Rev News, 4/21

Ooowch. Some pretty tough talk by Gus. He's right about one thing though, the Revs have a couple of players in their starting lineup (Cullen, Harris...Kamler?) who have been simply left behind by increased quality of play in the MLS. When you look at teams like LA and Columbus, you simply don't see those kinds of weaknesses.

The Revs have a decent roster, but their lateness in filling the known gaps in the lineup (attacking mid) is once again hurting them at the start of the season. When every other team in the league improves in the offseason, it's not good enough to stay the same. Maybe someday the team will learn this...

 

Isn't John Wilmar Perez available, who lost his job in Columbus to Martino? How would he fit on the Revs.?

 

Perez just isn't the kind of player the Revs are looking for.

 

"the Revs have a couple of players in their starting lineup (Cullen, Harris...Kamler?) who have been simply left behind by increased quality of play in the MLS."

very true indeed.

I believe a quality senior international at the ACM position will solve most problems. I have to believe the Revs are well under the cap. I don't think anyone is a maximum salary player. Maybe Brown and Moore???

Noonan looked pretty good on the left. Moore and Twellman should work up front with Harris profiding a spark off the bench.

Kamler, Cullen, and Harris are good utility players that should be substitutes.

 

From yesterday, but this article (not posted yesterday) provides an interesting insight as to what ails the Revs:

Revs get Crew Cut: Haverhill Eagle-Tribune

 

relax

Fans-

Gus Martins must think that every single coach in the history of MLS is ignorant. Yes Gus, we all know brazilian players are good, however, there must be a good reason why they haven't succeeded in this league (welton doesn't count, he only had one good year with LA). The best ones go to Europe and the rest command too much for the return they will give an MLS team. Average brazilians make max salary MLS numbers.

The center of the Revs mid was not good. That said the whole team was poor.

Nicol better be careful. One more game like that and Martins will start talking about all the gems in the rough that exist in Sierra Leone. The Revs are trying very hard to find a good central mid.

Let's be patient and continue to give them support.

 

Re: relax

Yeah, that premise was pretty lame. As if Nicol just turned his nose up at a cornucopia of available, affordable Brazilian players out of sheer willfulness. Maybe he'll decide to tap into that other great untapped source of cheap young skilled soccer players - Italy.

Obviously though, the Stoichkov shuffle set the team back a bit more than anyone would have wanted. And since this early season roster confusion has gone on for something like six years running now, you can blame fans (and writers) for feeling a little jaded when the team languishes and they hear that an important player awaits - only a transfer, contract, trial, or visa away.

 

This article was also in MetroWest Daily News (owned by the Herald) under the title "Revs may be reverting to old ways." Words I never wanted to hear again.

 

Re: Re: relax

I agree with you and clearblue. I'm sure Nicol is aware that there are (and have been) many great Brazilian players. Nicol is looking for someone that fits his system - not to just sign someone to fill a roster spot. He's not starting from scratch, he's trying to improve last season's team. Keeping a core and adding upgrades or back-ups. I hope the Revs do hold out for the right player(s) to help this team. That said, yes it does get frustrating that we always seem to be looking for players and waiting for a visa, trial, contract etc to come through. We never seem to have the final roster ready as early as we would like.

 

revs have about $100,000 to sign a player (which is in Ngodzo's price range). Brown isn't making salary max, in fact no where close. Howard is the only keeper making max ($280,000) and the second most expensive keep is Meola, at $160,000.

 

There's a great book out called Futebol, about Brazil's singular relationship to the beautiful game. In it there's a chapter that discusses the world market in Brazilian players and their relative values. It focuses on a trio of players plying their trade in the Faroese First Division. Good stuff. The base premise of the chapter is, "Often mediocre Brazilian players win contracts in foreign leagues solely by virtue of the fact that they come from Brazil."

Another interesting thing I learned from this book:
Brazil is named for the Brazil nut, and not the other way around.

 

All are good articles that articulate the same point: the Revs have limited talent and creativity, esp. in midfield. The Crew are very talented and ran the Revs off the field, but it's good the see the local beat writers making intelligent and observant comments on what the Revs are lacking.

Marc Connolly's article on Soccernet said the exact same thing: "Missing Link", i.e. no central midfield worth anything. Where can they find the ball-holding midfielder they lost when Nowak retired?

 

I have to agree with Dell"Appa. The passing game was terrible. I hate to think about what is going to happen when the come up against the Metrostars and the Galaxy, whose passing games seem to be far more accomplished than ours. I surely expected a better start than this and I hope Steve makes these guys learn how to pass and control the midfield game in a hurry. They have just about been A-league quality so far and that is not nearly good enough with the improvement I saw in the rest of the league this past weekend.

