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 9, 2012
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
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
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Soccer Cards
I've collected sports cards pretty much my entire life. I started around the age of 3. I started with hockey and baseball and then basketball and football. Then in 1994 this thing called the World Cup was hosted in the U.S. and Upper Deck released a set to commemorate the event. That is when I started collecting soccer cards. Unfortunately, with no league there wasn't much to do after 94. MLS started play in 96, but there wasn't another major set until 97 (I believe, pretty sure, not 100% sure this was the first year) when Upper Deck released their first MLS set. Then I believe that they took a break in 98, came back and released a set in 99 and have been releasing them every year since.
I've always collected cards for fun and never really spent much money on them. I would get a pack when I went to CVS or Bradlees with my parents and they'd buy me a pack when we'd get to the check out line since back then they kept the cards by the registers like they do with the candy these days. I've never tried to make a profit with them and I doubt my collection of Dana Barros and Sherman Douglas cards is going to put me through retirement (Damn, I should've really focused on Dee Brown and Dino Radja as well, I think that would've gotten me there). Even so, I always got a Beckett every now and then to look up my cards and see what I had in case I wanted to sell some or make some trades, to make sure I didn't get ripped off, which is really the purpose of this post. For those of you who don't know, Beckett is pretty much the standard in card pricing. How it pretty much works is like this, Beckett puts out a few magazines each month, one for each of the major sports (basketball, baseball, and so on) as well as one that is a summary of all the major sports and some of the more minor sports out there like golf. In each magazine you'll find pricing information on all the major sets out on the market. They survey the market and report the lowest price for the card as well as the highest price for the card that they saw in their last survey of the market. For many years MLS cards were not included in any Beckett magazines. Well, today I went to the bookstore and saw one of the Beckett's that covers multiple sports. I picked it up to take a quick look and in the table of contents noticed that soccer was listed. I flipped to it and saw that MLS was now being covered by Beckett and there was a lot of detail for the MLS sets that have been released since the late 90's. I'm not sure how long Beckett has been doing this for, but I have a feeling it started at some point around the 2010 World Cup. To me this shows that MLS is gaining a following in terms of people who collect MLS cards. There is a demand for the services that Beckett offers for MLS cards. If Beckett felt that MLS didn't have a future in the hobby then they wouldn't waste their time or resources on it, or waste any of their magazine space on it. As a collector and fan of MLS I'm very happy to have Beckett covering the league's cards. I'm not sure what the MLS license is like with Upper Deck, if Upper Deck's contract with the league makes Upper Deck the exclusive producer of MLS cards, if it isn't then perhaps Topps will enter the market in the near future and release its own sets.
The last 2 Upper Deck sets have been very good, I think I have a post outstanding on the 2010 set and someone keeps reminding me about it and I keep telling him I'm going to do it and then never do, but that's another story. Anyways, Upper Deck has recently released a second set for 2011, the SP set. The SP set for other sports is a high end set and for MLS it is also a high end set, the first high end set the league has seen (as well as the first time the league has had more than one set come out in the same year). A typical normal pack for a base set will sell for something around $1.99 and contain around 10 cards. In a high end set such as this one, you can buy a box for $180. Each box will contain 6 packs of cards which contain 3 cards each. You're paying $10 per card. The reason for this is that on average each pack will contain either an autographed card or a card with a patch of a game worn jersey. To go with that, most of the cards in the set are numbered, meaning that if a card is numbered to 500, then only 500 of those cards were made. Some of the autograph and game worn cards are numbered as low as 7 which make the cards pretty rare. Again, I see this as a positive for the league as Upper Deck must be seeing demand for MLS related products if it's going to release an expensive product like this. In the Beckett I saw today, it included a quick run down of the set and even included it in its annual great gift ideas for collectors list.
If you're a fan of MLS and enjoy collecting MLS cards this is great news. We now have the most reliable source for card pricing and information covering the league. Good stuff.
