About what I expected. They played hard, but they were just too banged up. Here's hoping Pat Noonan scores the game-winner next week.
I think it may be time to cut the international player ratio in half. Further developing local products is the better option than watching Blanco justify the fouls against him, with a myriad of degrading behavior. And like a restaurant needing a major overhaul in 7 years, it may be time for Nicol to move up to the next level in his career, so a more domestic coach can nurture more local product. Let's make this shindig (pun intended against Thorrington for doing a Dema on Larentowicz?) a more American value system in a receeding economy.
I agree. I'm not sure what the right FO/coaching change(s) is/are, but something had better happen. My druthers would be to keep SN/PM, and add a "real" GM or Director of Soccer Operation, not a traveling secretary, or a no-show figurehead. I also think that circumstances (Parky's potential departure, the age of several key contributors) will drive some player changes independent of whether the FO decides that they need wholesale change. But, I guess we'll have a whole postseason to talk about all this. The biggest thing I'll take away from this game was the f'ing huge heart that our man Shalrie has. He clearly wasn't 100%, but he stuck himself in whenever there was opportunity, and ran his butt off.
Did anyone watch the post-game show? Did Rob Stone just say that there were Taylor Twellman "trade rumors"? Not "transfer rumors", but t-r-a-d-e. As in, within MLS? I'd like to go on the record at this point in saying that no matter who the Revs get in return, it's not enough.
Think Kraft will split that extra cap money amoung the players? And what ever happened to the $ 4 mil the team got for Clint Dempsey? New uniforms for the Patriots cheerleaders? Or did it go towards the watches? Everyone but Reis played hard. The rookies got owned - but they're rookies. Some of them should be very good next year. The goal before the half was game-set-match. Bottom line - they were dominated by a team that is not playing that well. This year the team was managed strictly like a minor league concern. Unfortunately, some of the other teams didn't get the memo, and managed their affairs like professional league franchises. Finally: John Harkes is without doubt the most mindless announcer since Ty Keough. But at least Keough was entertaining. Good god where is Wynalda!?
I felt good about the game until Larentowicz was hacked by Thorrington. We were holding our own, then with Phelan replacing Larentowicz that's a huge drop off and we lost the midfield. In the beginning of the season I thought that our combination of speedy youth and experience would be a good mix, but it doesn't work if all your experience is sent to the hospital (or in Shalrie's case, should be sent to the hospital). I didn't understand Nicol's subs at all but with Wells your only attacking option on the bench, what the ******** was he supposed to do. If I believed in god I'd say s/he hates us.
At the half he also referred to the Beckham loan as a "trade" so I wouldn't put too much stock in this. But who knows. Anyway, Rob Stone blows.
We have nobody who can finish, our depth is a million young defensive players who all have their own glaring weakness, our big midseason signing doesn't seem to get along with our best defensive player. All the heart in the world isn't going to score a single goal. I like both Mansally and Dube a lot, but neither of them were ever in the right place to get one-timers or second chances or anything. What's the point of a striker who cannot score?
Bravo to Chris Albright though. Stand up to Blanco's crap- no referee seems to have the balls to do it.
The only bright spot isat least we don't have to watch any more Revs players get bones broken on dirty tackles. And the next idiot who talks about intent being more important than the result should be banned for their stupidity Will there be further action against the Fire hack who took out, Red, of course not. The only problem with Khano's slide last week was that he missed. Actually causing injury is a yellow. Trying and missing is a red What utter bullshit! Thank God this shit is done!
We were missing a solid second striker at the beginning of the season. It was clearly the hope that one of Cristman, Dube, Mansally, Fernandez, Wadsworth, Angulo, or Isaac (did I miss any?) would step up and grow into that role. Unfortunately no one did. It's up to the FO to make sure that mistake isn't repeated.
Look on the bright side - there are at least two more games the team doesn't have to play so they'll be even more rested going into next season! Very clever of Nicol to think of that!
Me too. I was thinking before the game there wasn't much offense on the bench. Did Wells even have a set position out there? I think I saw him close to both sidelines within a few minutes time. Maybe he was told to just spend his 90 minutes of energy in 15 minutes and that's what happens, haha.
This didn't even occur to me, but you're absolutely right. Between the extra rest and the improved position in the superdraft we've really positioned ourself well for '09!
That would be John Harkes, spreading his stupidity far and wide as if it were candy on Halloween night. But according to Harkes, there was clearly no intent... "Hi. My name is John. And I'm an idiot". The big irony is, compare that foul versus the one Laurentowicz was red-carded for earlier in the season. And how about Rufo allowing the game to stop while Busch changed his cleats!?
Don't blame Nicol for a front office that doesn't care about winning. He did the best anyone could with so little talent. Maybe next season Kust will sign high kids. He can get them on board real cheap
It was up to the FO to make sure that mistake wasn't repeated going into the season. We had 2 strikers last season, 2 1/2 if you count Cristman who is a good player but not necessarily starting XI on an MLS Champion calibre. We lost one of them, and even if Cristman blossomed into a full on striker, that leaves us with 2- 1/2 less than last year when we failed our goal. There's no way we coulda anticipated Dube doing as well as he did this year- he was not even drafted, and he's not been quite good enough. Why couldn't we dip into our rainy day fund we used to get a replacement for Parky to get someone? I know we got Argenis, but he is apparently too small for MLS (what help would he have been today when they kept lobbing balls into the middle for the magical Jan Koller or John Carew that wasn't there?)