 

Who on the Revs are eating up all the $$$?

 

According to MFLS here are the Rev salaries:

G : Brown, Adin 120,000
D : Cullen, Leo 100,000
D : Downing, Nick 70,000
D : Franchino, Joe 90,000
M : Frias, Tony 90,000
M : Griffiths, Winston 125,000
F : Harris, Wolde 130,000
M : Heaps, Jay 90,000
D : Hernandez, Daniel 110,000
D : Joseph, Shalrie 55,000
M : Kamler, Brian 80,000
D*: Kante, Daouda 80,000
M : Leonard, Marshall 45,000
D : Llamosa, Carlos 100,000
M : Moore, Jason 80,000
F : Moore, Joe-Max 200,000
F : Noonan, Pat 65,000
D : Pierce, Rusty 90,000
M : Ralston, Steve 170,000
G : Reis, Matt 100,000
G : Singer, Kyle 35,000
F : Twellman, Taylor 255,000
F : Westfield, Dimelon 45,000

You could free up a good chunk by trading Matt Reis, I would think.

 

Hmmmmmm.

Wolde Harris: $130, 000
Leo Cullen: $100, 000


Tony Frias:$90,00

I just hope these figures aren't accurate.

 

As a general rule of thumb, the only really "cheap" players in MLS (ie: those making 50K or less) are:
--P-40 players (b/c they don't count on the cap);
--rookies (and other than Noonan, you don't have many of those);
--players who are marginal in terms of performance (A-league refugees, guys who've been cut by numerous teams, in otherwords, players like Mike Burke. Even then, a lot of guys cut by MLS--see Eric Wynalda last year--can got to A-league teams and make $70K when the league offers them $40K or less);
--an unknown youngster from Central America or smaller African nations.

Any American who manages to stick with MLS for 4+ years and starts much of that time (guys like Cullen, Hernandez) will start to get somewhere between $60K-$90K just b/c of pay raises, escalator clauses. Doesn't sound like much but it all adds up.

 

Cullen took a pay cut, Twellman got a raise, we signed JMM, Reis, and Llamosa, added Joseph, meanwhile we didn't drop much talent. $100,000 free seems reasonable.

 

The MFLS numbers are not actual salaries, any more than a bookie's line on an NFL game where the Pats are favored by 7 indicates that the Pats are a touchdown better than their opponent. (with the "line" its purpose is to alter perception so that as close as possible to the same amount of money is bet on both sides, so the bookie makes money no matter what the result.) In MFLS, a guy like Twellman is a real bargain at his true salary of $125,000, but if they listed him at that, they'd have everyone picking him. Notice that the enitre salary budget is listed at $2.245 million--I thought only the Metros got to spend that much.

And it should go without saying, but does anyone really think that one of the Portland Timbers starting defenders and a guy who couldn't sit the bench for them (but could get them a good deal on cement) each make $90,000? Noonan at $65k, Joseph at $55k? Harris made just over $100,000 the year after his big season, but now is somewhere in the $75,000 range, and Cullen also took a cut. There are a lot of other discrepencies there as well, so it's not even worth it to discuss those numbers listed by MFLS.

I can't wait for some yahoo to use those figures to "prove" the conspiracy that so-and-so is over the cap, and therefore favored by the league...

Tom

 

I hope those Tony Frias the third #'s are inaccurate, I can deal with him making 30k but 90k is inexcusable, do we want to win a championship.....if these #'s are correct I think not!

 

These numbers are bogus (except maybe in fantasy land)!

-Westfield pretty good for a guy who isn't even signed!
-Twellman doesn't make half of 255K
-Singer is a developmental player, i.e., 12 or 15K.
-No way Jason Moore, acquired for a 4th round pick is making 80K.
-No way Heaps making 90K.
-IF Griffiths had been getting 125K, he would have been gone a LOT sooner.
-Cullen was renegotiated down, well < 100K.
-Downing = 70K, don't make me laugh.
-Wolde probably made 130K at his peak, but he's been renegotiated down twice since then.
-Frias - isn't he developmental?

 

Re: relax

Patient?
Why?
Is this team rebuilding?
Again?

Or is it coming off a MLS Cup final appearance?
Basically decided to stand pat.
Figured the players in hand were good enough, plus a retreaded Joe Max.
On the same page as the coach.
Got it all figured out.

Eastern Conference champions.
Get your tees and sweats.
Maybe this year we'll even take the division with a winning record.

Fooled us again.
Or did they fool themselves again?

Patience? No.
Support? Yes.

But don't expect any lemmings here.