-Andrew
I've always collected cards for fun and never really spent much money on them. I would get a pack when I went to CVS or Bradlees with my parents and they'd buy me a pack when we'd get to the check out line since back then they kept the cards by the registers like they do with the candy these days. I've never tried to make a profit with them and I doubt my collection of Dana Barros and Sherman Douglas cards is going to put me through retirement (Damn, I should've really focused on Dee Brown and Dino Radja as well, I think that would've gotten me there). Even so, I always got a Beckett every now and then to look up my cards and see what I had in case I wanted to sell some or make some trades, to make sure I didn't get ripped off, which is really the purpose of this post. For those of you who don't know, Beckett is pretty much the standard in card pricing. How it pretty much works is like this, Beckett puts out a few magazines each month, one for each of the major sports (basketball, baseball, and so on) as well as one that is a summary of all the major sports and some of the more minor sports out there like golf. In each magazine you'll find pricing information on all the major sets out on the market. They survey the market and report the lowest price for the card as well as the highest price for the card that they saw in their last survey of the market. For many years MLS cards were not included in any Beckett magazines. Well, today I went to the bookstore and saw one of the Beckett's that covers multiple sports. I picked it up to take a quick look and in the table of contents noticed that soccer was listed. I flipped to it and saw that MLS was now being covered by Beckett and there was a lot of detail for the MLS sets that have been released since the late 90's. I'm not sure how long Beckett has been doing this for, but I have a feeling it started at some point around the 2010 World Cup. To me this shows that MLS is gaining a following in terms of people who collect MLS cards. There is a demand for the services that Beckett offers for MLS cards. If Beckett felt that MLS didn't have a future in the hobby then they wouldn't waste their time or resources on it, or waste any of their magazine space on it. As a collector and fan of MLS I'm very happy to have Beckett covering the league's cards. I'm not sure what the MLS license is like with Upper Deck, if Upper Deck's contract with the league makes Upper Deck the exclusive producer of MLS cards, if it isn't then perhaps Topps will enter the market in the near future and release its own sets.
The last 2 Upper Deck sets have been very good, I think I have a post outstanding on the 2010 set and someone keeps reminding me about it and I keep telling him I'm going to do it and then never do, but that's another story. Anyways, Upper Deck has recently released a second set for 2011, the SP set. The SP set for other sports is a high end set and for MLS it is also a high end set, the first high end set the league has seen (as well as the first time the league has had more than one set come out in the same year). A typical normal pack for a base set will sell for something around $1.99 and contain around 10 cards. In a high end set such as this one, you can buy a box for $180. Each box will contain 6 packs of cards which contain 3 cards each. You're paying $10 per card. The reason for this is that on average each pack will contain either an autographed card or a card with a patch of a game worn jersey. To go with that, most of the cards in the set are numbered, meaning that if a card is numbered to 500, then only 500 of those cards were made. Some of the autograph and game worn cards are numbered as low as 7 which make the cards pretty rare. Again, I see this as a positive for the league as Upper Deck must be seeing demand for MLS related products if it's going to release an expensive product like this. In the Beckett I saw today, it included a quick run down of the set and even included it in its annual great gift ideas for collectors list.
If you're a fan of MLS and enjoy collecting MLS cards this is great news. We now have the most reliable source for card pricing and information covering the league. Good stuff.
-Andrew
Monday, November 21, 2011
Revs Protect 11 and some notes from around the league
This Wed. is the expansion draft and Montreal will be picking 10 players. Here's the list of players the Revs have chosen to protect and not to protect. The only real issue I have with this list is not protecting Barnes and instead protecting Nyassi. I would really like to see Barnes and Soares play together in the middle of defense for an entire season instead of having Barnes play left back where he is often exposed. He's proven he's a solid center back, so please play him there instead of guys who have proven to be unreliable. So perhaps it would make sense to sign a couple of natural left backs this offseason. As for Nyassi, I think we have better options, which I have expressed many times before.
The other interesting thing here is that Caraglio isn't being protected. Does this mean
that his stay here could be over even if he's not picked?
MLS Cup was last night and with it came some big announcements. First, there is no more balanced schedule. The good part is that it does allow for regional rivalries to develop, perhaps one day I will hate the Impact as much as I hate the Canadians. The bad, I'd like to get the chance to see every team play at least once a year which I won't be able to now.
The MLS Cup will no longer be played at a neutral site, which I really dislike. I like having the final at a neutral ground. It makes the final an event. You can plan on going well in advance and the entire weekend can be planned around it well in advance.
