husker du off topic? but grant & bob just sang together for the first time in like 16 years, at the k. mueller benefit, and many thought it was a miracle, that it would never happen, much like other miracles of late re: revs & sox. so, I say on topic, sorta kinda maybe?
better than interior design in my mind. fwiw, bradley predicted a crew victory today. i think its worth about as much as a steaming pile of dog crap. but, thats just me.
It's on topic! It's about the potential lineup for this weekend...more or less. Certainly no more inane than your average FSW match commentary.
I'd rather we keep it scoreless in the first half and then come out and try to put them away in the second. The revs don't play well with the lead of any kind.
Yea and i say it about time we change that! SN has to pound into there heads that a lead is just a lead, and that they can not think about it durring the match. They must keep attacking, not only for the sake of scoring more goals, but for the sake of not letting goals in. Attacking is the best defencive stradegy. play 4-4-2 bring up twellman and noonan to the defensive line, the two wings up with them too and little bit back, and the other two mids even farther back then the wings. If a turn over happens, which WILL happen, the two mid fielders must slow down the counter while the wings angle in to help. Twellman and Noonan should get up and depending on situation, help with the defence or wait for service if the mids get the ball back. Basicly like this: Pierce---Heaps---John---Joseph-- -------------Half Line------------ ------Dempsey-----Cancela------ Ralston-------------------Leonard ------Twellman-----Noonan------ ----------Opposing Goal---------- That is baicly how we have been playing but the slowing down of counter attacks is where we fall. Also, getting the ball up to the mids and forwards seem to be a struggle. I mapped it out just to show that i think Demspey and Cancela need to play a little bit more def/mid. if they come up then that leaves the crew with a chance to speed the ball through that empty area and our last line of defence is all we have to rely on. Of course they can come up every so often, but that formation is perfect for playing possesion. When in a defencive struggle you just need to invert the formation and change Opposing Goal to Our Goal. Dempsey and Cancela should help out the defence line, but stay back a little bit and the wings behind them so that when we recover the defence can pass it to them and they can quickly pass it off the the wing, they should then sprint up in to the original formation passing the ball t keep possesion, slow down as they pass the Half line and find the pass to the forwards. As with the second half of saturdays game we would rush the ball up the field and there wasn't enough control and passing to spread the crews midline out, so they got the ball back and our last line had to once again work. Control passing patience and pressure (which will result from the first 3) will win the game.
Maybe because unlike us, that other Boston team actually deserved to be in the playoffs. If the Revos win this series then management will have an excuse for standing pat and we'll get more of the same drose next season. If the Revos win MLS Cup after the season that we've "enjoyed," then the Soccer Gods will strike and MLS will forced to fold because the entire exercise was proven to be a farce of Biblical proportions. Then again, it might be interesting to be the worst team to win a league championship in the history of professional sports. Go Revos!
The telling part of that statistic is that the Revs have only been up at the half five times this year... And Frank, we all know the Revs have struggled this year and "don't deserve" to be where they are, but those are the rules of the game. If a team who is tied for the fewest points in the league is going to catch lightning in a bottle and somehow, miraculously win the whole enchillada, it might as well be us, instead of some other nearly-as-bad team like the 1997 Rapids or 1999 Wizards. And another thing, don't think the Revs are fooled by any good things that might happen between now and November 14 that could mask what has happened all year. They know there must be serious changes in the next off season, and it's safe to say that we will have much of the "core" back with us, plus several new faces. Tom
History might say otherwise. They've been fooled before, and if simply making the playoffs is the main goal, they can be fooled again. If they know that "serious changes" are needed, then why should "much of the core" be back? I think you have defeated your own argument.
What kind of changes (in the context of what MLS does) could anyone ask for - a largely new core group of players? What kind of "serious changes" do you want?
