had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome — a condition so rare it affects roughly four out of every 100,000 people — RSL went through its annual process of electrocardiograms (EKGs), echocardiograms and cardiac follow-ups. The tell turned out to be a very specific marking in an EKG reading.
Once found and identified, the procedure, which was optional to Allen, only kept him off the field for a total of seven days.
In order to slow the extra flow of electricity to Allen's heart, the procedure burned the extra tissue in his heart, so that once adrenaline hit him, his heartbeat wouldn't randomly soar uncomfortably high.
Once Allen decided to go ahead with the surgery, he left RSL's preseason camp in Tucson, Ariz., on a Monday, had the procedure Wednesday, left the hospital the same day and was back with the team in Arizona a few days later. Within a week, he was playing. He was a late sub in RSL's first leg against Tigres UANL in Mexico in CONCACAF Champions League on Feb. 24.
"The symptoms Jordan was going through were just crazy," RSL head athletic trainer Tyson Pace said. "To find an answer was really nice."
Now beyond the fear of another oncoming episode, Allen's more at ease. Every year, the idea of an entrance physical terrified him. Allen knew there was a heart condition that wasn't identified. Pursuing a possible fix meant possibly finding out the worst.
"I figured something would come up and that it might be the time that something's wrong and I can't play again," he said.
When Pace and the RSL training staff informed Allen that surgery would be best way to eliminate future episodes, he didn't shudder. Instead, Pace said, Allen did hefty research on the condition and the potential procedure — not a reaction you'd expect from a 20-year-old.
Allen had enough of the uncertainty.
"He felt like he had control of his heart again," Pace said.
Basically kicking the ball out of bounds most of his soccer career in order just to buy himself some more time, Jordan Allen's finally ready to play on.
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
About Jordan Allen
Age • 20
Height • 5-foot-11
Weight • 160 pounds
Position • Forward/midfielder/defender
Hometown • Rochester, N.Y.
Acquired • Signed to a Homegrown contract Dec. 31, 2013
Statistics • Allen has 26 regular-season appearances since 2014, including 12 starts. Logged 1,083 minutes in 2015, scoring one goal and notching an assist. —
Real Salt Lake at Sporting KC
P At Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kan.
Kickoff • Saturday, 6:30 p.m.
TV • KMYU
Radio • 700 AM
Records • RSL (1-0-2), Sporting KC (3-0-0)
Last meeting • Sporting KC 3, RSL 1 (Aug. 13, 2015, U.S. Open Cup semifinal)
About RSL • Due to a rash of injury and suspension, RSL will be without nine first-teamers Saturday night. … Starters Kyle Beckerman, Jamison Olave and Burrito Martinez are serving red-card suspensions stemming from the 2-2 draw at Portland on March 19. … Midfielder Javier Morales (broken rib) is out and could possibly return to training next week. … RSL is one of three remaining unbeaten teams in MLS, one of the other being Sporting KC. … Forward Joao Plata was named MLS Player of the Month for March on Thursday, the third player in club history to receive the honor.
About Sporting KC • Captain Matt Besler (concussion) will not play against RSL on Saturday night. … Besler suffered the concussion while with the U.S. men's national team in Guatemala. … Midfielder Roger Espinoza is out due to red-card suspension. … The Kansas City Star reported that midfielders Paulo Nagamura (calf) and Justin Mapp (toe) are also out Saturday. … Graham Zusi, who started and scored in the 4-0 U.S. win over Guatemala on Tuesday is expected to be available. … Sporting KC has allowed one goal through three matches, the fewest in MLS in 2016.