Traffic was a non-issue on Sunday, we got to Foxboro without a single traffic issue. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. No excuses on being late, unless there was some horrible accident in Providence or wherever else they traveled from I didn't see evidence of (even if there was, it was horrible planning - if you're travel weary, stay on-site at Gillette and sleep in.) Not like we have an urban stadium or anything...my guess is LA tried unsuccessfully to apply the Revs' "wait for it...no rush" Burnsian player acquisition strategy to their travel routine and it didn't work. Whether it's traffic or soccer LA seems to duck accountability and make excuses. Traffic 5, LA Galaxy 0. The "Measure 9x and cut once" philosophy is OURS, damn it!
Did you know that Kelyn Rowe is tied with Graham Zusi for the MLS lead in assists with 5? Tactical shift into a central midfield role has Kelyn Rowe’s confidence soaring Midfielder exploded for three goals, three assists last week June 5, 2013 Jeff Lemieux
Justmy two cents.....but after watching that game, yes the midfielders where impressive......but i was completely blown away by the play of Goncalves!!.....IMO he is by far the best player on the team by a distance. He is as steady as they come, always where he is supposed to be and physical as hell!!.....he is the guy i want leading this team on the field!!......he may be playing the best at his position in the league right now That being said....I am sure we wont offer him a contract next year
You write a nice, rational analystic post and then you have to go an spoil it with an irrational jab. Did someone use your coffee mug for an ash tray? Do you need a hug or something?
Well, the man is going to require a raise - we are going to have to pony up to keep him. Plus there's the small matter of a transfer fee to the Swiss club that has him under contract.
MLS requires all loans to come with built-in buy options, so the price would already have been worked out. It's just a matter of the Revs deciding if they want to exercise that option or not, which at this point I don't see how they wouldn't want to.
I agree with you but just in case the revs go Larentowicz or Perovic on him, there is always a sliver of a doubt in my mind. Stellar signing, possibly the best Intl signing in the Burns era.
different situation. that was a team in chaos. not clear that re-signing would him have made a big difference, and not clear what the revs needed at the time (other than everything) or where they should have been putting their resources. in short, there was no plan in place. Goncalves is one of the central elements (perhaps THE central element) in a team that is well into a re-building plan. I would be absolutely shocked if Heaps lets Goncalves get away.
We know that all hypothetical postulations are illusions so no one can know for sure what will happen at the end of the year---- but--- no rational, knowledgable fan, after seeing how important this player has been would harbor a shred of doubt that the Revs will do everything in their power to resign this player. Period. To invoke cynicism as the reason to think otherwise shows a severe lack of reality testing. So there ! ! !
Then you must not have come from or through Boston. 93 was pretty slow both ways for quite a while before the game.
Is it really Heaps' decision, though? I forget how the process works. I'm guessing it goes like... Heaps - "Hey, Mike, we need to keep this guy." Burns - "Okay, Jay. It won't be easy, but I'll try really really hard, I promise."
Except Burns doesn't need to negotiate. All he needs to do is send a check... from MLS HQ (presumably because it would be allocation money).
Sure, things were "different" then, but aren't they always? If the Revs knew how much it would take to sign him at the time they took him on loan, they should have had a pretty good line in the sand to see if he would be worth signing. Of course, they didn't really have him very long, he was coming off a serious injury, playing with a new team in a new country on an unfamiliar surface, so I don't know how much they thought they'd be able to glean from that to know whether he was worth the cost to sign him. Or if they had crazy unrealistic expectations, like scoring 5 goals in 10 games. Yeah, there was no plan in place at all. And instead of keeping the "pretty good" parts to the team and using their resources to upgrade the weaker areas of the team, they chose to upgrade the parts that were already at least OK, while not doing anything to upgrade the more obvious weaknesses. They spun their wheels with a lot of work, but didn't make the team better. I hope so too, as this seems like a no-brainer. If it comes to freeing up space elsewhere on the roster, there are other guys who are highly paid and underachieving who could be let go int he off-season if need be. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe they will make the move that seems obvious, but there have been too many times when that hasn't happened, hence the skepticism.