They need to seriously evaluate Nicol, and the job that he has done this season and over the past two and half years. Is the downward slide reversable, or is a change needed? Is he part of the problem or the solution? The assistant coaches changed this season, so what is their accountability? The defense needs a complete overhaul. Noonan and Twellman may never mesh, so one should be traded and good value received in return. Does Cancella still fit in, or do we want to go the Route One approach next season. Is there more substance with style, or more substance to win in MLS without it? A decent playoff run, which knocking off Columbus would qualify by itself, could mask over some of the problems. We do not want or need more of the same next season. Changes are needed, and that means in players, coaches or possibly both. This team (front office management is a separate issue) needs to be moved forward and relative status quo would leave us like the third expansion team.
God, I hope I can say this with enough conviction ... HELL NO! As much as I like the Sox and want them to win, they have the second highest payroll in the league (almost double that of the team they played in the first round IIRC), so how do they deserve it? Hell, if it wasn't for the fact that baseball changed their rules allowing a wild card team ... the Sox wouldn't be there either. So to me your "deserved to be in the playoffs" then would apply to the Revs as well. They're both following the rules of their leagues. I agree that I want a lot of changes going into next year, but this deserving to crap means nothing to me. They're there, and I'm going to support them for all I can.
I was a Red Sox fan from the time I was a toddler and while my interest in them has waned with the coming of the Revs I do wish them well in the current series. That said, I am totally fed up with the notion that 1.) the Sox are "deserving" in some moral sense and 2.) that they are the poor little waifs doing moral battle with the coroporate forces of evil, like the Yankees, etc. Both of those views are crap with as much spin as a political press conference. The Sox are a huge, big-market team and, since the 67 miracle year, they have been one of the most successful franchises in pro sports, both on and off the field. If the Yankees are Chelsea and the Dodgers ManU, the Red Sox are Arsenal or at least Inter Milan. The Revs squeeked in, no doubt, but they have played fairly well in the last six weeks and if the rules are bent, much like the wild card in baseball, why shouldn't they continue to compete? GO REVS, and good luck Sox. JIM DOW
OK, let me address the question from Frank about how you can keep the "core" intact as well as have significant changes. These are the players I would call the "core." I'm not sure all of these guys will be with us next year, but most of them should: Twellman Noonan Ralston Joseph Cancela John Dempsey Reis Then there are some guys who are in the middle who they will probably keep some, and others might be lost in the expansion draft, traded, or released outright: Pierce Franchino Heaps Kamler Baker (?) Leonard Brown (depending on his health) Dorman Brillant (only if he's not a SI) These guys are not likely to be back: Moore Llamosa Howey So the "core" of 8 players will largely be back, although I wonder how well Pepe will fit in the overall plan or if they will trade either Twellman or Noonan. I fear that if they let Cancela go, they'll get nothing, but Twellman/Noonan should fetch some good value in a trade. We also have at least one allocation and some serious cap room, so I would expect the team to add at least one significant player in the off-season, and looking at the starting point, it would appear to be a defender. If they end up keeping half the guys in the second group and re-stocking with upgrades who are good enough to get significant playing time, they should be OK. So with half the team possibly being turned over, but only 1/3 of the starting lineup, it will be less disruptive than in previous years where we traded in our 3 Canadian internationals for 3 Argies, then traded them in for 2 Dutchmen, a Salvadoran and a Trinidadian. In each instance, the new guys were all expected to start and carry the team. in 2005, we may find ourselves with 2 or 3 new starters and several new role players. Tom
The Red Sox had the third best regular season record in the major leagues out of all 30 teams. Do you think the Twins and Angels should have been in the playoffs with worse records but played in divisions without the Yankees? The Revs had the ninth best record, or second worst of 10 teams, but they get in because they won the tiebreaker against the team with the worst record in their conference. Just based on those numbers the Red Sox have a much stronger case. The merits of the rules can be argued, but the letter of the rules were followed. The Revolution deserve to be in the playoffs based on those rules, even if they snuck in the back door at the last moment. The playoffs are the second season, so the Revs did enough to get there and now the first season means nothing until the playoffs are over. Then they'll need to look at what changes have to be made. That is the time to remember the regular season, not now.
Quotes from Nicol and Cancela on MLSnet and in the Boston papers, Doc. Better question is "How do you explain it?" Which I can't, but maybe one of Nicol's apologists can.