Nemesis awaits Metros - NY Daily News Preki Wins His Second Scoring Title - LA Times Fire ends season on a down note - Daily Herald MetroStars Stagger Into Playoffs - NY Times Soccer notebook: Mathis must sparkle in spotlight - Star Ledger Nicol doesn't need his space - Boston Globe Contract extension kicks in for coach - Boston Globe Regular-season finales fizzle - KC Star Offshore Kiwis - OneSport Tiago Delboni - Boston Globe Hamm on U.S. team for Mexico match - Star-Telegram How about soccer kicker? QB Garcia suggests Donovan - SF Gate Is this the only way soccer gets coverage in the Bay now? Oh yeah, apparently there some expansion news or something yesterday. Mexican soccer team Chivas wants to start MLS expansion franchise - San Diego Union-Tribune
Noonan's right - Damani Ralph has been good since Day One, and he probably deserves the Rookie of the Year award. But if you haven't really been paying attention to the Revs, you may not be aware of how good Pat has been over the 2nd half of the season. He's got 10 goals this year -- all of them after July 12th. He's got one less goal and one less point than Ralph does, but he's played 300 fewer minutes, and played a significant portion of the year in the midfield. If all the Revolution forwards were healthy this week, I'd have a hard time deciding if I'd want Joe-Max Moore or Noonan to start along side Twellman -- he's been that good.
I remember when Noonan was drafted, Revs fans and others were a bit disappointed in the pick. Either they didn't think he was that good or didn't fit their needs. What a find he was. And with Twellman out - the Revs woudl have no shot without him on the roster. He is fun to watch.
Noonan's only played about a dozen games at forward, and he's scored 9 goals in that time. Ralph seems to have won the award over the summer. Maybe they should revisit their thinking. Goals since September 1st: Noonan 8, Ralph 1.
I had see Noonan play a lot at IU and, before the draft, kept talking him up. Some people in various predraft conversations kept talking Noonan down and saying he wouldn't be an impact player. I wonder if those people will come on now and say they were wrong.
Noonan did just pick up a hat trick in a meaningless game against the Metrostars' reserves though. Not to downplay Noonan's accomplishments, but there's a bit of padding there from the last game.
True, but check through Ralph's goals and I'm sure you'll find similar things. He had a goal and a couple of assists against us when we were missing 3 starting defenders. Also, he pairs up with Rasov, while Noonan's been playing alongside Fabbro, or a less than healthy JMM. And he had pretty good luck in NJ when all of the first teamers were playing for the mutts.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansa...gsoccer.com&KRD_RM=0hmjgkhkoipggggggggggghohg|Karl|N I missed this quote in the Times but it is repeated in the Star Kovalenko told the Washington Times that in the teams' previous meeting, Brian McBride laughed in his face after McBride converted a penalty kick. “Tell Brian McBride, ‘Good luck in your game tomorrow, but have a nice vacation,' ” Kovalenko told the Times. “He's an idiot.” More fuel for the Kovalenko haters.
The papers took note of the attendance dip - I hate the way they make it sound like a knell of doom. Didn't all the leagues go down a bit this year? It's called a recession.
I'll agree that he's been good, but he has 7 of those goals against the Metrostars! Plus, Eddie Pope hasn't been in all of those games. He's a pretty good player, but I think he's gotten very lucky this year. Honestly, Ralph and Clark are on a completely different level then him. That isn't a slight to him, but those two guys have just been lights out for their respective teams. Same with Dunivant in my opinion for the Quakes.
When Noonan played against the Metros in NJ with Pope in the lineup, he scored both goals in a 2-1 win. And, while Ralph scored most of his goals playing alongside Rasov (who commands a lot of attention from defenses), Noonan's mainly played instead of Twellman, and has done much of his scoring next to Dario Fabbro. I'm not necessarily saying that he's a better player than Ralph, but since Ralph "wrapped up" the ROY award this summer, he's only managed 1 goal in the last 2 months, which isn't exactly lights out. Clark's been a little better than Noonan, though not lately, but he certainly isn't on a completely different level. I don't really care about ROY, I'm just stirring the pot a little, but the best rookie this year (I'm not sure he qualifies for the award) is Shalrie Joseph. He started the season better than Cullen and Hernandez (who got us to the finals last year). He's really improved over the course of the season. After all the talk on these boards for a season and a half that Nicol won't play creative players because he's too attached to the 2 D-mid system, we've seen him acquire and play Cancela because Joseph's done so well at D-mid.