According to Grant Wahl, (and I must say that I actually heard about this by reading footiebusiness.com) last night was John Harkes last game for ESPN. Apparently he was told that his contract would not be renewed, sound familiar? I know a lot of people can't stand him but I didn't think he was that bad relative to what we've seen the last 5 years. I don't think Martino is any better. They're replacing Harkes with Taylor Twellman who has done some games in the past for ESPN. I don't think it will be an improvement. I'm interested to see what Harkes will do now as he has expressed an interest in coaching and was even an assistant to Bruce Arena during his time in New York.
Speaking of MLS telecasts, now that Jay Heaps is coaching the team, who's going to call the games with Feldman? I thought Heaps did a decent job. I actually didn't see too many games since I go to the games, but I do watch the away games so I'm interested in who they choose. Maybe Wynalda would do it. He played here briefly. I would love to see Wynalda do Revs games. It'd be hilarious. Sure, he might say something stupid now and then, but at least he'd give his honest opinion and hold nothing back. Can you imagine a commentator giving his honest opinion on the Revs on air during a game the past two seasons? I rest my case.
-Andrew
The other interesting thing here is that Caraglio isn't being protected. Does this mean
that his stay here could be over even if he's not picked?MLS Cup was last night and with it came some big announcements. First, there is no more balanced schedule. The good part is that it does allow for regional rivalries to develop, perhaps one day I will hate the Impact as much as I hate the Canadians. The bad, I'd like to get the chance to see every team play at least once a year which I won't be able to now.
The MLS Cup will no longer be played at a neutral site, which I really dislike. I like having the final at a neutral ground. It makes the final an event. You can plan on going well in advance and the entire weekend can be planned around it well in advance.
According to Grant Wahl, (and I must say that I actually heard about this by reading footiebusiness.com) last night was John Harkes last game for ESPN. Apparently he was told that his contract would not be renewed, sound familiar? I know a lot of people can't stand him but I didn't think he was that bad relative to what we've seen the last 5 years. I don't think Martino is any better. They're replacing Harkes with Taylor Twellman who has done some games in the past for ESPN. I don't think it will be an improvement. I'm interested to see what Harkes will do now as he has expressed an interest in coaching and was even an assistant to Bruce Arena during his time in New York.
Speaking of MLS telecasts, now that Jay Heaps is coaching the team, who's going to call the games with Feldman? I thought Heaps did a decent job. I actually didn't see too many games since I go to the games, but I do watch the away games so I'm interested in who they choose. Maybe Wynalda would do it. He played here briefly. I would love to see Wynalda do Revs games. It'd be hilarious. Sure, he might say something stupid now and then, but at least he'd give his honest opinion and hold nothing back. Can you imagine a commentator giving his honest opinion on the Revs on air during a game the past two seasons? I rest my case.
-Andrew
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Revs 0-3 Crew
The Revs lost 3-0 at home to the Crew this weekend. This is an outstanding result for the Revs faithful, and I'm not being facetious; in the second half, the supporters in the fort chanted more loudly than they've done in many weeks, and most of the lyrics were anti-Nicol and pro-Crew.
I've already renewed my season tickets for next year. But the main event is the tailgate, let's face it. The team will probably finish with the worst record in MLS; they already have sealed a last-place Eastern Conference finish. This diabolical recored might trigger some organizational changes, which are due, so I hope they finish dead-last.
Team management doesn't generate optimism in me, nor in its biggest supporters, as evidenced by their chants this weekend. They bought their first ever DP based on zero minutes of in-person scouting, as admitted by Mike Burns. Although he says it is unusual that they make a purchase based solely on videos, this is hardly the point. He's citing what they do correctly in other cases to justify what they did incorrectly in this one, so it is a flawed argument.
Not that Caraglio has been bad. In fact, he's been pretty good. But that doesn't mean the Revolution weren't careless in the way they went about getting him, and it doesn't even mean his purchase has been beneficial in an overall strategic way. His price barely qualifies him to be a designated player, and ultimately he hasn't had the impact that a DP ought to have. Benny Feilhaber had a much greater impact than Caraglio did, both in attracting fans and in improving the quality of play. Like government economic interventionism, the biggest value in the Caraglio move was its public perception, which in this case was the presence of the term "DP" in the title of the article the Revs posted on their website when they signed him. This is necessarily nothing but short-term novelty value, and as predicted, the real impact was not great. In the end, it looks like a cheap attempt to attract fans back, in the face of an an average attendance that has decreased pretty much in proportion to the team's record.
