4-0 Oka with his second from 25 yards (tucked in just under the crossbar). Takes off his shirt and gets a yellow.
Since you asked ... it's a good record. It means virtually nothing, but I'd rather be 6-0 than 0-6. This goes back to the All Star game argument. Is playing Chelsea a good thing or a waste? Does winning prove anything? Does losing? These games mean nothing. It appears that the rookies can play, at least against the level they've played against. Now comes the test. Here's hoping they can do the same with the season here.
Nope. Again, it doesn't mean anything either way. What I personally take out of the preseason ... did the rookies play well against the particular level of competition, did the veterans get some good time out there getting in shape and most importantly, did you suffer any injuries that will affect your season?
I see the results as a reflection on the current mood of the team. A 6-0 record with the team firing on all cyclinders (don't care who it is, when you have a +20 in 6 games, its impressive) has a lot of confidence. When you are losing to USL teams (Chicago), you are suffereing. I think the first game will reflect that.
I was at the game, and am happy to offer my observations for those who may be interested. In general, the Revs were vastly superior to New Orleans, which is early in its preseason. New England was on cruise control all night, and still carried 75% of the possession. If they had been fully engaged they could have had 8-10 goals. They had tons of time on the ball all night. The announced attendance was 1,936, which must be close to capacity for LSU's soccer field. We arrived at kickoff and had trouble finding seats. The stadium announcer repeatedly trumpeted that this was a historic night for Baton Rouge, since it is only the second time ever that an MLS team has played here. They were selling commemorative T-shirts for $15 each. Baton Rouge isn't known as a soccer hotbed, and I was surprised at the turnout. I'd say half the spectators were under 20. Here's my play-by-play. 2 - Ralston takes a free kick from near the right touchline, about 20 yards from the endline. A scramble in the box, Riley touches the ball over to Cristman, who viciously stabs the ball high into the net from about six yards. For a second I thought it might go over. 1-0 7 - Cristman is down on the far sideline for close to a minute. N.O. has the ball and is trying to build an attack. After a long time, Riley gets upset and says something to the ref about the fact that Cristman is down. Yellow card. 11 - Dorman takes a corner kick. First time I realized he was on the field. 17 - Sims gets a knock right in front of me, but I couldn't see the play because everyone's diving around me trying to get a free t-shirt. He walks it off. 23 - N.O. has its first meaningful counterattack, and a header across the face of the goal is narrowly wide. 27 - Joseph, who until this point has seemed disinterested, ricochets a pass off an opponent, then carries the ball to the top of the box. He lays off to Ralston, looking for the return pass, but Ralston instead squares across the 18to a wide open Khano Smith, who blast for the far corner, but the keeper is down well to save. 29 - Sims is hacked down at the top of the box. No call. 32 - Smith carries the ball deep on the left and centers. A N.O. defender tries to head clear and almost lobs the keeper. The ball lands softly on the roof of the net. 37 - Shockers corner (the only one of the game, I think). Astonishingly wide open attacker trips over his own feet while trying to line up a volley. The ball bounces in the box and is cleared. Crsitman is down again. 39 - Some time in the past couple of minutes Shalrie Joseph came out for Wells Thompson. Joseph did very little tonight. I was disappointed, because he is my favorite Revs player. 42 - Smith comes down the left side again, crosses all the way across the box to Sims, who centers for Cristman. He can't get off a clean shot, and the ball comes out to Larentowicz, who pounds it well wide from 18. So far wide that it is screaming toward a playground that LSU has installed a mere 20 feet over the endline, which is filled with small children. A man on a cell phone stops talking long enough to parry the shot back onto the field of play, then immediately resumes his conversation. 45 - Ralston feeds a pass ahead to Cristman, who is hauled down from behind. Khano Smith takes the free kick from about 20 yards out, and shoots wide. Second half 46 - Oka is on for Sims. 50 - Larentowicz shoots wide of the far post from the 18. 53 - Matt Reis levels a Shell Shocker who went up for a header on a long lob to the area. Looked like a forearm to the face. No call. 56 - Thompson and Larentowicz combine on the left side of the box. The play is apparently broken up, but the ball falls to Khano Smith on the right, who rips a shot back across the keeper inside the left post. 2-0. 58 - Cristman carries the ball all the way to the endline in the right corner, then cuts inside and crosses to the six, where Oka, with only nominal marking, is waiting to nod it home. 3-0. 60 - Revolution attacking at will now, but still only going at a jog for the most part. Smith gets off a wonderful cross, which Larentowicz somehow heads wide. 61 - Larentowicz tries to split two defenders and loses the ball. He charges after the guy for 40 yards and tackles him. It is a clean tackle from the side with minimal contact, but the ref calls the foul and gives him a yellow card. 62 - Behind the play, Smith goes off limping. May be the right hamstring. He's replaced by #26, who I believe the announcer referred to as Brian Burr. I can't find him on the roster. 63 - Marshall Leonard on for Avery John, who had almost nothing to do. 65 - Ralston feeds Cristman, who crosses well, but Thompson can't reach the header. 66 - #26 picks up the ball in his own half and carries it 50 yards, only to be easily dispossessed when he reaches the box. 67 - Larentowicz shoots hard from the 18, forcing a good save from the onrushing keeper. 