OK, I'll be the first to defend the PK call. It happened right in front of the Fort so we had a good look. Now mind you there was a lot of complaining from the Fort so I certainly don't represent the majority view. I clearly saw Llamosa put two hands on the back of the player. What self-respecting forward wouldn't go down in the box when that is the case? The ref didn't have a good look and the replay certainly wasn't convincing, but from goal-side it seemed obvious. Even the head musketeer (who joined us post-game at the tailgate) agreed that with a good look it was a PK. The more important questions are: 1. Do any Revs have to miss the Chi game for yellows? and 2. What station is carrying the match Friday?
FWIW, Adin Brown complained afterwards that the only reason Magee went down was because he stepped on CL's foot. I haven't seen the replay, though.
I think it's going to be Comcast 3, but I would be surprised if FSW doesn't pick it up. I think this one needs to be on some sort of nationwide broadcast because it has the potential to be as good as SJ/LA tonight -- though with probably a lot fewer goals.
Not the most artistic of games, but certainly an enjoyable one. The Revs continue to create, truly create, beautiful opportunities and it is a joy to watch. Noonan's goal was gorgeous, but there were at least two other opportunities where there was some pinpoint passing that resulted in a great shot from in or near the area in the first half. Cancela hit one high as did someone else. But that goal and Cancela's control of the ball in traffic, his ability to keep the defenders at bay, wait for the run to occur and then play a perfect pass was absolutely fantastic....what we don't know if it was a pass to Fabbro that he made a perfect dummy on as Noonan made a perfect run, but either way, three guys (and more) all doing the right thing at the right time in perfect synch. Wow... Jason Moore and Leonard Marshall played very well. Jason needs to play that ball a bit more quickly if he wants to score in the MLS. The team just played well all night. The ref was very poor, though I think Cancela hurt his case by going down a bit too easy on one or two fouls early. There is a fine line where the person with the ball needs to leave his feet to make sure he isn't 'planted' when he gets hit and 'falling too easily'. Pepe was a hair on the 'fall too easily' side tonight, but given what we expected of the game, I can understand that. On the other side, the PK call against Llamosa was ludricous only in that so much else had gone uncalled in the other area. The ref was limping most of the game, someone told me the ref was a good 40-50 yards away for that call. While the 'live motion' may have looked like a push, the replay clearly shows it wasn't. I really don't like the amount of whining the Metrostars do...all the time it appears. But, then again, we don't need to hear it for a long time now. On to Chicago. We have the ability to beat them, let's see the team carry through on that and get back to the 'ship....the MLS Cup ChampionSHIP that is!
This is getting better and better. Pierce against Ralph/Razov, Cancela against Armas, Joseph vs Williams, Noonan/Fabbro against Bocanegra/Curtin, one game with everything on the line......way to go MLS.
Joseph is going to swallow up Williams. I hope someone kicks Razov in the shins .... hard! Ralph scares me. If Franchino is ready, does Leonard still get teh call? He has been impressive. Can Noonan score now that we arent playing the sorry Mutts?
Mousey: I agree with you. I was in the third row of the Fort and saw Carlos shove Magee in the back. I watched it replayed on Tivo last night, and the tv broadcast did not have a camera angle from the back, only from midfield, and you couldn't tell for sure what happened. But when I say it live, my reaction was, "what a stupid foul."
three thoughts..... The penalty call happened right in front of me and from where I was I would have called it, too. Rough justice and the replay may have vindicated Unka LL but the "bang/bang" nature of the incident made a clear view difficult. Someone mentioned that the ref was limping and having trouble keeping up. Did others observe this? Second, although the nearly 15,000 was a small crowd compared to the golden old days, it was a very, very good throng for a playoff game on a cold day and the atmosphere was very good. One thing that would have helped would have been a running score indicating the actual state of the two-legged match. That would have added to the tension. Myself, I chewed about ten sticks of gum and drank three (ugh) Mickey D coffees. Yuck but we got through it. Finally, the grounds crew did do a terrific job putting the field in some semblence of shape but the slipping of players and bouncing of the ball prevented a very good match from becoming a classic. Again, the Revs goal was as good as it gets and well-worth a trip to any stadium in the world. Congratulations and Friday's match just might be a classic.