Goncalves has been essentially confirmed as the captain of the team for the remainder of the year. Even though this is the same team that dumped their previous year's MVP without much of a thought, I doubt they'll disrupt the 2014 team's chemistry that much to save on a loan fee. Just a guess, but it can't be that much of a loan fee either, since he was a bench player for a team in serious financial trouble.
I suspect it was the latter. I think they assumed he would become a top striker in the league and have a transformational effect like Henry. I think they genuinely believed he would take them into the playoffs. You can say that it was bad evaluation, however I think Nicol and Burns also underestimated the overall quality of the league.
Serious question -- are there times when Heaps has failed to make an obvious move? Seems to me like he has a really good record on the moves he's made -- not perfect, but when things don't work out he cuts bait and moves on. Lots of his decisions have worked out, and I can't think of anything obvious that he did or failed to do. Well Heaps has said all along that the management is committed to giving him what he needs, and I see no reason to think he's spinning that. And despite the endless "FO is trying" jokes, I haven't seen anything in the Heaps era to indicate that FO can get done the deals Heaps wants.
Are you taking about the "dumping" of Perovic? If I remember correctly, he was coming back from major surgery and was also looking for a raise. And at the time, the team had all kinds of needs. Goncalves, on the other hand, is heathy (*knocks wood*), and providing leadership to a team that has a fair number of pieces in place. I agree with you -- if the team has a good year and the defense continues to hang together, they won't dump Goncalves to avoid a loan fee.
They should have stayed onsite in Foxboro then. By the way, the board is nice and positive these days...
I agree but this FO still needs to make significant prgress towards better international signings. Heaps deserves full credit on Sene and Goncalves but Jose Moreno and John Lozano were both wastes. Jury's still out on Toja and Cisse but they are expensive depth when a guy on that salary should be a lock starter. Trading either for defensive depth is an obvious move Heaps should make. We are loaded with attackers and Caldwell is keeping both Cisse and Simms off the field. This team is most vulnerable in the back if a starter goes down so more depth is needed to feel comfortable. Just like getting a legit forward in Agudelo was an obvious move, getting a legit left back is too. Cardenas is another example - he contributed, I always liked the heart he showed but still wasn't worth a SI spot for me. Bengtson is an unmitigated bust, trading him is an obvious move to me, to get depth at left back. Heaps should cut bait this summer rather than let his value drop further. Last year I was glad he cut bait with Benny but thought he could have gotten more value in the summer, but it did work out. So he does recognize some obvious moves but not others.
I think he's a bit slow. I've been calling for a 4-3-3 (or a 4-1-4-1) since last year. I've also been saying for a while that Rowe needs to play centrally, that Diego needs to play on the wing, and that we need to get a holdup striker with strength and a good first touch (like Agudelo). It took Heaps about a month or two this year to realize those things, but he does seem to be catching on and reacting quicker that he did last year.
When they declined the option on Caraglio, the story they gave us was that they wanted to keep him, but couldn't afford the buyout price (even though they negotiated that price when they agreed to the loan deal). So, based on history, it's entirely possible that the option for Goncalves could also been beyond their price range. Hopefully, they have learned from their mistakes and got a better option price this time. I think it is likely that they will decide to keep him, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
From what I remember Heaps said something to the affect that "I made the call on Caraglio," meaning it was Heaps that thought Caraglio was too pricey and Heaps, of course, had nothing to do with negotiating Caraglio loan fees. Clearly, Heaps valued Caraglio differently then Nicol and this is fairly common when you have a coaching and/or GM change. A new Coach will normally move out some quality players who they feel are overvalued in order to make room for the rebuilding process and Caraglio was just one of those players.