Fair and Balanced A C+ overall is fair. No team that goes through a winless streak of 9 games deserves any higher. The Revs turned it around down-the-stretch and showed some solif character when it mattered most. That is a positive thing. Not having nice things to say? Sorry, I've never lined up for autographs. And I don't wear a Revos cheerleaders outfit whenever I'm posting. BTW, Where can you buy the Revos current kit? OK, I'll stop right there.
Re: Shalrie Joseph - Team MVP Agreed! Plus Twellman scores the goals and Ralston is quality. Joseph has a big future in this game, most likely beyond just MLS if he wants.
Re: Re: Shalrie Joseph - Team MVP Ralston wasn't so quality this year. He had some good flashes, but it seems that every time he goes at somebody with the ball, it's the Rev defense that ends up having to stop a run.
I give the team as a whole an A-. Coming off of a season that included many injuries to key players like Taylor Twellman, Joe-Max Moore, Chris Brown, and Joey Franchino, The other players really stepped up and did a great job of keeping the Revs up in the standing and winning many key games. <3 Forwards 9.2----Taylor Twellman (F) 8.7----Pat Noonan (F) 7.2----Joe-Max Moore (F) 5.0----Chris Bagley (F) (DEV) 8.0----Chris Brown(M-F) 6.7----Dario Fabbro (F) (S-I/DISC) 5.0----Ibrahim Kante (F) (DEV) 8.0----Jose Cancela (M) (S-I/DISC) 7.5----Shalrie Joesph (M) 7.2----Brian Kamler (M) 6.4----Leo Cullen(M) 8.5----Steve Ralston (M) 5.0----Jason Moore (M) 1.0----Tony Frias (M) (DEV) Defenders 9.0----Rusty Pierce (D) 8.0----Jay Heeps (D-M) 8.8----Joe Franchino(D) 7.0----Marshall Leonard (M) (DEV) 7.9----Carlos Llamosa (D) 6.9----Daouda Kante(D) (S-I) GK 9.9---- Adin Brown (GK) 6.5---- Matt Reis (GK) 5.0---- Kyle Singer (GK) The people with a 5.0 never got a chance to reedeem themselves seeing they never got a chance to play. *Adin Brown...gotta give the guy major props. He did an amazing job between the piping this season; keeping the team in many games and recording numerous shut-outs. *Taylor Twellman...For the time he played, he did amazingly. Hes got my respect for coming back from a concussion and other injuries and getting back into the foward line and giving it his all. Definately an asset to the team. *Pat Noonan...For a rookie, he came out and showed us all that he belongs to be here in the MLS. Scored numerous goals that lead his team to a win (vs MET 9/13- 2 goals, vs MET 10/18 game winning goal) The Revolution are going all the way this year...MLS CUP 2003
You gave people who didn't play more than a few minutes a 5.0? At best, Revs earned a B-. A 9-game losing streak really hurts any grading.
yes it would, but the revs didnt have a 9-game losing streak, they had a 9 game winless streak, big difference. They had 4 draws and 5 losses, 4 out of a possible 27 points is better then 0 out of 27.
How do you give out grades before the season is over? Maybe I have stupid written on the back of me shirt but.....doesn’t the Rev play on 10/25/03? ........Don't they still have at least two playoff games? If the Rev win the MLS Cup (it could happen) who do i give the stupid shirt to.........? Bhoys oh bhoys.... The A, B, C’s of American soccer?
sporting-celtic has it right IMO - wait until Saturday night. As far as the nine game winless streak is concerned - that's just a bit silly. Are you guys saying that if the Revs has spaced those losses/ties out a bit better over the season they'd get higher grades? Or that if the Revs had nine game undefeated streak at some point - but played horribly for the rest of the season - you'd be generally happy with them? Their place in the standings after the 30th league game will tell it all.
The regular season's over. 12-9-9 : By far the best reord in franchise history. Second place in the east - third in points overall - in all likelihood leading the league in goals scored (unless the Fire get four tomorrow). Giving the team as a whole team less than a B, IMHO, is insanity.
what are you people smoking? you still give the team a 'B'? coming back from being at the bottom of the league in overall standings to finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in the east isnt a big enough accomplishment to at least give them an A-? tough crowd...
Sorry, B-. I won't go higher. Why is it a depleted squad can beat the Metros, but not the Fire? There was no excuse for that 3-1 loss. There were no excuses for the DC losses. If there is no excuse for collapses like that, I can't find myself justifying a B, even. The ends do not justify the means.
Sorry if I was not clear before but I was trying to get accross the point that if the Rev win the MLS cup they should get an "A" Right? or how do the rules of grading a soccer team go?
