During my annual desk cleaning, I found this little sidebar that I clipped out of the ESPN magazine. I think it was a pre-season assessment of sorts. The order is my doing. Chicago Fire. Some key departures but DaMarcus Beasley, Chris Armas, Carlos Bocanegra, Ante Razov will keep Fire hot. San Jose Earthquakes. Minus Ariel Graziani and Dwayne DeRosario, Quakes need MVP season from Landon Donovan. New England Revolution. A slow start could trigger player revolt against coach Steve Nicol's conservative system. KC Wizards. If Igor Simutenkov and Josh Wolff bond up front and GK Tony Meola still has it, Wizards will climb the ladder. MetroStars. If GK Timmy Howard, D Eddie Pope, F Clint Mathis and F Jaime Moreno play like All-Stars, Metros could surprise. Colorado Rapids. Chris Henderson, Chris Carrieri, Mark Chung (11 goals each) won't do it again. Can John Spencer bounce back? D.C. United. Overhaul by coach Ray Hudson. Ernie Steward joins club with question marks up front and in the back. LA Galaxy. Reigning MVP Carlos Ruiz scores the big goals, but it's a stifling defense that'll spark the repeat. Columbus Crew. Once all hustle-bustle, now a more stylish attack with Freddy Garcia, Edson Buddle and Kyle Martino. Dallas Burn. Midfielder Oscar Pareja and gunner Jason Kreis light the fuse. If D.J. Countess starts in net, no weaknesses. Adjust your retroscope accordingly.
And that "conservative system" produced a team which led the league in goals scored (55) and was second only to Dallas in goals against (47)
Re: Re: Found while cleaning up my desk It was a conservative system, it just didn't work, and it didn't account for Pat Noonan making goals out of nothing and converting on every single opportunity (grumble, grumble)
Re: Re: Re: Found while cleaning up my desk Twellman and Noonan only accounted to NE 25 out of 55 goals. And that 25 is a league high for forward duo.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Found while cleaning up my desk tied league high razov and ralph combined for 25 as well how many did chung and spencer combine for? 24? 25?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Found while cleaning up my desk Is Chung a forward? And, for all the goals the Revs gave up, they were much worse defensively with Pierce injured. When the starters played, the defense was solid.
Uh huh.... Igor was hurt for parts of the season, though he managed to be #2 in points for the team. Wolff started 9 games. Meola had an average year at best.
NE does play a conservative system. Which SN is fortunate to use becuase he has amazing forwards that can create. I do not particularly like conservative systems, but SN is a brilliant tactician who repeatedly finds the right people to produce results, and makes soccer look good while winning. Unlike some winning coahes who can win only using defensive tactics.
Interesting comments from Steve Nicol on being defensively minded. From an article in boston.com. "A lot of people forget that the 4-4-2 is when you are defending, and when you are attacking the fullbacks go forward, so you are in a 3-5-2," Nicol said. "It's not 4-4-2 up and down, up and down. It's not a rigid system by any means. The fact that we have been the league-leading scorers two years running says a lot for how the team plays. If others want to think we are defensive and we defend well, that's good. But, as far as being defensive-minded, the proof is in the pudding." "We always say that if you don't lose goals you don't lose games, but I don't see the game as just about not letting goals in. I see it as scoring goals and putting the other team under pressure. There are times when you are going to be under pressure and you have to defend. When I was a player, certainly my first job was to defend. But I certainly enjoyed attacking and that's my outlook, pretty much. If you are part of the back three or back four your first job is to defend, but then help the attack."