Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Revolution are NOT a Club

If there's one thing that pisses me off it's when someone calls the Revolution a Club. The Revolution are NOT a club. The Revolution is a team, which is owned by an owner, Robert Kraft. Robert Kraft has the final say on anything that goes on with the Revs. He has that right, he owns the team. If he wants to fire everyone in the front office and release players, he can do that, he's the owner. If he wants to raise or lower ticket prices he can do that whenever he feels like it. I think you get the picture, he can do whatever he wants with the team and not worry about losing his job because he owns the team. The supporters have no say whatsoever when it comes to running the team or choosing who runs the team. We as supporters have two options, show up and support the team on game day or not show up.

On the other hand, a club doesn't really have an owner, I guess you could say it's owned by its supporters since they are the ones voting on key issues. The supporters pay a monthly due and are often season ticket holders (some clubs require you be a season ticket holder, others don't). Clubs have elections to fill important positions such as president, vice president, and so on. These people are voted in by the members of the club to run the club on a day to day basis. They face re-election every so often as stated in the club's by laws. Supporters hold these people accountable. If the supporters feel you are not doing a good job, they will not vote for you during the next election and you are stuck without a job. On the other hand, if they like you they'll vote for you and you get to keep your job. Kind of sounds like a democracy, which I hear is a great thing. Sometimes there will be things which require members to vote in order for the President to go on with the final go ahead. Some examples include taking on a bank loan, building a new stadium, approving the fiscal year budget, and so on. Each club is different and has different rules in regards to these types of issues. So, I think you get the basic picture of what a club is.

Last time I checked, I as a supporter of the New England Revolution do not have any of these rights. Sure, I can email them a suggestion or go to a meeting in which the front office is present, but I don't have a vote which is binding. If they want to, they can ignore everything I have to say and at the end of the day they have a job regardless if the supporters approve of the job they're doing.

So please, don't refer to the Revolution as a club. Don't call them the club. Please, please don't. Because they're not a club, they're a team, which is owned by an owner.

Thanks,
-Andrew

P.S. I shall remain Unseen until Thursday.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Ode to Foxboro Police Officers

Why do you have to force yourself with power and control
Why do you have to live your life playing up a role
Intimidating people with your wall of sight and sound
You and your kind destroy our underground.
All the happiness you destroy
All the brutal tactics you always employ
All the fucking bullshit when will it ever stop?
The comparison is obvious: you're just a fucking cop.
Officer-- you act like an animal, you're out of control
Officer-- what the hell is wrong with you
Wear a tie if you want to wear a uniform
Join the army if you wan to conform
Tough guy asshole do what you can
Whatever you destroy we'll create it again.

-Officer, Operation Ivy

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Boston Sports, June 18th, 2011

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair"

-A Tale of Two Cities

I have been a huge Bruins fan my entire life. I have been watching them since I was a little kid, over on UPN 38, yes, there was a time when UPN 38 was awesome. To watch them win the Cup this year was unbelievable. Really, it was. When I saw Chara lift the cup I was still having a hard time believing that we had just won the Cup. I really can't describe the joy that came over me when we won the cup. The rest of the week in this city has been amazing. The vibe that's been going around is awesome. Everywhere you look people are celebrating and talking about winning the Cup. As a Bruins fan, this has just been an amazing week here in the city of Boston.

On Saturday morning I went with my cousin and his young son to the parade. We made sure we got there early so we could get a good place. We waited for hours and when the parade finally got to where we were, it did not disappoint. The crowd went crazy and the players were great! They were so into it. Andrew Ference looked right at me, put his thumb up and goes "Yeah!!! We won the Cup!!!" I pretty much did the same thing back simultaneously. This team is a great group of guys, they really connect with the fans. It's their style of play and the way they conduct themselves both on and off the ice. After the parade the city was packed with people. I've never seen so many people in a city. It seemed like the entire city was packed with people having a good time. It was the best of times.

I made my way over to Gillete Stadium to watch the game last night. I entered the stadium and someone from the team saw I was going to the Fort and said "going to the Fort, you better behave" I didn't think anything of it and was kind of like "haha" and continued on my way. I then approached the Fort and someone once again told me I should behave and I thought to myself "uhh yeah, sure" I really had no idea why this was being said to me. I then entered the Fort and had the same thing said to me once again and this time I was like "whoa, what's going on here?? this place seems pretty uptight today". I looked around and noticed a much heavier presence of security than usual and I also noticed that Fort was pretty empty. The supporters groups appeared to be missing quite a few people. So me and John watched the first half, an entertaining game of soccer. We saw someone get kicked out, who appeared to be sitting near the front. Nothing too out of the ordinary. We don't see people get kicked out at every game, but we see someone get kicked out every now and then, usually because they're pretty intoxicated. The second half started, the usual going on in the Fort. Then all of a sudden I see the majority of one of the supporters group along with members of the other two being kicked out of the Fort. We were both quite confused as we hadn't seen anything happen. We were wondering why they were being kicked out. All of a sudden the Fort got really quiet. Nobody was chanting or singing. It was pretty dull. We met a couple of guys who were sitting by us and we tried figuring out why the supporters had been kicked out. One of them said it was probably because of swearing, which we found odd since we hadn't seen anything happen that doesn't usually happen. With about two minutes left in the game we witnessed another fan being thrown out of the game. We left the stadium extremely confused about what had just happened. We had witnessed the most loyal Revs fans being kicked out of the stadium and we had no idea why. It just didn't make any sense.