Again, I respectfully disagree. The ends don't justify the means. Yes, Rodan, if the losses had been spread out better, it would have shown consistency of some sort, and would have resulted in a higher grade. There is no reason to sacrifice a 2-0 lead in less than fifteen minutes. There is no reason to sacrifice a 3-0 lead, at all. The team, and some of you guys here, may differ with my point, but I got the distinct impression that the Revs didn't have the drive during that stretch in the middle of the season. Losing that mental edge hurts a lot, too. I may or may not have been one of those calling for Steve Nicol's head, I don't recall. However, the fact that that question even arose lowers their grade. If you were a school teacher, how would you grade an essay that had a good introduction, a mediocre first body paragraph, a horrendous second body paragraph, a horrendous third body paragraph, but a stellar conclusion that proved more than any of the body paragraphs did? At the best, a B-. To be perfectly fair, I'm not sure the MLS Cup Playoffs should even be considered in the grading. At least not at this point. It's not fair to grade the potential of the team, when they could just as easily go down in straight 1-0 games to the MetroStars. You can't take into account what hasn't happened yet. If you want to take argument with this in early December, be my guest. But until then, I stand by my summation of the season: B-.
you pick out the one loss against Chi and fail to mention the 5-1 and 3-0 beatings we gave them. Revs are 8-4-4 in the conference, that is the best in the conference. They have a staggering +17 GD. Best offense in the league with only Twellman (League's top goal scorer) contributing to 27% of our goals. They did colapse in a few games, but that doesnt mean they should recieve a bad grade because of it. You can't single those games out as much as you cant single the past 9 games out.
B- isn't bad. Better than average. For the Revs, it's spectacular. I wouldn't have given the Revs a B- last year. +17? In the conference or overall? Yes, they can spank people in the conference at times, but there's no excuse for a collapse. If there's ever a justifiable reason for Evan to shred his kit, the team deserves no more than a B. And to give him cause twice?! At best a B-. Going by Evan's standards, though, I grade a Pass.
I'll respectfully disagree with this. If the Revs had spread their losses out better, I'd give them a lower grade. Because they were bunched together, and the Revs were missing key personnel at that time, I'm less inclined to lower their grade for that. Look at it this way: with their starting defense playing, the closest thing they had to a late-game collapse was losing in overtime in LA. And, in the 3 big collapses, we outplayed the other team for the majority of the game. Here's my thought on consistancy: I missed the opener vs Columbus, but the only games we had all year that I saw us get outplayed were a couple of games vs SJ, the 4-1 loss vs Colorado, and the 3-1 very shorthanded loss in Chicago. Five bad games (as opposed to some bad 10 minute stretches) over the course of a 30 game season is a sign of a team that is pretty good, pretty consistant, and comes to play every day. Based on what I've seen, I'm not predicting winning the Cup, but SJ is the only team in the league that I feel we wouldn't have at least a 50/50 chance against. If not for those well documented 3 collapses, we'd be 15-8-7, 1 point behind Chicago, with the most goals scored and the highest goal differential in the league, and clearly deserving an A, possibly an A+, considering that we finished below .500 last year. I'd still go A-.
The revs went 7-2-1 over the last seven games - most of that without their two starting forwards. Pretty impressive if you ask me. As far as grading is concerned, there really is only one grading criterion for a professional sports franchise: Wins and losses. Give credit where credit is due. None of this will seem to matter much if the Revs get quickly bounced from the playoffs (which I doubt), but by most traditional standards they've had a pretty good year - albeit with some ups and downs.
Fans- Based on what I've seen on TV: The midfield tandem of Shalrie/Cancela is the best in MLS. Period. Shalrie Joseph is a better player than Damani Ralph...and Ralph is a very good player. Cancela may be the classiest player the Revs have ever had...good work rate as well. Nicol's work is underrated. This is the second year in a row he has the team peaking entering the playoffs. What would Chicago be doing without Razov and Ralph? Definately not winning 7 in a row like the Revs have done without Moore and Twellman. Well done Revs...be proud of your team!
Who's more underrated? Yikes! Do you have any idea what Murphy does? Can you tell us what the respective duties are of Nicol, Murphy and Driver? Or did you just attend a Revs clinic and liked Murphy? I am not saying that any one of them does anything less than a stellar job. But I have serious doubts you have any idea what roles any of them take away from matchday.
Chris Brown(M-F) -- 7.7 Jose Cancela (M) (S-I/DISC) 9.4 Leo Cullen(M)6.2 Dario Fabbro (F) (S-I/DISC) 6.9 Joe Franchino(D) 8.4 Chris Bagley (F) (DEV) 5.8 Tony Frias (M) (DEV) INC Jay Heaps (D-M) 7.7 Shalrie Joesph (M) 8.8 Brian Kamler (M) 8.5 Daouda Kante(D) (S-I) 5.2 Ibrahim Kante (F) (DEV) Marshall Leonard (M) (DEV) 5.5 Carlos Llamosa (D) 7.7 Jason Moore (M) 6.2 Joe-Max Moore (F) 6.6 Pat Noonan (F) 8.8 Rusty Pierce (D) 7.7 Steve Ralston (M) 8.5 Taylor Twellman (F) 8.9 Adin Brown (GK) 9.88 Matt Reis (GK) 2.0 Kyle Singer (GK) INC
Im perplexed. D Kante and Leonard have done the defending in the past 8 games and you give them bad grades? Im just wondering how you came to that.