Thursday, April 29, 2010

Get Well Joseph

By now you have probably heard about Shalrie Joseph entering MLS's substance abuse and behavioral health program. This is a huge loss for the Revolution. However, the important thing here is for Joseph to get the help that he needs. Take the rest of the season off if you have to. I'm not going to speculate why he entered the program. I just hope that he gets the help that he needs and that he overcomes whatever issues he is facing. He certainly has the support of the Boston Ultras.

Get well soon.

-Andrew

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Revs Outplayed by Rapids

Tonight was an entertaining game. The Rapids played very well in the first half. I was both surprised and impressed with their play. Great passing and off the ball movement. A very entertaining half of soccer by the Rapids. The Revs struggled to get anything going in the first half. Perovic scored a sweet goal off of a free kick. He's looking like a very good signing. The second half was pretty even, I would give the Revs a slight edge, but it was pretty even. Colorado's second goal was a great shot. Burpo stood no chance. At the end of the day Colorado deserved the win. They played much better than the Revs in the first half. The first half could've easily ended Colorado 3, Revolution 1.

The Revs really missed Joseph in the midfield. Colorado had too much time and space right outside the area. Hopefully he comes back soon. We really need him.

It was nice to see Jankauskas get some time. Tonight was his first game of the season.

Khano Smith entered the game in the second half. Why? I have no idea. There was a fan in the fort yelling "Hang Nicol, the coach sucks". Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, playing Khano is a pretty terrible decision but nobody deserves to be hung. As to the second part to what the fan was saying... no comment. At least for now. I will touch on the subject in a later post in the not so distant future.

The Benfica game has been confirmed. I think the ticket prices are a bit on the high side. They should be a bit cheaper. I don't know how much control the Revolution had over that, maybe Benfica had a say in how much the tickets should cost. They're a bit high when you consider that Benfica will be missing some key players due to the World Cup. They will probably play their bench along with some kids who are about to move from the Juniors to the Senior team as well players who are returning from loans. Here's a link to the Revolutions website confirming the game (Revolution to play Benfica) Two things to note, they spelled David Luiz's name wrong and said he was Portuguese. He's actually Brazilian, although if he were Portuguese that'd be pretty sweet because he's a pretty good central defender and he's only 23.

-Andrew

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Benfica vs Revs?

According to a report on Boston.com (Benfica to visit?) the Revolution might be playing host to Benfica on Wed. May 19th. The last time these two teams played against each other I was in 5th grade. Benfica won 2-1. Joao Pinto was their "star". At the time every Benfquista in Massachusetts and around the world worshipped the guy. He was like a god. But things quickly change. Anyways, I was getting off track there. The game drew around 45,000. Not bad for a Revolution game. The other two times Benfica has played here which were more recent was against the Columbian National team, who brought a very old Aspirilla who could barely walk, great player in his day. Columbia won the game 2-1. That night featured a doubleheader with the first game being the Revs playing LA. It was a great game, much better than the friendly that followed. Ted Chronopoulos scored the 2 goals with the Revs winning 2-0. The last time Benfica was here it was once again a doublehearder. The first game was the Revs facing New York. Not a good performance by the Revs, an ok game at best. Cate scored on a penalty for the Revs. The second game was much more entertaining. A very good game between Santa Clara and Benfica. Benfica won 4-2 I believe. At least 2 of the goals should not have counted as the forward, I believe he was a Brazilian that they really overpaid for, controlled the ball with his hand before scoring. Anyways, let me get back to the game at hand that might happen.

I think it would be better to have Benfica come and be a part of a doubleheader. They are going to draw a good crowd. There is a large Portuguese communnitty in New England, much larger than the census would suggest. Oh and by the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm Portuguese. Why do you think I went and saw Benfica play 3 times. By the way, I'm not a Benfquista, in fact, I despise the team and everything it stands for. But hey, that's a subject for another post. The fact is that they are a very well supported club in the Portuguese community. If the game were a doubleheader on a Saturday, the first game could be an MLS game. Lets say they draw 30,000 people who normally don't attend MLS matches. If the game happens to be a good game these same people who are huge soccer fans but not MLS fans might say "hey, these guys can play, maybe I should come here more often and watch these guys". By having Benfica plays the Revs you get a bunch of Benfquistas who are going to go to the game and support Benfica. They're not going to be interested in seeing the Revs play well. They're going to want to see Benfica kill the Revs. Trust me, it will feel like an away game when the Revs play Benfica. I think I was the only person at the stadium that night cheering when Carlos Rocha scored, oh wait my uncle who went with me also cheered.

