Totally agree with this. My kids taught me a great lesson yesterday. After the game, I was very disappointed and felt like total crap. My kids, who are all big Revs fans and were surely unhappy about the result, shook it off immediately and went downstairs to play their version of indoor soccer, which is incessant PKs until something (or someone) breaks. They were having fun and laughing, and I realized that they had the right idea, and I needed to lighten up in a big way. Three conference championships and five straight conference final appearances is a solid record. The Revs have been competitive and fun to watch, and I'm looking forward to 2007. Am I bummed about the MLS Cup loss? Hell yeah - but I'm very proud to be a Revs fan.
actually, my fear is (horribly cynical) he was holding out hoping if he'd wait, he'd get the chance to bang in the winner. if I find out that was the case, I will personally kill him
today, I don't blame heaps as much (for his poorly taken kick). for me, it's SN for not being a coach and making decisions. heaps is always a class act, coming over to the fans, etc. and he has a great head for the game...he will make a great coach someday. like an idiot though, I've renewed for next year so i can continue my love of suffering. being a revs fan is totally emo....
Between Ralston and Dempsey, you've got 2 guys who have had lower leg injuries and had to have been minimizing the number of hard shots they've taken over the last 2 weeks (3 for Dempsey). You DON'T want guys who haven't been practicing them! And, you really can't criticize the choices unless you've been watching the guys take them in practice. Some guys are good at it and others aren't. Was Noonan a bad choice? His miss cost us as much as Heaps' (and the effort was almost as lame). You never know which way PKs are going to go, it's just a horrible abomination of a championship game. You never feel completely satisfied that the winner and loser deserved their fate. I have no complaints at all with Nicol. He made plenty of decisions, most worked well - some didn't. He put the team in a position for a championship - IMO, one of his players let them down - end of story. So, I'm not so agonized over the PKs, it's the defensive lapse that was so unforgiveable. There is just NO WAY Heaps should be leaving Ching wide open on such a long pass, deflection or not. Sorry, for me Jay Heaps is Bill Buckner and Grady Little.
So ends an era. When my son said that Heaps was taking the pk, I didn't believe him. "Yes he is, and he's going to miss it!" was his reply. They couldn't talk Johnny Torres out of retirement instead? My son started the game with his Dempsey jersey on. Every 15 or 20 minutes he'd put on another shirt because they needed more luck. During overtime, he was going through his laundry hamper, because he was out of shirst, but he'd worn one very day this week to school. By the end of the game he was wearing about 7 shirts, 2 hats, a Revs scarf and a Revs wristband. When Twellman scored, he, his friend and his brother were jumping up and down and dancing in the living room. I watched him, after the game, sitting dejectedly in a chair peeling off shirt after shirt and throwing them in a pile on the floor. He told me that tomorrow he wants to order an Eastern Conference Champs hat because "it's going to be a long time before we get that far again". I think he pretty much summed things up with that comment. BTW, was there any word on why Dorman was subbed out?
Just wanted to say congrats for a great season. If I'm being honest, that game could have easily gone your way. I don't think we shouldn't have won the match but if the Revs had won, I don't think any Dynamo fans would have been saying, "Gee, the Revs shouldn't have won that match." Joseph was impressive in the middle and Parkhurst looks like a pretty reliable player in the back. I wonder how the match might have turned out if Dempsey would have been able to play the entire match. Obviously not having Clark on the pitch for us didn't help us either. I think both teams did enough to win and in the end, it fell to us. Good luck to you next season.
Hi everyone. Brand new to this board, almost as new to watching soccer. I've only ever been to 3 Revs games and haven't followed them closely, but for some reason I was all charged up for yesterday's game. I felt like crap when they lost so I can imagine it was about a thousand times worse for you die-hard fans. I didn't know any of the back-story with Dempsey getting ready to bolt. I wondered why he didn't take a PK but presumed it was due to his injury. It's disappointing that a professional would back away from such a big opportunity when his team needed him. Anyway, I'll have to get to a few more games next season. In the meantime, I need to go to my local public library and learn a little more about the game. Is there a book called "Soccer for Dummies"? P.S. Even though I'm new to the Revs, I'm a lifelong Red Sox fan and would like to personally slug the person who brought up the name of the evil D*n Sh******ssy, whom I hate. Absolutely HATE.
In the words of The Office's David Brent: "Gutting. Gutting." It's going to be a looooooooooong off-season.
Tough loss. The Revs are a great team and I would have rooted for them if I wasn't a Dynamo Fan. Heaps is a great athlete and played well most of the night. He tried his best and sometimes you don't get the breaks. He positioned his body to fake the shot right to then pull the ball low to the left. Onstadt didn't take the fake and guessed the correct side. Heaps took the failed pk very hard, I saw him alone on the team bus after the game and he was hanging his head low. He really shouldn't take the blame for this loss. Shalrie was a monster. TT was great. Noonan created alot of havoc. Parkhurst, Reis and the rest of the defense played lights out. Dempsey really helped the attack. I think Kinnear maybe had the better pre game plan for PKs. Nicol maybe should have played Demspey earlier (especially if he's not taking a PK) and maybe didn't have a pre game pk plan? A little difference that paid dividends for the Dynamo.
yes there is. I bought it for a friend who was new to the game. I flipped through it... it's not bad.... very basic. but, welcome. as a shaunassy hater, you will fit in well.