Great to be moving on, but I was disappointed that it wasn't on the wings of a victory. Should have been, the PK call was BS - and I was further away than the ref was. Watched it replayed on MLS Wrap this morning and sure enough, it was clearly a dive, and Harkes called it as much. Magee felt some contact and held his left foot off the ground so he'd go down. Llamosa had a hand on his waist, but wasn't pushing or holding. Defenders do that on every play. How the Metros got through that game with NO cards is really baffling. Joseph was pulled to the ground with two hands on his shoulders - and no foul called at all. Mathis was having a tantrum the entire 1st half and he gets nothing, while Pierce and Llamosa get cards for the minor-league versions. And why did Clark get nothing for dragging down Moore from behind and he's breaking away towards the MS goal????? For a talented kid, Clark is a pretty dirty player. He's a master at fouling after the whistle is blown. He got the old "stern talking-to" a couple of times, but that clearly has no effect. Jason Moore had a fantastic game. Sure, he bungled some big opportunities in the end, but he played a great 2-way game, about 10x better than he's shown since he's been with the Revs. I thought this was the 1st game where he's really shown the promise that he has. Kamler was not missed at all yesterday. I was pointing out to my friend how fast Leonard was and he promptly outruns Clarks back to his own end like to win the ball and then runs right by him with the ball heading back up field. If I'm the coach, it's "sorry, Joey", but NO way I'm pulling Leonard out at this stage. His speed and steady demeanor are way too important. Having Moore and Leonard together on that left side transformed the Revs from a slow team to a fast one. Pierce had a helluva game. Still couldn't keep his mouth shut though. I wouldn't want to think about not having him the rest of the way! I REALLY like our chances against Chicago. First of all, we will play on a REAL field, not that travesty out in the burbs. Secondly, Chicago matched up better in our "Twellman-style" where we played much more of an aerial game. With our "Cancela-Noonan-style", the give-and-gos will be much more effective against the slower footed Chicago defenders. Playing high balls just gave Curtin and Boca more chances to grind Twellman into the turf. Beasley has never hurt us much and Razov and Ralph won't be effective if we can limit the service to them (cue Shalrie Joseph).
from my understanding, the mutts earned 3 yellow cards? Or was the webcast announcer lying? On the issue of the PK, the commentator said: "It looked like Llamosa was trying to get OUT of the way". Regardless, it makes me smile that the only way the Mutts could sustain themselves yesterday was by getting a sketchy PK call.
I think part of the reason the pk was called was because the ref was positioned in behind the play. Also, combine that with the fact that there were hands on Magee's back. On the other hand, Magee had little or no chance of getting a shot on goal, and he did fall easily. So who knows. Ref was horrendous though, for both teams, as he let some stuff go he shouldn't have.
According to the match report, Guevara got a card for bitching and Ricardo Clark got one for a tackle from behind. That jives with my memory of what happened. (The only other cards were to Llamosa and Rusty, dissent and professional foul respectively.)
I wouldn't be so annoyed with the PK if several similar plays earlier (and I'm not referring to Cancela going down in the box) hadn't gone unwhistled. I figured Saheli was just going to "let them play", and then he calls a marginal PK. Another huge game from Rusty. Heaps was up and down, but he made some very good defensive plays, particularly when the Metros were just booting it into the box. I think Fabbro should have been given an assist for that dummy. The only one I've ever seen that was better was when Pele scored a goal without touching the ball because he dummied the keeper away. Marshall, Heaps and Joseph got the cards in Game 1, so we're good unless we win on Friday, and any of the 5 gets carded. Between Chicago's speed and 'if it ain't broke don't fix it', I really hope to see the same 11 Friday night.