You might be saying "well Benfica already played here twice as part of a doublehearder. Where was the bump in attendance?" Well the Revs also signed Carlos Semedo, who didn't even know how to walk. I'm not kidding you. The guy looked like he didn't know how to walk. If I had a video of the guy playing for the Revs I'd post it. No words I could type could describe what it was like seeing this guy on the field for the Revs. To make matters worse the Revs hyped him up as a Portuguese international. Problem was he wasn't. In fact nobody who's Portuguese had ever heard of the guy. Most Portuguese people took this as an insult, myself included. Signing such a bad player and then trying to claim that he was on our National team. I still know quite a few people who are pissed about that. If the Revs want to attract the Portuguese community and ensure they keep coming to games they need to sign someone who has credibility. The Semedo signing did a lot of damage. They would have been much better off not signing anyone. I know that there are some Portuguese people who attend games, but the potential is there for that number to be much higher.

There have also been reports that Sporting will be playing at Red Bull Arena. According to abola.pt (Sporting coming to NJ) Sporting has confirmed that they will be playing. I couldn't find any media outlets here in the states that could confirm this. They just said that Sporting might be playing here in June. This is a great choice. The area in which Red Bull arena is situated is full of Sporting fans. There is a large club of Sporting supporters in the area. The game will easily be a sell out. There will also be a good showing of Sporting fans who make the trip from New England to the game.

-Andrew

Monday, April 19, 2010

Revs fall to San Jose

The Revolution lost on the road to San Jose on Saturday night 2-0. One bright spot from the game was the play of Marko Perovic. His vision was very good. He looks like the player the Revolution have been missing these past couple of years. An attacking midfielder who can distribute the ball effectively to the forwards and wings. I know it was only one game, but you can tell from watching him that he knows how to play the game. I can't wait to see him play in the midfield along with Joseph especially once Twellman comes back.

Osei was a late scratch from the line up. His replacement was Darius Barnes who looked very shaky out there. He didn't look comfortable at all. Perhaps it was because it was his first game of the year. He didn't look like the Darius Barnes that we knew last year. Hopefully he can come back strong and prove that he just needed to shake off some rust.

At times the Revs were able to put some passes together and attack but for the most part they just looked flat. Once they got to the final third they had trouble creating anything. People say the Revs that showed up on Satyurday weren't the same team that showed up against DC and Tornonto. I disagree, I saw the same team. The difference was that against DC the Revs were able to score a goal off of one their very few chances and then Mansally scored a nice goal out of nowhere. Against Toronto they faced an opponed who just sucked. There's really no other word for it, Toronto sucked. They showed up in San Jose and played pretty much the same way they have all season and lost. It's been the same team all along. I'm still waiting to see the Revolution play well for an entire game this year.

-Andrew

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Is MLS stupid?

This post isn't about the Revolution. Instead it's about MLS.

I visited the site today and found this article about Freddy Montero and a possible move to Russia. Here's the link Montero to Russia?

So the article starts out like most other articles about a possible transfer. They ask Montero if he's heard anything, he says that CSKA are in negotiations about a possible transfer blah blah blah blah and so on. Pretty normal stuff. Then here's where it gets stupid and I quote the article on www.MLSsoccer.com "However, when contacted by MLSsoccer.com, the Russian club said there is no truth to Montero’s claims." What the hell is this? MLS owns Freddy Montero's contract. Wouldn't they know if CSKA had had contact about a possible transfer? I would hope so. It'd be like me calling someone up and being like "hey I heard you've been in contact with me about buying my car. Is that true?" Yeah, I don't know. I'm pretty speechless. Why would they even ask? Or maybe MLSsoccer.com and MLS don't communicate with one another, which doesn't make much sense since MLSsoccer.com is MLS's website. But hey, maybe I'm just being a bit too logical here.

By the way, Luke Wilson looks really fat in these AT&T commericals. Really fat. Approaching Vin Baker on the Celtics fat.

Time for That 70's show.

-Andrew

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

How good are the Revs? DP news?

The Revs got a big win on Saturday. 4-1 over a Toronto team that looked just plain bad. I've seen a few people try and say that the Revs looked great. Yeah, I don't know about that. They didn't look very good in the first half, but played well in the second. They were by far the better team. Toronto was just terrible. Their defense was a joke. In the second half the Revs had some good ball movement. They were able to connect passes and get guys on the wing in one on one situations and they took advantage. They made some good plays and could've scored more than 4 goals in the second half. Of course some of those chances and goals were directly attributable to Toronto's poor play but the Revs played well and deserved the win. They are also doing this without Twellman, Jankauskas, and Barnes. If they can keep up with the positive results until these guys come back they've got a good shot at the playoffs. If the team is healthy by mid-season and they are 500 at the mid way point then they're in good shape for making the playoffs.

