One word for this one: Ugly. Some dreadful individual performances (Llamosa), and an ugly team performance by the Revs. They have no concept of spacing right now. I thought their bright spot was Joseph, who played a pretty smart, solid game. San Jose's D was quality, but other than that, they were unremarkable. Donovan had a pretty poor first half, but played much better in the second. Bring Ching is promising, but he made some questionable decisions. Why is the turf at The Razor so crappy right now? And why do we have to watch New England again next week? I hate to make negative posts like this, but man-oh-man, that game bordered on unwatchable. Of course, I watched it anyway.
Pretty much sums it up. What a putrid display of soccer. A couple nice individual moments, but 98% of it was nearly unwatchable. Of course I watched it anyway too. Kevin
As I proposed last year, MLS should stick with the package highlightes, or rotation system, but stick to Saturday nights....the Sat. afternoon games draw crappy attendences, and look terrible (stands) on Tv......the intensity is lacking in these games, and is turning very few onto MLS or the game.. Until the quality gets to a certain level (including production), put your best foot forward MLS and get rid of the Sat. afternoon games....
Revs.... Worthless midfield...All it takes to kill it is to mark Ralston well and the attack suffers a great deal...Joseph is too young to carry the load offensively, plus i do not think that should be entirely his job anyway, although it does tell you something when he is the bright spot in the team.... Really pathetic
I don't think that's the answer. The night games on FSW haven't exactly been barn-burners, either. Games need to be on TV. They'll get better as the season progresses. God, I hope they will. Today's was particularly bad. I do question the decision to have the Revs on so much in the early season. They play an unattractive brand of soccer as it is, and it is certain to be even more unattractive this early. Kudos to Wynalda for actually pointing out that the game was ugly -- I like his criticism. Jack, Ty, and the unbearable Stoner would all be content to pretend it isn't happening, and to point out for the billionth time Donovan is only 21, and Taylor Twellman led the league in points last year.
I thought the Revolution did a great job a stringing passes to the Earthquakes defenders. I don't think I have ever seen some many crosses and passes get deflected and intercepted. Horrible display by the Revs, and the Quakes weren't exactly lighting it up either.
San Jose's Defense looks really good this year. They're very well organized, and shut down what little NE sent their way. Dayak and Agoos look great, and you can't tell Dunivant is a rookie, he has an excellent long throw as well.
i've heard most of these comments after just about every (ESPN2) televised game this season, and i must admit the 'product' is less than exciting. but why? i thought this would be the best year yet. did i overhype my expectations? is it just too early to tell yet? there's a strange flow (or lack thereof) to these games that borders on immaturity. last week, i was watching the metro/columbus game while the NFL draft was going on at the end of the bar. the dudes sitting at the bar were far more interested in the draft, which is fine. but when they occasionally glanced at 'my' game they just radiated boredom with the action -- and i totally understood! had the game flowed, with passes that found their marks, and shots that were at least put on frame thus forcing the keeper to make a play, and a general passion from the stands, the dudes at the bar -- who gave the game more than its share of chances -- probably would have stayed with it. i'm gonna watch either way b/c i'm a fan, but so far i've only been entertained by the LA/columbus game, while the rest of these guys stink up the joint. WHAT GIVES?!
It seems to me that a common thread in games have been teams havent been in sync offensively. Runs off the ball and passes have been frequently going in opposite directions, resulting in really choppy games. Hopefully those errant passes will start finding their mark as the season goes on.
MLS is like a train. Takes some time to get up and running. Folks were complaining about the lack of skill and cohesion last year at this time. Next year we'll see another thread on the topic...so on and so forth.
Yallop said it best when he said: "We're not playing well." They weren't but San Jose was happy to get a win. New England looked downright ugly, and confused. The only one who looked pretty decent defensively was Pierce, everyone else was getting burned, especially Carlos.
I thought the quality was supposed to improve when they got rid of two teams. Every game I've seen has been kind of boring. Maybe because the home team is losing often. I just hope things get better! I'm sure it must!
We are glad that ESPN is showing the games but if MLS is ever going to win new fans then they need to put out a better product. MLS is lucky that I am a fan for life because if I just started watching I don't think I would return. I actually found myself watching some of the WUSA game. The freakin' WUSA game. The score was 3-3 at half and it pulled me in. Once again it was WUSA.
It took 7 years for the league to reach this point, it's going to take 7 more for it to take another major step up.
Its not that anybody expects it to take a significant step up. At least, I don't. I just would like for the games to be enjoyable to watch. Right now, most of them aren't. I love this league, and I'll watch every game I can, but for now, it feels a bit more like an obligation than anything else. I have no doubt they'll get better as the season progresses, and I'm willing to wait for that to happen. But let me voice my frustration in the mean time.
SJ played the worse game of the year. If you think NE played bad, watch some tapes from 2-3 years ago. They can't even string more than 3 passes together.
Positives: Both "stars" (Twellman and Donovan) worked their asses off trying to create something. Donovan busted a World Class move (I saw Gil from Corinthians make the same move about a month ago, maybe Donovan was watching the same game) at the end of the game before shanking the shot horribly. But up until then, it was pure class (I think Jay Heaps is going to need an ankle transplant). Officiating was better. Franchino had only one moment close to worthy of his reputation and was duly carded for his efforts. Negatives: Almost anything else. Revs couldn't put in a decent cross to save their lives. Field was atrocious. Llamosa looked like he'd never played before in his life. The right side of the Earthquakes "attack" (Waibel and Mullan) is not particularly skilled (Mullan can run which helps some). Sharlie Jospeh followed up a good game with a bad game. He looked like he had talent, but did not actually play very well. As mentioned, he was the highlight of the Revs midfield. Ralston was marked out of the game, and Kamler, Cullen, Noonan and Hernandez were all less than useless. We could cut them some slack as it appears conditions were less than ideal, but it isn't as if this has been an isolated occurrence for the Revs. More Revs next week.
Totally agree...Those four team you mention at least "try" (never mind if DC has been awful when it comes to scoring) to string some intelligent passing together and work in order to try to break other team's defenses...They might not be consistent but in some spells (some teams longer spells than others) play a bit more attractive).....The rest of the teams appear to "create" an attacking game whose only objective is to get the ball to the side to cross the ball, something that when done as your primary option of attack, makes old & slow defenders look damn good
I get the feeling that the lack of solid preparation in preseason may have something to do with it. With so many teams using the run-up to the regular season to evaluate talent, it's going to take a couple of games for some of these guys to even learn their teammates' names, let alone figure out where they'll be to receive a pass. And yeah, SJ-NE was a snoozer. What was funny was that Wynalda waited until about the 87th minute to say it outright in the broadcast. Later, COZ
i didn't think it was THAT bad, at least the Quakes' portion of it. even when the Revs were winning at the end of last year, they were never fun to watch. they're a lot worse to watch now. having such a crappy field never helps either. MLS players aren't the most skilled in the world and playing on a field with nothing but bumps and divots highlights their lack of skill. i enjoyed the game though but i'm a sucker for MLS punishment.