67 - Cristman out; Chris Loftus in. He's tall. 72 - Miguel Gonzales in for Dorman, who had a very quiet evening. 73 - N.O.'s #10, their best player, is red carded after obliterating Wells Thompson in his own half. 78 - Gonzales takes a silly shot from 30 yards out, which is well wide. He had plenty of other options. 79 - Loftus is blatantly pulled to the ground deep in the box, preventing him from reaching a cross that he certainly would have scored on. No call. 80 - Back at midfield, Loftus gets a measure of revenge by elbowing the same defender in the head while well off the ball. 81 - Beginning now, the Revs seem bent on getting Loftus a goal before the end of the game. A well-manned fast break from the Revolution gets the ball to Oka on the right post about 8 yards out. He could easily shoot, but instead tries to pick out Loftus with a cross to the other post. Loftus can't quite reach the ball. 84 - After a couple of other Loftus-centric attacks fail, Oka takes the ball about 35 yards out, puts in a couple of stepovers, cuts to the middle, and blasts home from 22 to the far upper corner. 4-0. He then decides to animatedly rip off his shirt and throw it down, but has trouble getting it off (it takes three separate motions), then gets an immediate yellow card for his trouble. 86 - The "run down the field and try to pick out Loftus" play fails two or three more times. 88 - Wells Thompson carries the ball down the left sideline for about 60 yards, eluding two defenders before being knocked down by a third. Ralston takes the free kick, and sets up Loftus perfectly near the penalty spot. He has time, but whiffs on the volley. I don't think you can take much from this game, because the opponent was so inferior, but Thomspon, Oka, and Cristman all looked good. Ralston, Larentowicz and Khano Smith played well. The defenders had almost nothing to do, and they didn't do any overlapping, so they may as well not have been there. Reis had one save and one face-plant. Other than that he was a spectator. Dorman did little, as did Joseph in the first half. All in all, it was a glorified scrimmage. Still, it was a historic night in Baton Rouge, and I am happy to have witnessed it.
Most impressive part of the night: Sign him up! I envision this guy doing a bicycle to get it back on the field, but I guess not. Thanks for the report, excellent detail, was it Loftus' birthday?
Maybe not, but they area's done a pretty good job over the years when it comes to youth-level play. My high school team played McKinley a few times, and Baton Rouge United beat my club (LaFreniere) in OT in the U16 state select club final waaaay back in 1989. Many thanks for the first-hand observations! The Magpie
Yes and no: the results don't count towards anything, but the confidence the team can take away is certainly a bonus, especially when facing a rival in your first legitmate match of the season. The Magpie
Preseason games are NOT meaningless. If they were, they wouldn't be played. The score *may* be insignificant, but I think if you asked the coaches involved, among the things they'd like to see are goals scored and few given up. If the game is a mismatch, what should a coach hope to see? A score that reflects the mismatch? Doc is right, had they lost some of these games or looked less impressive, given the general pessimism of this group, people would have been all over them. Yes, 6-0 means nothing once preseason ends. But, given the task they had, they've taken care of business in a pretty clinical fashion. That is NOT meaningless. They certainly *seem* to be a team that's well prepared for the season to start.
I don't think anyone is celebrating the score, but are happy that the team is playing together well. We could be like Chicago and be losing to USL teams, which to me means the team isn't playing well together.
just be thankful you all got out of it injury free. last time you played here Llamosa did his ACL, there were all kinds of cards. good stuff.
This probably doesn't belong in this thread, but did they talk about the Joseph contract/trade situation during either webcast?
In case someone's interested in carrying it on, a dude named Jon Martin mentioned the Steve Ralston at central mid set-up in the second reply to this thread. I think that's a concept worth toying with while Hernandez is out, certainly, but perhaps when he returns as well. I expand on that in the last paragraph here. Any takers on turning over that concept? I don't care where you want to reply. Oh, and by the way, what is "repping" and how does one do it?
When you see a post, you'll see the poster's name on the left of your screen. Just below that are a few little icons. The one that looks like a scale is the rep button, which lets you give "reputation" to someone for a good post, or take away reputation if the post is worthless (ie anything by a Fire fan).
It took me a year to figure out what the heck "repping" was. If you like (or reeeeeeeeally disapprove) what someone has to say and think they greatly contributed to the converstion, someone put in a lot of work and posted some good info (like that eye witness match report on the first page), or someone provided you some vitl info (like what I'm doing here; hint, hint), you can show your appreciation by clicking on the balance scale towards the left side of the post and give them "rep". Make sure you select either positive or negative. Also, don't be liberal with the negative rep. They used to have a rep bar in the avatars, but it's now on your mybigsoccer page. As for Ralston, I'd be very interested to see how well he does at CM. One of the big reasons why is that Ryan Solle plays CM and is small in stature like Ralston. I'd be interested if a small player can succeed there in Nicol's system. 1000% behind Ralston as captai since the interviews he was doing after US games at the start of 2006 qualifying. Very well spoken and has a head on his shoulders.