Flash forward to today and we check the Revs Facebook page. What you will find is a war of words between the supporters groups of the New England Revolution and the team itself. The supporters being kicked out were indeed thrown out for swearing. I'm not even going to go into that right now. I will save that for another day. Relations between these groups and the Revs has never been great as far as I know, it was so bad at one point that the largest of the groups almost broke up. The fact that the team and the supporters groups are on such bad terms with one another is embarrassing. It's irrelevant, who's right or wrong in this argument. The fact alone that this happened is disgraceful. Just take a look at the Facebook page and read the comments for yourself. Has this ever happened between the supporters and the front office of any other MLS team? I'll give my opinion on the swearing and chanting later, but I just can't get over the fact that the relationship between the team's front office and the supporters group has reached this point. It's a new all time low. The fact that happened last night is an embarrassment not only for us, not only for MLS and American soccer, it's embarrassing for soccer worldwide. I didn't think the Revs could reach a lower point, but they have. It is indeed the worst of times to be a Revolution supporter.

-Andrew

Revolution 1-1 Fire

The Revs drew the Fire 1-1 Saturday in an exciting game. There were a lot of scoring chances, and it was generally a pretty well-played game by both teams. It was one of those games where Sainey Nyassi showed off his speed but didn't look lost or stupid in front of goal; he was actually useful overall in this game. I'm not going to hold his missed shots against him because a few of them were pretty close, and I didn't hear anyone around me in the Fort call him an idiot.

The only player who had a really bad moment was Kenny Mansally, who missed a wide-open header right in front of the net, in the center. Lekic's goal was pretty good, Joseph was himself...the defense was good except for their unwillingness to pass when there's an opportunity to kick it as far forward as possible, which is more of a given than a weekly rated category.

Oduro's goal was the on-field highlight of the night for me. It was one of those individual runs where instead of making "moves", he turned the defenders inside out by running directly at them and making his cuts late. The shot came when he appeared to be in the middle of a juke, and nobody, including Reis, was ready for it. It looked so cool, and went past Reis so easily, without being tucked way in the corner.

This guy named Ryan Guy, whom I'd never seen play, came on for the last 20 minutes on the left wing. He looks like my kind of player: his game looks based on being in available positions when the Revs have the ball, and making the right decisions quickly. When the Revs lost the ball, he just kept hustling the whole time to get into good defensive positions. I think he'll prove to be very dangerous in counterattacks because of his drive to get in the right place as soon as possible when possession changes. Most Revs forward/mid players run run run when they have the ball, and then slouch as soon as they lose it. Not this guy. (His name rolls off the tongue so naturally.)

Security in the Fort was crazy, and there was no obvious reason why. The sheer number of them was uncharacteristically high from the moment we got there...but they didn't just stand around like union cops on detail. They hassled EVERYONE. Andrew was asked a question about his future behavior (he had just gotten there, so it was a pre-emptive talking-to)...he later told me he knew he had a reputation in some places, but not yet at Gillette. They asked someone who appeared to be a mother with two young sons if she had any connection with some guy she was seen with earlier, and she told them a few times that she was only responsible for the two kids she was with. Andrew and I asked a few others in the section if they knew what was going on. Nobody could figure it out. A group of these guys escorted what appeared to be an entire supporters group out, and then another guy later left with three security guys around him. None of these people appeared to be dangerous, or even drunkenly impaired at any significant level. If anyone knows what the deal was, please let us know, either in the comments or in an email to bostonultras@yahoo.com.

The next Revs home game isn't until after the Man United game, so that's the next time we'll be at Gillette. July 13th 8pm. The parking lot around 5 or 6.

-John

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Nuno Gomes

It was announced today that Nuno Gomes will be leaving Benfica. He has been linked to the Revolution in the past as well as with Toronto FC. Lets assume that the Revs are interested in signing him at the moment, after all, they're trying to sign two DP's as we speak. Would Nuno Gomes be a good signing? Well, we can't score goals and Gomes is a forward. Seems to make some sense. There is a large Portuguese population in the area, most of whom support Benfica for whom Gomes has spent the majority of his career playing for. So he could definitely put some people in the seats. On the other hand he turns 35 in July and has barely played the last two years. He has had a history of struggling to stay fit and coming over to play on field turf would probably be Jankauskas like. He'd help improve attendance but he wouldn't help us win as I don't think he'd be able to stay healthy and he's pretty much done. For DP money, we can find someone better. There are actually many players in the Portuguese league who the Revs could sign who would help the attack and help the attendance numbers. Many of the players would probably fall below the DP salary level.

-Andrew