Short week with 5 days between games Past two road outings have been less than solid but produced 4 points Joseph playing a bit like he's preoccupied Smith has been struggling in the past two games Defense has been solid giving up two goals off deflections and one on a bad bounce. Having Parkhurst back is a real plus Twellman on a hot run and gaining in confidence Ralston playing like he's lost a few birthdays DCU has really struggled (0-3) and their defense has been poor. Not sure if things are not boiling over in the locker room Fans not at all happy with the coaching DCU players will be desperate for a win These games are always fun and hotly contested Weather should be OK Revs have a high probibility of coming away with points
A great test for the Revs. DC will want revenge for the ECF loss, and will not want to get 0 points from 4 matches (already having lost twice to Eastern opponents). I hope the Revs can pick it up a notch from the Dallas performance.
Agree with most of this... Smith is a "one-trick pony" and it seems that they won't let him do that trick anymore... also, when he tries to play it, he gets doubled down in the corner and can't make anything of it (or even keep possession with a short pass)... Joseph really looked good to me yesterday (much better than in Cowlumbus)... some of our recent returnees got some time (Noonan and Parkhurst) without really hurting the team or themselves (though Noonan really looked useless except for the couple of times he got the ball down near the penalty box)... I haven't seen anything from Thompson that makes me thiink he can play at this level... DC are gooing to come out flying... the key will be what the Revs are able to do with the first 20-25 minutes of pressure... watch the area behind the flank midfielders... if DC is able to exploit that weak area, it could be a long night...
ESPN2HD - woohoo. I actually think we will come out flying for DC...but looking ahead, there may be little in the gastank for Sundays game against Chicago. Tough little stretch right here.
if the crew can take 3 from Dog Crap United, then anything less than 3 will be disappointing. Maybe shalrie and Gomez can meet for a beer after the game and cry about their contracts
East is kind of garbage? How do you figure? So far, the 4 best teams in the league are in the East. RBNY hasn't given up a goal yet this season. Columbus and Chicago have yet to lose a game. I don't think DC's current status proves their weakness but rather proves the division's strength.
Really surprised by DC. They looked good in the Champion's league..but did lack cohesiveness. Their defense is Lindburger... I think SN should go with ML on the left. He actually has been the best left sided mid that the Revs have had in the past few years. He had a monster game against DC a couple of years back. Would be great for him to get a start in this one. Khano is just too inconsistant. He's a pretty horrible defender and seems to always be lingering in space. With the kind of pace he has, he should be burning down the wing at every chance pulling the outside defender with him and leaving some nice holes for Noonan and Dorman to get into...but nooooo..Against Dallas he just looked like gumby out there.
Leonard should get a fair number of reserve starts before he gets a first team start just so he gets into the swing of things again. I really think the Revs can win this one, especially if they score an early goal. Any word on when Byrne gets his visa?
I thought he said he was hoping to get it by this weekend, thought he was going to have it for last weekend....please correct me if I misunderstood him.
I'm pretty sure he's ALLOWED to train with the team. He just can't get paid by the team until his visa comes through. Players train with teams all over the world all the time without any work permit issues, I believe. OR what the doc said...
I like Leonard, I'm glad he's healthy, and I'm happy to have him on the team. That being said, I'd have some misgivings about starting him on Thursday. What I remember from last year was that Leonard was the best defensive LM we had, he always tracked back and combined well with the left back, particularly AJ, to double team opposing players and strip them of the ball. He was extremely consistant. The problem was that he consistently offered very little going forwards. A quick check on MLSnet confirmed my suspicions, ML: 1 goal and 2 assists in 4,541 minutes, Khano: 4 goals and 2 assists in 1,472. With Khano there's always some threat that he'll get forward and do some damage, that is just not the case with Leonard and it allows the opposition to shift defensive cover to other areas of the field. I think ML is a fantastic option off the bench when we're holding a tenuous lead, if he'd been on the field instead of Thompson in Columbus I think we would have won that game. But I don't think he's a good choice to start.
It's fan loyalty night in DC, buy one, get one free. So the stadium should be loud. Those guys are already freakin out about being 10 points out of first, and 6 points out of a tie for 5th place!
I don't know why people are dumping on Smith, he actually had some pretty nice crosses and did his job defensively. He busted his tail on a pretty brutal day. Sure, he tripped over the ball a couple of times, but he had his share of good plays as well.
Until they start going to the bathroom on your living room carpet. Remember to rub their noses in it so they don't do it again