A serious change can only begin when the key management people are replaced. That includes Mike Burns and Steve Nicol.
Organizational management was poor in other ways too. For instance, we didn't even get a bonus game this season. There are usually three. (These are the "special event" games that come with the season ticket price and are announced during the season.) But you know what? The United States faced world champion Spain in June at Gillette Stadium. To be clear, I'm not using the term "world champion" in the sense that Chase Utley uses it, but you know that.
The Revolution played against Manchester United at Gillette Stadium in July. I wrote about my disappointment that we didn't get either game free as a season ticket bonus, although we got a small discount for being season ticket holders (see "Season tickets bonus games" from April 19). It was revealing of the Revolution organization that it did this. The Man United game was a great one, and my season ticket rep put my order into the front of the line at the slightly discounted price (thanks Eddie). Now they're discussing whether and how to reimburse us for the unscheduled bonus games, but those of us who are missing out are very familiar the choice they made twice this summer.
With all of this in mind, hopefully the Revolution lose their last one this weekend. It's at Toronto, so it will be poetically just if it goes 5-0 to the home team.
-John
I've already renewed my season tickets for next year. But the main event is the tailgate, let's face it. The team will probably finish with the worst record in MLS; they already have sealed a last-place Eastern Conference finish. This diabolical recored might trigger some organizational changes, which are due, so I hope they finish dead-last.
Team management doesn't generate optimism in me, nor in its biggest supporters, as evidenced by their chants this weekend. They bought their first ever DP based on zero minutes of in-person scouting, as admitted by Mike Burns. Although he says it is unusual that they make a purchase based solely on videos, this is hardly the point. He's citing what they do correctly in other cases to justify what they did incorrectly in this one, so it is a flawed argument.
Not that Caraglio has been bad. In fact, he's been pretty good. But that doesn't mean the Revolution weren't careless in the way they went about getting him, and it doesn't even mean his purchase has been beneficial in an overall strategic way. His price barely qualifies him to be a designated player, and ultimately he hasn't had the impact that a DP ought to have. Benny Feilhaber had a much greater impact than Caraglio did, both in attracting fans and in improving the quality of play. Like government economic interventionism, the biggest value in the Caraglio move was its public perception, which in this case was the presence of the term "DP" in the title of the article the Revs posted on their website when they signed him. This is necessarily nothing but short-term novelty value, and as predicted, the real impact was not great. In the end, it looks like a cheap attempt to attract fans back, in the face of an an average attendance that has decreased pretty much in proportion to the team's record.
A serious change can only begin when the key management people are replaced. That includes Mike Burns and Steve Nicol.
Organizational management was poor in other ways too. For instance, we didn't even get a bonus game this season. There are usually three. (These are the "special event" games that come with the season ticket price and are announced during the season.) But you know what? The United States faced world champion Spain in June at Gillette Stadium. To be clear, I'm not using the term "world champion" in the sense that Chase Utley uses it, but you know that.
The Revolution played against Manchester United at Gillette Stadium in July. I wrote about my disappointment that we didn't get either game free as a season ticket bonus, although we got a small discount for being season ticket holders (see "Season tickets bonus games" from April 19). It was revealing of the Revolution organization that it did this. The Man United game was a great one, and my season ticket rep put my order into the front of the line at the slightly discounted price (thanks Eddie). Now they're discussing whether and how to reimburse us for the unscheduled bonus games, but those of us who are missing out are very familiar the choice they made twice this summer.
With all of this in mind, hopefully the Revolution lose their last one this weekend. It's at Toronto, so it will be poetically just if it goes 5-0 to the home team.
