Off-season roster thread

I was really excited for Castro based on the very limited knowledge and footage I'd seen. He was a little disappointing last year. It felt like he did a lot of work to no end. I realize there is some transition time, but I expected a seasoned professional like him to at least have some impact. I haven't written him off yet, but I think castro has got to produce pretty and if he gets overtaken by a younger guy for his starting spot... stick a fork in him

 

Fair caution for Castro. However, I'm willing to be a little patient with international signings. The side of the road is littered with SI's who had fantastic first seasons, then fizzled out down the line.

MLS is a completely different game than that of the Honduran league. Castro had to deal with not only adaptation to a more frenetic and physical league, but also some nagging injuries. We saw him play really well at times, then disappear for large chunks of games. The good was certainly outweighed by the....mediocre? I'm expecting him to be a lot more consistent this season.

 

It makes me sick that we look in Ghana for players to sign while the cows sign Albert Celades, who looks to be able to help immediately (time will tell). Why can't we find players when other teams can?

Why can't we just once get somebody that can help right now and that might actually breath some life into this dying franchise? Do the Revs really think that maybe signing some unknown player(s) from Ghana will actually get people to come to games? Best case, they're rough around the edges like our other two African projects. Worst case, they don't make the field ... ever. If they were finished goods, they wouldn't be available.

 

Only 10 days till the home opener....

 

More like 24. We play in San Jose, then Red balls then home opener April 4th! I know your excited, but relax!

 

Mansally and Nyassi were *teenagers*. The proposed defender is likely a veteran player.

 

HA! Sorry I meant 10 days till our first game....which is now only 9 days away....

 

I know KC is still having trouble getting Hirsig cleared for their opener, and the Sounders are having the same trouble with Fredy Montero. Since Hirsig was signed a month ago and Montero well before that, I think we can count on playing at least the first 2-4 games with the squad we have.

 

haha yeah they think our team is terrible. i lol'ed at the seattle fan who thinks seattle won't finish last...in fact, he picked them 2nd in the west, and will win the usoc, and mls cup. LOLOLOL i love fan objectivity. he must be the rkupp of seattle.

 

Not to put too much stock into the opinions of random BS posters, but of the 9 people who made predictions, only one of them had us even in the playoffs (assuming we didn't sneak in the back door to the West as the 5th place team.)

People picked the Revs to finish 6, 7, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7, 5, 7.

Personally, I don't think we'll be that bad, but 4th place and a quick playoff exit, a win and then a loss in the USOC, and not making it to the second round of SuperLiga sound about right to me.

 

I get BC hoops season tickets in addition to the Revs. The *experts* picked them for 11th. BC's in the top half, 20+ wins and counting, NCAA-bound and Al Skinner was runner-up for coach of the year in the ACC. Again.

They were wrong for the same reasons that 8/9 (or more) of those BS posters will be wrong. They underestimate the value of a quality coach and a stable system.

 

I pray you are correct. I fail to see how a team that fields Twellman, Ralston, Larentowicz, Joseph and Reis will end of in last place. Second to last maybe

 

don't overestimate the "value of a coach" either. soccer is less coaching and more about managing. It's a strategy, not the actual play by play of football of the nearly play by play coaching of baseball of basketball. Soccer is different in that way. A coach can be a stable influence, and produce a great system, but he has to have the talent in place to make it work. You can't coach a team to a title like you can in other sports.

 

I thought we were changing our system to a 4-4-2?

Yet another of the concerns I have heading into the season.

 

If you think college hoops is comparable to professional soccer, then I no longer need to argue with you, because I know your opinions are unjust.

 

They get their info from reading this Board. If I believed a fraction of the negative smack that's run out here day in and day out I'd pick up for the bottom of the East as well.

IMO the 2009 Revs are still a real unknown at the moment. As the history of our preseason discussions has shown what people project will come out of the gate and actually how the team performs can be quite different. I will make a season point prediction before the season starts but I frankly don't think I'm ready to make a call on how I think the team will do until I've seen them play a few competative games.

I agree with Bob: a good coach and a reasonably stable roster and system is too often ignored as a major factor, esp in a team sport like soccer where the system is often more important than the sum of the parts(players).

 

Well hell, why bother playing the games if people on bigsoccer thinks we are going to finish either 5th or 6th.

 

I've run into versions of that argument following baseball over the years, specifically regarding the Cincinnati Reds (a team I've just about weaned myself off of after 37 seasons of fandom). In baseball you have the benefit of objective statistical information that allows laymen to make reasonable projections. Anyone willing to do a little investigation could pretty much tell you the Reds would be bad each season this decade and that the Red Sox would be good (with the real question being how bad or good).

So is there enough objective information out there to make similar reasonable projections with the Revs?

I'll say no because of the nature of the sport and the quality level of the league. Soccer's geometric, not algebraic. Will Nicol find the right system for his personnel (or the right personnel for his system)? Like firstshirt mentioned, the Revs have a solid core to the club, provided they stay healthy. These players have demonstrated they can play winning football.

Also we see young players make dramatic leaps in quality every season in MLS. For instance, Marvell Wynne did it last year. I think the league is underrated by foreigners, but the league isn't so good that emerging talents are forced to queue up behind starting XIs full of esconced veterans. It makes MLS unpredictable.

Perhaps by the end of April we'll have a good handle on whether the youngsters on the Revs can make more of a positive contribution than some expect. Right now it seems to me that the knock on the club is there's too many questions and Twellman/Ralston profile as health risks.

My take is if Nicol can organize the back line that eliminates the most critical questions and it would make a lot of pundits start tipping the club as better than people might think.

 

So, if they add a veteran 10 days from now, that will be too late to help them in the playoffs?

Good point. In 2007, did anyone predict a USL player would score 12 goals and lead Chivas USA to their first playoff appearance? Yet that is what Maykel Galindo did.