Now that MLS has changed the DP rules many have speculated that MLS teams will certainly add a DP or two. So what about the Revolution? Honestly, I don't expect a DP this year. There are always rumors about a possible DP signing but it never materializes. I've been told that it's because they need to find the right player who will fit in with the club on the field and who will also fit in off the field (charter flights as opposed to first class and some other bullshit I was told). Well, it's been around 3 years since the rule was created. I don't think it takes 3 years to find such a player. I also don't buy the charter flights vs first class argument (Damn, I wish Dennis Bergkamp was still around, he would put an end to flying all together). Especially when you consider that most teams in Europe very rarely fly anywhere. The most common transportation for players in most leagues is a standard coach bus. Most players fly when playing in Champions League or UEFA Cup (there's no way anybody's getting me to call it the Europa League). Even then, many teams fly charter flights just like in MLS, with the exception being the richer clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United (who really aren't that rich, well, they were but then they got American oweners and well the rest is history). So I don't really see why the Revs don't have a DP. It's been 3 years. So like I was saying. I doubt this year will be any different. I hope they prove me wrong.

-Andrew

Monday, April 12, 2010

Revs 4-1 TFC

The Revs' home opener was this Saturday against Toronto FC. After an abismal first half that saw Toronto go up on a DeRosario headed goal, a 2nd half Zach Schilawski hat trick propelled NE to a 4-1 win. Great game.

Concerning the actual game, it was another great display of team character, because the first half was seriously worrying. But it was more than an attitude change that won this one. The first half was characterized by kicking the ball as far forward as possible...you know, the usual habit the Revs have been known to fall into once in a while. But they played very very well in the 2nd half. There was some really good 1st touch passing through the midfield, and some great 1-on-1 battles, and running at defenders.

Toronto also totally fell apart in the 2nd half. They sloppily gave the ball away in dangerous positions, they defended horribly, and they just generally looked discombobulated. The final goal, scored by Nyassi, should have been easily cleared. I did not see this train wreck coming at half time.

Schilawski scored three goals in his home debut. Obviously this is good. He also missed a glorious chance for a 4th goal, but you know, it was a very good game for him. The Revs have three players of age 24 years old or less filling some big shoes this season: Seth Sinovic at left fullback, Chris Tierney at left midfield, and Zach Schilawski at striker. I worried about the lack of established players filling in for the departed team leaders, but so far all three of these guys have been really good. The return of Shalrie Joseph really helped this time too.

Concerning off-the-field things: the Fort underwent a few changes this offseason. The top few rows of seats were tarped off, but it was widened to include seats in an adjascent section. The idea was to morph the section in a way that placed more people closer to the field, and probably to make it appear fuller. They also moved family season ticket holders from those sections to a section on the other side of the field, in an effort to promote the young, loud, core soccer audience in the supporters section. These changes worked. It was a hell of an atmosphere. What a way to spend a Saturday.

The other main off-the-field comment I have is that we weren't allowed to start tailgating in our assigned parking lot until 5:30 (the game started at 7:30). There were other lots we probably could have gone to in order to start earlier (we arrived around 4:30-4:45), but we were given parking passes to this one particular lot, Fidelity West, and it's right up close to the stadium and we just decided to stay there. There was a guy who came around on a golf cart to tell us to pack it up around 5 o'clock, because we didn't know about the 5:30 rule at the time; he came back at 5:10ish when he saw that we had carried on grilling. At that point we packed up and waited in the car for 20 more minutes. It was fun, thanks.

**EDIT: I've just been told that tailgating has always been restricted to 2 hours before gametime in all lots...apparently we've accidently broken that rule a couple times in the past...I'd like a 3-hour window, personally, but that's a story for another day.

It was a very successful home opener, all things considered. There were between 12 and 13 thousand fans, which isn't catestrophic, although it's below the average from two years ago. The quality of the fans in the Fort made me feel better about the overall attendance number.

Good. Bye.

-John

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Not-Stadium News

Bad news. I read an article in The Sun Chronical, via MatchFitUSA.com, that Brian Bilello is "being patient" (his own words) with the search for a new stadium. Bilello also posed the question, "Why should we spend $100 million on a new stadium and have our attendance increase only 10 percent and have to pay that off?" Bad news.

