P/I/P: Rapids at Revs, 9/3

It's odd timing to honor Twellman 7 years after he retired. There's no rev HOF or anything in the stadium that highlights him or any of the other guys from that era.

I wonder if it's related to Think Taylor?

 

Well - good. Even if it took partnering with his organization to honor him 7 years later, that's better than continuing to all but ignore one of the most prolific strikers in the league's history. Battling TBI is a great cause to grow awareness for and this is certainly better than the deafening silence by the org for the amazing rev careers of Shalrie, Ralston, Reis, etc.

Regardless of the game result, I hope Twellman's org is successful in their awareness/fundraising goals.

 

This is a clash between a boring but successful team, and a boring and unsuccessful team. I predict it'll be boring.

 

Exactly one year ago I met Taylor at a bartending event in Boston. He took time to talk with me about post-concussion symptoms and referred me to a local place in Acton where I could find treatment (I'd been previously planning on seeing a specialist in Chicago). I got hurt in '06, Twellman got hurt in '08, and retired in '09. I was misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADD, insomnia, etc. in my first year of high school. I kept playing soccer. I wasn't aware my issues were concussion related until around 2012 (from a ThinkTaylor.org article).

I didn't know anything about treatment. My doctor's didn't know anything about treatment. But Taylor Twellman did and it's a night and day difference from where I am now (been at it since October) compared to where I was then.

Suffice to say, I am a big big fan of ThinkTaylor . I also came home that night with a team signed autograph jersey from a raffle.

 

Rapids will be down Howard, Gashi, Pappa, and Williams due to callups and Jones due to injury.

 

damn, that's an amazing story (and sounds like a great night!) thanks for sharing.

 

But Jones is healthy enough for Jurgen to call him up to the Nats... If you blocked out the names, I would think you were talking about one of the WNT. Cue rkupp to come in here and tell us how it's a good thing we didn't re-sign Jones because he's 1) always injured and 2) more committed to the Nats than to his club.

 

You're right about JJ. He is getting paid $650k this year by Colorado and has played just 703 minutes across 8 games with 3g and 2a.

In fact doing some quick math, that works out to approximately $924.60/minute played
$216,666/goal
$325k/assist

He's been out 11 of Colorado's last 12 games and missed over 2/3 of Colorado's season. Indeed, the last time he played was 7/4 vs Portland, a scoreless draw.

The last time he scored or assisted was 5/7 vs RSL. This means those of us who predicted his body would break down and health would be a concern have shown to be right.

That all said, the trade is still a win for Colorado because they had enough depth to plug and play without Jones (imagine that?). They are sitting pretty in a great position heading into the final games while the revs are at the botto vying for the wooden spoon.

 

Yes, and then when he comes back and the Pids go 7-0-1 to close out the season and win the Supporters Shield, he will say, "There is no way the Revs could have known he would do that."

Jones has only played 8 games so far, but the Pids are undefeated (5-0-3) in those 8 games. They are 2-2-4 in the 8 games since he was injured on July 4th.

 

It always has been the "intangibles" with Jones. Even if he isn't playing, he makes the other players around him better. Remember last year when he came back from injury but wasn't yet match-fit? There was a lift to the team as a whole and they started to play better. We joke about "accountability," but he was the only one who seemed to hold players accountable. He was E.F. Hutton, when he spoke, people listened.

One of the things I suggested when he was at the contractual impasse with us is to make him a player/coach, so we would still get value from him even if he wasn't playing. But I can see how that wouldn't have gone over well with Heaps. I think the bridges have been burned at this point, but since Jones is on a one-year deal with the Rapids, imagine if they canned Heaps and hired another ex-player for his first pro coaching gig? Hey, one of the prerequisites is that they have an established relationship, so that rules out pretty much every competent manager with proven success in the outside world...

 

This is not what I have heard. My understanding is that when he was not fit he was a cancer in the locker room an this was a big part of why he was not brought back.

 

Hmmm, I dunno. I know there were certain factions of the team who were his "boys," guys like Davies, but I know Nguyen didn't particularly care for him. But what I meant by "making other players better" was that they seemed to respond to his on-field directions and get a lot better results than they did without him there. Even if they thought he was a dickhead, they respected his knowledge and experience, and recognized when he said something, he was probably going to be right about it.

Do they feel the same way when Heaps says something?

 

Not questioning, but just curious where this info comes from?

I do remember when the team was in the usual losing streak and Jones came back while still rehabbing and called the team meeting. Then even when he was just training as he rehabbed here was a lift to the team.

AJ Soares can thank Jones (not Heaps) for making him play better and simpler so he could get a move to Europe.

It was Jones that gave him an earful the first time Soares launched a long ball to no one in the first 5 minutes of Jones first game and out for a goal kick (which was a Soares trademark that he always did) when Jones was showing for the ball. After that, Soares never did it again and it helped Soares and the team play better.

 

Well, he is always injured and more committed to the Nats than to his club. I wonder if Colorado feel he's been value for the money?

 

I'm waiting for the end of the season and then we can tally up what his contribution was.

How then to explain the mediocrity down the stretch of the regular season and quick playoff exit last season when Jones came back at the end of the year? Where was that influence then?

There is no denying that and it is sorely missed.

 

FWIW, I'm predicting a win. Not much good reason to support it though (CR missing a bunch of players, a motivated Agudelo likely to start, ...).

 

I added Knighton to my fantasy team. So, we can expect Shuttleworth to get the start here...

 

2 comments:

1. Contract Negotiations clearly were making it clear to Jones that Revs were way off in how much they valued him to the organization (after pimping him out EVERYWHERE marketing, ads, etc). That is going to have an impact. I am guessing Jones knew someone would make an offer for him and that the Krafts were being cheap. [my personal opinion].

2. Remember - it can't be all on Jones to save everything (like the Ballack reference I used once) - the coach and other players are part of this. But we snuck into the playoffs because of him down the stretch. That was the influence clearly.

And in the DC game - Agudelo hits the bike and it is a close game. Had the PK been called - no guarantee Revs make it and no guarantee in ET or Pks, that the Revs advance. But it was that close - that's some influence and the record when he plays vs doesn't still holds true.

BTW - people should go back to here and watch that amazing bicycle and then watch the highlights how much Jones is involved (be prepared to vomit when you see the Handball miss). It was Jones who made the effort at the end of the game to penetrate into the box to initiate receiving the pass that lead to the handball - right before then he got into the box during the run of play and got a header that almost scored - Hamid saved off the line. Clearly someone leading by example still - influence to the max. Just my opinion though.

http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2015-10-28-dc-united-vs-new-england-revolution/recap

 

You really think star players don't expect contract negotiations to be a struggle? Players/agents typically want as much as they can get and teams/owners want to sign players for as little as possible. Other teams don't live in some alternate universe.

 

Last year I was very frustrated with all the time he was missing and was looking forward to him getting healthy to help us down the stretch. When he finally did come back for the stretch run, I thought his play was very ordinary - nothing like the player we saw in 2014. And that's the way I felt when last season ended, well before negotiations got stalled and it became clear he wouldn't be returning.