I suppose it was good to see Kraft at the game (either someone finally showed him the "where have all the Revs fans gone?" thread or he forgot the Pats were on a bye week), but I would have been happier if he had added to his "Thanks for all your support" the words "the first round is on me!"
Finally got a chance to chance to jot down some comments. 1. The game wasn't nearly as close as it seemed. The Metros had two bona fide chances on goal (one by Mathis and one by Nugent) and the PK was not one of them. They couldn't convert. The Revs had at least six or seven clear cut opportunities, and some nice saves once again from Walker. Quite honestly, NE game thoroughly controlled the game and should have come away with a victory. But a tie was more than good enough. 2. The Metros were surprisingly gracious in the loss. Guevara and Jolley were shaking hands and congratulating the Revs players after the game in a way I never would have expected. After-game comments from Metro players (Williams, Jolley) also gave full credit to the Revs for dominating the series. 3. After all the hype I've heard about Ricardo Clark, man what a disappointment. Kid earned three/four yellows by the halftime, and nearly had to beg the main official to pick one up. Strong physical player with decent skills, but a so-so man marker and not a particularly smart/composed player (I guess that's an understatement...). I hope I never hear his name mentioned in ROY discussion in the same breath as Ralph and Noonan. 4. Officiating: the usual. I had a feeling somehow there'd be a bogus PK. 5. The Incrutable One once again lived up to his reputation. Anyone notice The Bob had Guevara playing fullback for the last 25 minutes or so of the game!? It was in fact Guevara who broke up J. Moore's sterling break-away opportunity. Don't know what was going on there. Just ridiculous. 6. Pepe once again rolled out a few highlight film moments that simply place him head and shoulders above any other midfielder in the league. Frankly, when I think how often the guys and MLSnet and MLS Wrap have seen this kind of thing on tape, you'd think they'd have reached the same conclusion by now. But they haven't, because the Revs are still not on their radar screen (there are only two teams left in the playoffs now: Chicago and San Jose). And you know what? That's a good thing. 7. The usual from Pepe, Bully, and Pierce - great stuff. Youngsters Moore and Marshall more than acquitted themselves. Carlos Llamosa looked shaky at times. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Chicago gunning for the space behind him next week. Still good overall game.
Here here. The series that led up to Noonans shot later in the game, where Fabrio dummied was amazing. I don't know if it's just this team that the Revs have the number of, but they were putting passes together like they were on strings. The Revs, especially in the first half were playing some of the most attractive soccr that I've ever seen them play. Maybe even some of the most attractive soccer I've seen played in MLS. Great game. It appeared to me that in the second half the Metros were just quitting. They didn't have any fire in their bellies and didn't seem like they could create absolutely anything. Of course at that point the Revs were putting a ton of people behind the ball. But you could visabilly see the frustration.
Re: In no particular order... I personally was more upset about the sandwiching that Amado and Mike Magee gave Adin after the goal was scored. There was only a minute of stoppage time given (the PK was called at 0:57 of that minute) and it was going to be the Revs ball. So why be punks about it? Even worse than going after Adin was the little swipe that Magee gave him in the process. I know that the ref didn't see the altercation because he was headed back up the field, carding LLamosa, but the assistant ref saw the whole thing and did NOTHING about it. Anyway, that was why I was shouting at the crew as they left the pitch at halftime. Maybe a few others were upset about the same thing???
Re: Re: In no particular order... Yeah the whole crew didn't seem to do a very good job. I wouldn't say that the penalty was all that bad but it wasn't exactly a banner game for the officiating and it's crew.
Yeah, I was kind of annoyed by the post-penalty harrassment. I did find it funny that Magee and Guevara even tried to intimidate Brown, who could twist both of their necks shut with one hand. Moments like that always make me think of fans of other clubs who refer to the Revs as cheats and hacks. We came off this season with fewer penalty kicks taken than any other team, and the best disciplinary record in MLS. We're the nicest guys in the league, and the most dangerous. I like the sound of that.