Considering that one of my highlights from 2000 was watching Shaker Asad and Johnny Torres juggling a wad of gum, we must be moving up in the world.
I say start Twellman, same lineup as half #2 against DC. Take the lead and control the game and then we'll be able to sub Twellman out when he's gassed and be ahead, not behind.
The Red Balls will be without a number of starters (esp Rojas) who are off for International Duty . It will be interesting to see how they fair tonight. Here's hoping for a few Card suspensions but only after they assure a tie against DCU.
Watching last nights game showed that the Red Balls are like a wounded animal whose confidence is low and is desperate. They did not make any attempt to work the ball through the midfield and instead went for the long killer ball for Angel and Richards to run onto. The best work in that regard was being done by Rojas who will not be available on Sunday. Even their best player, Angel blew a chance to equalize in the closing moments. This team is hurting and therefore could be very dangerous. The best thing for the Revs to do is come out strong and if we get a lead, not let up the pressure because the Red Ball team confidence is very low at this point and we should not give them any opportunity to regain a spark of self respect or confidence. I think a key to this game (other than scoring ) is for our back line to stay compact and not let them drop and balls over the top into dangerous positions. This has been a vulnerability for us in the past. Them not have Rojas is a real plus for us. This is a very winnable game but that's hypothetical. Lets hope the Revs show up strong and cohesive. We have two games in hand on most teams in the East and we need to make up some ground,
The Redbulls looked like a team of a lot of good players that can not get on the same page. By definition, this makes them dangerous. We have to defend very well as theylike to attack, and hope that they do not communicate and anticipate their passes better.
It'll be a great chance for barnes and osei to prove their mettle against a real quality striker. Osei exhibited his ability to play with a size disadvantage against Conor Casey, and Barnes has been solid all year. I'd rank them nearly equal in speed, but I think I want Osei marking angel because he's more experienced and agile.
Taken from the NY boards ... RBNY is currently on a 18 game road winless streak. They're 0-8-3 up here in their last 11. I would like to help them extend both streaks please.
Agreed. Kinda proves the point of many people here that the playoffs are a joke ... win two or three games and you supposedly are the best team in the league.
Serious Question: If you believe that's true then why do you place such a high priority on winning the MLS Cup?
unfortunately, that's the benchmark. I like the way it's done in most of the rest of the world in this game. The best team over the whole season is the champ. That's kind of how it should be. Playoffs add some drama and unpredictability. All 3 have some nice meaning. IMO, There is nothing wrong with the playoffs being a tourney for the elite of the league to compete for another trophy. It's just not an exclusive enough group. When the league is 20 teams this format may make more sense. Personally, I'd good with both, but I'd like a lot more emphasis placed on the shield. I'd also like the USOC to have more respect. It's the best tie we have to the history of the sport in this county. More people should know the whole story of the game here. It's not just NASL and MLS (obviously we all know that, but....). For a long time, I've wanted to write a book on the history of the game here in the US. Maybe someday.
I don't think this is the first time but... I'd rather they have a great regular season (Shield winners would be nice) because I go to 15 home regular season games and most often 1, 2 if lucky, playoff games. Plus, MLS must make the regular season matter to attract serious fans (I think anyway). I don't like seasons with "slow builds" to the playoffs and I don't like that so many teams make the playoffs that success can be declared even when the season was pretty bad. Of course, to get back to your question, I don't recall the team saying their goal is to win the Shield but I'm pretty sure they've said they want to win MLS Cup...
When we have a single table and each team plays the other--home and away---I think the Shield should be the Gold Standard (NOT MLS Cup) for a highly successful season. However, I also think that any hardware won during the season---MLS Cup, USOC, SuperLiga, CCC should be consider as making the season a success.
0-30 in MLS Regular season but, 4 wins (Maybe 4 ties plus some PKs), say, in Superliga to get hardware would be a successful season?
Good point. To me, winning something is great but winning multiple hardware makes it a truly successful season. Specifically, The Shield and anything else to me is the preferred combination of hardware because it equates with topping the league table and proving to be successful outside the league in another competition.
Your hypothetical postulation is absurd and misses my point. Winning four matches to win any of the Cups is about the same and amount to just that--the Winning of Hardware. Red Balls almost doing it last year and LA doing it in 2006(?) is a good example of why MLS Cup should be considered a Cup win and not something that establishes The Champion of the League. For me the bottom line is defining a successful season is a relative term. For a start up team in it's first season it could be just making the playoffs For any team to win a official Tourney/Cup is having success. At the moment the Grand Prize of Success in MLS is__________TBD.
We certainly agree that MLS Cup should be considered a cup and not the establishment of League Champs. However it currently is used to estalish the league champs. And the system makes it possible for RBNY last year and the REVS in 2002 to declare a successful season (even though they didn't even take the hardware home) when they are really not good teams at all.
The bolding is mine, did you mean LA in 2005? That was the year they barely made the playoffs yet had a great playoff run which ended in victory over the Revs. As far as how a team defines success, at one level as you've implied it's whatever your team does that year given the circumstances. However, to me the Shield measures the quality of the season end-to-end similar to the European leagues. I think the Shield will have even more value when/if MLS goes to a single table format and has enough teams where everyone plays home/away fixtures similar to the EPL. The MLS playoffs are a mini-Champions League-esque tournament that really settles nothing more than who wins the tournament. The US Open Cup is the equivalent to the FA Cup. SuperLiga is for North American bragging rights. However, if you polled the supporters groups for all the MLS teams, I'm sure they'd overwhelmingly all want to win the MLS Cup more than any other competition so that answers your question.
The fact that is is winnable and we should win easily puts us in the greatest risk of losing. We have a history of not playing hard in games we should win. Let's hope that trend is broken tomorrow night. Also, I want to see Twellman start and score 1 or maybe 2 goals. This game will be the start of his trip back to the Nats and the replacing of the posers that have been keeping his spot warm