-John
Monday, July 11, 2011
Nacional da Madeira
The Portuguese season gets underway this Thursday. Well, not really, sort of, yeah it doesn't. However, this Thursday a Portuguese team will be in action in a competitive match for the first time since the season and Taca ended as Nacional da Madeira takes on FH of Iceland in the first leg of a second round UEFA Cup play in. Nacional is a good club. They've got some good young players in Joao Aurelio, Candeias, and Zarko Tomasevic. Aurelio has been linked with a move to FC Porto. Candeias was a junior at Porto but was never really given a chance there, which is a shame as he's a solid player. Tomasevic is a good defender, his play last year earned him a call to the Montenegrin national team. This is a leg that Nacional can certainly win and move on from. If they do win, they'll join Vitoria de Guimaraes in the third round of qualification. They've got the quality to make it to the group stage, it will certainly be difficult with teams like Sevilla, PSV, Roma, Lazio, and other good teams entering in the tournament in the later stages before group play begins. Making it to the group stage would be a big accomplishment and the extra tv money and gate money would certainly help the club.
Cristiano Ronaldo began his development at Nacional before making his move to Sporting.
The Portuguese season gets underway in August with the Super Taca which will feature FC Porto taking on Guimaraes. It'll be here before you know it.
I can see Perovic fitting in very well at Nacional. I'd love to see him sign with them.
-Andrew
Cristiano Ronaldo began his development at Nacional before making his move to Sporting.
The Portuguese season gets underway in August with the Super Taca which will feature FC Porto taking on Guimaraes. It'll be here before you know it.
I can see Perovic fitting in very well at Nacional. I'd love to see him sign with them.
-Andrew
Monday, July 4, 2011
"Kill The Game"
In Jeff Lemieux's RSL preview piece on Revolutionsoccer.net, he says the Revs will try to "kill the game" in Salt Lake this weekend. Notice I used the word "will" instead of "should"; this is not an opinion piece. It's a beat-writer-type of article. The kill-the-game attitude comes from Nicol. Here's an excerpt:
"'The game was dead,' said head coach Steve Nicol. 'It was ideal for us. It's exactly what we spoke about before the game. Try to kill the crowd, try to take the heat out of the game and that's exactly what we did until the free kick that was given against us (which led to Seattle's first goal).'"
Why is a professional team's ideal game "dead" and ambition-less? I could take this as unimaginative coach-speak, but it's actually very descriptive of their style.
Later in the piece, Nicol says of the upcoming RSL game: "It's a bit of the same as we did at the weekend...we want to go there and kill the crowd, kill the game, try and get ourselves ahead again and this time hopefully things will go with us and we'll stay that way." It seems that Nicol can find a different reason to kill every game he's involved in, as long as he's not facing a team of eleven cones. His attitude toward offensive production is actually funny: the Revs will "try and get [them]selves ahead," and "hopefully things will go with [them]" as if they are powerless to affect their scoring production, and need to just "hope" they get lucky every week.
Again, I could choose to read this as if it's typically vague coach-speak, but I know better, because the team really plays just like this. When RSL came to Gillette, they played their B team because they were resting some of their best players for the Champions League final. RSL still won 2-0. This time it could be uglier. But hey-- maybe "things will go with us."
-John
"'The game was dead,' said head coach Steve Nicol. 'It was ideal for us. It's exactly what we spoke about before the game. Try to kill the crowd, try to take the heat out of the game and that's exactly what we did until the free kick that was given against us (which led to Seattle's first goal).'"
Why is a professional team's ideal game "dead" and ambition-less? I could take this as unimaginative coach-speak, but it's actually very descriptive of their style.
Later in the piece, Nicol says of the upcoming RSL game: "It's a bit of the same as we did at the weekend...we want to go there and kill the crowd, kill the game, try and get ourselves ahead again and this time hopefully things will go with us and we'll stay that way." It seems that Nicol can find a different reason to kill every game he's involved in, as long as he's not facing a team of eleven cones. His attitude toward offensive production is actually funny: the Revs will "try and get [them]selves ahead," and "hopefully things will go with [them]" as if they are powerless to affect their scoring production, and need to just "hope" they get lucky every week.
Again, I could choose to read this as if it's typically vague coach-speak, but I know better, because the team really plays just like this. When RSL came to Gillette, they played their B team because they were resting some of their best players for the Champions League final. RSL still won 2-0. This time it could be uglier. But hey-- maybe "things will go with us."
-John
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