Thursday, January 19, 2012

Jeff Causey's back

The Revs have a new color analyst, former Revs goalie Jeff Causey who will join Brad Fedlman in the broadcast booth. It's an interesting choice to replace Heaps with. It never crossed my mind, then again I didn't really think about it a whole lot. Once again, we'll have to wait and see on this one. I've never heard him talk about the game, although I do know someone who has met him a few times who had nothing but good things to say about him as a person. That's certainly a good start.

Feldman, we could use someone else up there. There were a few events this year and a few comments made by him that really rubbed me the wrong way. I know I'm not alone on that.

The Revs drafted a left back, that is a very good thing.

-Andrew

Monday, January 9, 2012

Two Signings

The Revolution announced the signing of two Columbian players today, 27 year old defender John Lozano and 23 year old attacking midfielder/forward Fernando Cardenas. Both players come from America de Cali, which is historically one of Columbia's better clubs although they've hit a rough patch the last few years and were recently relegated to the second division. It's not yet known how much they'll be hitting the cap for and if the Revs own the contracts or if they are on loan.

Lets start with Lozano, the center back. He'll be fighting for a place with Barnes most likely as it appears that Soares should have his spot secure in the back. I really don't want to see Barnes at left back. He doesn't have the speed to play it. He's a center back. Please play him at his natural position where he's good. I would love to see Barnes and Soares get the chance to play together in the middle on a consistent basis. If Lozano outplays Barnes and earns a starting spot then we've got a very capable back up in Barnes in case one of the starters gets hurt. One thing that has me a little worried about Lozano is the fact he only played in 7 games during the last season, which is an 18 game season. He played in 7 straight weeks which means one of two things likely happened. He got hurt and lost his place or his play lead him to the bench. That's just speculation of course since I've never seen him play. So we're going to have to wait until the season gets underway to judge him. It also might take some time for him and Cardenas to adapt since MLS is a completely new league for them.

Now onto Cardenas who's profile at zerozero.pt does not list a team for him in the 2011 Apertura as it does for Lozano. Check it out here. According to the site the team he last played for was Tolima. Zerozero tends to be a very accurate site when it comes to rosters and player statistics, so the fact that he isn't listed on a roster for 2011 is a bit strange. Again, he's a player I don't know anything about so we're going to have to wait and see how he adapts to the league.

If these guys prove to be good players they could attract some people to the games. There is a good size Columbian population in the Southeastern part of the state. The impact won't be huge but when you're near the bottom in the league when it comes to attendance every bit helps.

So the final verdict here is that we're going to have to wait and see what these guys can do and what their cap hit will be and if the Revs own their contracts or not. I would've preferred we sign a left back instead of a center back, but there is still a lot of time before the season starts so signing a left back remains a possibility.

-Andrew

Monday, January 2, 2012

Bob Ryan Mentions Revolution

A new year has arrived and that means people making all kinds of predictions about what's going to happen in the new year. I was over at Boston.com and was reading one such article written by Bob Ryan. He starts off with the Bruins and goes on to the Celtics, and so on. As I was reading the section on the Celtics I wondered if he'd mention the Revs and didn't think he would. To my surprise, on page 2 he did mention the Revs and did a solid job, giving them a nil chance of winning it all in 2012. You can check out the article here.

I have no idea if Bob Ryan is a fan of soccer or if he hates it. The fact that he included the Revs in his article would seem to indicate that he at least respects the sport and treats it so. The lack of coverage of the Revs by guys like Ryan hurts supporters. The Revs have a couple of beat writers for the Boston Herald and Boson Globe. I read mainly the Globe, which has Frank Dell'Apa, who does a solid job covering the team. The problem with Dell'Apa is that he's the beat writer and columnist all in one. He's the only one at the Globe who covers the Revs. It's a problem because as a beat writer he needs to maintain relationships with the team. He can't just go and write a column bashing someone's play or the coach's decisions. If he does, are they going to take the time to talk to him next time he's around and actually answer his questions seriously? Probably not. As opposed to someone like Ryan who doesn't have any contact with the players or the team but would follow the team closely from a distance and report on the team, good or bad. Can you imagine the type of stuff Ryan would've written about the Fort had he been knowledgeable on the situation. Sure there are blogs like this around the internet that give their opinions on what's going on, but you can't compare the reach of any to something like the Boston Globe/Boston.com. That's why it'd be so huge to have someone like Ryan cover the team on a regular basis, even if it was just once a month to start. Who knows, maybe we're not as far off as we think of having something like that happen.

In some other interesting news, Kevin Garnett has bought a small stake in Roma. KG's a big fan of the game and I'm interested in seeing what kind of a role he take on with the team. Will he be completely hands off or will he play a part in the decision making or promotion of the team. What will happen if Liverpool and Roma play in Europe? Will he and Lebron James have a run in? That would certainly be interesting. Maybe we can get KG to come to the Fort one of these days. Now that would be awesome.

-Andrew