I want a new stadium in or right next to Boston (by right next to I mean on the red line, or at a midrange stop on the green line). This is a selfish wish. I don't actually live in Boston at the moment, or this area we're talking about, but I plan to do so soon. I like walking on Boston streets in the Fenway/Kenmore area during Red Sox night games, and seeing the Fenway lights, hearing the crowd react, etc, right smack in the middle of an otherwise hectic city where the streets make very little sense. Yes, I am the poetic type.

I want to experience that same thing, except with a soccer stadium. To be clear, I'm a baseball fan, and a Red Sox fan, and I'm not saying I don't appreciate it with Fenway. I'm saying I want the Revs to play there too. Somerville would suffice, however, as long as it's located close to the Davis Square T stop.

I don't particularly like Gillette Stadium. It doesn't feel like home to me. You go into the apparel shop-- which is called Patriots Pro Shop-- and you immediately see all the Tom Brady-signed helmets and Tedy Bruschi photographs, which are deliberately displayed front and center to mock me. You have to walk by them in order to get to the Revolution jerseys and scarves, which are crammed in a corner in the back. In the stadium there are Patriots championship banners on the top stairwells overlooking the field. (EDIT: at the TFC game this weekend, I didn't see the banners. This is good.) It's not the Revolution's stadium. It's not even a soccer stadium. It's Bob Kraft's Patriots empire. It's called Patriot Place.

Another disclaimer: I'm a Patriots fan too. Sort of. But we're still talking about the local US-top-flight soccer team having to deal with this dependence. Know what I mean?

Back to Bilello's comments: it doesn't sound like the Revs will be moving to such a stadium anytime soon, and the main reasons for this are financial. That is understandable, but disappointing. MLS guards its finances pretty closely, in case people haven't noticed, so I'll have to take Bilello's word for it that it's not financially feasible.

John

Sunday, April 4, 2010

DC United 0-2 Revolution

Kenny Mansally. Pause. Scored two goals within the space of two minutes this weekend at RFK. The Revs won 2-0 away to DC United.

This was a great win because it started out looking doomed. The Revs forgot they had a midfield for the first fifteen minutes. DC basically bossed the game over this opening period.

NE's character showed through, as they battled back to make it pretty even for the brunt of the game after that. They'll need that character, because the team has a few key injuries as well as a few key departed veterans from last season. Reis, Twellman, and Joseph were all absent. I'm happy with three points from these first two road games given the circumstances.

Kenny Mansally surprised me. Good for him. Really. That doesn't mean I want him inserted into the starting XI next weekend, but he was a great impact substitute yesterday and is probably worth keeping around. Another guy with a surprisingly good performance to me was the rookie fullback, Seth Sinovic. Nicol and Burns have been good at drafting defenders these past couple seasons. I guess it makes sense.

How about the performance of Jay Heaps! He provided what a color commentator ought to provide: insight that the audience wouldn't have known. There were a few instances where the camera showed Nicol shouting things at his players, and Heaps was able to tell us what exactly Nicol was saying based on experience playing under him. He was also just generally good. He had good timing, he knows the game, he sounds confident despite it being his first game in the booth-- it was just a nice broadcast to listen to.

Oh, and I didn't watch the LA game last weekend. I don't get FSC at school, and I opted to do something social instead of staying home alone to watch a stream of questionable quality and durability.

I'm happy with the three points from these two games, and can't wait for the home opener next weekend.

-John

Friday, April 2, 2010

Revs sign Khano Smith

The Revolution have signed our old friend Khano Smtih.

As one of my fellow co workers usually says "What THE FUCK!!!" Seriously, what the FUCK!!!" I can name 567,897 players that I'd rather sign. Why not sign me? Why not sign John? There is no upside to this singing. We've already seen what Khano can do with the Revolution. He can run really fast and that's about it. He is one of the worst players I have ever seen. I really question the intelligence of the person who made the decision to sign him. 95% of the time the Revs played with the guy it was like playing with a man down. I remember there used to be a video on youtube of him attempting to cross in a ball. It was a free kick outside the area and all he had to do was put in a cross into the penalty area. He went up and jus kicked the ball straigh into the air. The ball must've been 30 yards above the net. I kid you not. Someone took the video off of youtube, it was probably him because he was so embarassed by it. All he's going to do is take playing time away from younger players who have more potential and are already more productive. I don't want to seem like an asshole but come on, the guy's just not any good. If this is a sign of the things to come then it's going to be a very long season. I'm going to need a lot of beer.

If you don't like the language in the post then don't read it. Keep your five year olds away.

-Andrew


All I can say is it's great to have Andrew back...in case it's not obvious to our readers, one of us is slightly more abrasive than the other. I'll make a post on this myself in the next day or two, and you'll see it right here below Andrew's. I'm sure both will have their merit.

-John