Hey all, Just got back from Dallas/Frisco and I've been up since 3:00 am (had first flight back from DFW). We got beat by a good team. We did not get blown out, we did not give up a cheesy goal, we simply lost a game to another team. Except that it was in a Final. And it hurts - bad. Those of us who were there stodd and sang loud and proud. Our boys put in a good effort. Yes, maybe Heaps ismn't the one to take the PK. And yes, if he did, he should have shot it better. He knows it, you know it, everyone knows it. But he missed it and we got home without hardware again. Dempsey didn't wuss out. There was a level of uncertainty there and those of you who insist Clint should have shot it, maybe you need to see the clips from 2004 in D.C. Even with Duece, it's not a given. A bunch of us went to the Revs party/wake last night. The guys couldn't have been more gracious. Heaps is a total class act. Reis thanks the fans who stand behind him each and every game - and even gave a couple of tips for fans to rattle a goalie (I'll share them in due time). A lot of us saw this as a 'final hurrah' for the cast that has been assembled for the last few (and by far the best) years by the Revs. Knowing that this group may not be together again made us long for the Cup that much more. Sadly, it didn't work out. But I'll be damned if I'm not back next year to cheer on the next edition of the Revs as they try to win that first piece of hardware. - Jon
All you Revs fans who were at the tailgate/game yesterday should be proud - you outsang and outclassed your rivals by a mile. It was great meeting all of you!
Gotta give the Dynamo, all five PKs were extremely well taken. Matt Reis guessed right on all five, and only managed to get to one. Only negative thing to say about Houston is that Onstad (who I generally respect) looked like a jackass when he stood in goal flapping his arms and doing jumping-jacks before Heap's PK. Maybe it worked. But I thought he had a little more class than that.
Therein lays an example of the reason that the Revolution are the perfect team to represent a region founded by Puritans. The sins of the father shall be revisited upon the son. We have all cursed our issue - and our issue's issue - to a life of unrelenting torment. May God forgive us.
Being pretty much the only soccer fan in my school, and being known as a Revs fan, I've been getting a lot of salt in the wound from others
There is NO WAY that if Dempsey stood up and asked to take that kick, Nicol would have said no. You can bet your last breath that Dempsey blinked. Why is open to conjecture, though I suspect his failure in 2004 came back to haunt him. If he was well enough to shoot during the game, he was well enough to shoot from the spot. Jay Heaps had the courage (however misguided) to stand up and face failure with everything on the line and everyone watching. He did it for his team and for us. Dempsey did not. Yes, Heaps failed, but so did Dempsey and only one of them has reason to be proud.
With respects Mr Wind, I find your posts regarding Dempsey to be a little, errr, well, biased. Maybe you should talk to him. He might perceive the error of his ways.
Sorry for venting, but I just have to say: if one more person tells me "there's always next year," I'm going to scream. 1) It's not comforting. We were within 7 1/2 minutes of victory, and it took us 7 1/2 months to get there. Now we have to start all over. It reminds me of that time in high school when I was on the last page of a 25-page term paper and my computer crashed and I lost it all. It wasn't fun. 2) It's not true. I was a WUSA fan. Lots of people told me 'there's always next year' after the Breakers lost in PKs in '03. There was no next year. Thank God I was raised by Red Sox fans and am therefore conditioned for this kind of disappointment. New England 'til I die.
When I told someone I know that following this team was like following the Red Sox, he said that even the Red Sox didn't lose like this. The guy's not even a soccer fan and he got it.
No need to, he doesn't care what I think, I don't care what he thinks, and you are free to ignore anything I say. But facts are facts and the fact is, when it was time to step up, your binky sat down. Before the game Bruce Arena said that Dempsey's strength was that he "was unafraid to fail". At the time I agreed. Now I'm not so sure. Doesn't change that he is a good player, but I guess we won't be adding "MLS Cup Hero" to his resume after all.
Yesterday was really bad, but I do have to say that '86 and '03 were much worse. I didn't go to school after '86 and I couldn't watch sports on tv for a week in '03. Soccer has had games like yesterday. In a single game, funny things happen because only the goalkeeper ever has 100% control of the ball. Shootouts are a crapshoot. At least the schedule is moving towards a single table (whether MLS knows it or not) so each year we will have MLS Cup, US Open Cup, and Supporters Sheild to look forward to. Getting to a final in US soccer isn't the "once in a generation" thing it is in most baseball cities. This was bad, but I'm getting over it and I'll be in full spirit at the meeting on saturday. Come On You Revs!!!!!!!
Calling this anything but irrational would be, well, irrational. If Dempsey was afraid of anything like that, he never would have made it onto the field in the WC and he would be looking for a raise, not a ticket to Europe. When John Harkes was on the Revs, I hated him. I mean, I truly hated him. I would have been thrilled if we'd traded him and a 1st round pick for a 5th rounder. But I'm not anywhere your league. Oh, and making comments like "Doesn't change that he is a good player" to your attacks doesn't make you seem less biased towards him, if that was your intent.
This morning I was finally able to stomach watching the goals again and see how long it actually took for them to score (since all the articles just included the celebration time). It was exactly 10 seconds. Has to be an MLS record for fastest goal off a kickoff, maybe one of the fastest of all time (I've only heard of a few instances of players scoring from midfield directly off the kickoff, and thats about the only way to do it faster). Think about it, how long does it take Ching to run 55 yards (he wasnt at an all-out sprint after 112 minutes)? Probably 8 seconds. That goal couldn't have been scored any faster. Just ridiculous. This really is starting to reach Red Sox-level.