It may take a large quantity of alcohol to imagine this, but go with me on this one.... Let's say the Revs run the table. It wouldn't be all that hard to do really, they only have one road game left and that is against DC, who have already clinched a playoff berth and I believe they can clinch first place by winning today, so they would not be motivated. Columbus on the final day of the season should be a cakewalk, so that leaves the challenges of beating KC and Colorado at Gillette. So, just imagine 13 wins 8 losses and 11 ties for 50 points. Then take that momentum into a typical late run by the Revs that gets them to the Cup final. Now it may take actual hardware for some of us to forgive and forget. But what would it take to call this season a success? Would 50 points be sufficient to look back on 11 ties as "not-losses" instead of the "not-wins" that many of us see them as? What about a cup final appearance? Is losing in the conference final after getting 50 points enough to keep from calling for Nicol to resign? It seems like a good time to go on record with our opinions. It would be too easy to say things like "I always knew Stevie could do it" after a Cup win when your real feeling is that the season has been a waste at this point. My answer? Give me the hardware! Would we deserve it? No way...but we've been waiting a long time. They should have won it last year. The system is what it is, so make it work for you. This season has been miserable for the Revs, they have shown little to no motivation and haven't earned what the current playoff system could potentially grant them (cf. LA last year). A late season run and a good playoff showing would help to take the bitter taste out of our mouths, but it doesn't excuse what went before. Sure, it would save Nicol's job, but it will doom us to more of the same next year. Discuss...
You can never forget. I didn't forget the last 4 seasons. As for forgiving, it's not like they intentionally sucked ass and tied 6 games in a row. Some of those could have been loses, and yes, some of those could have been wins. Fact is we can still achieve 50 points and we are in the playoffs (virtually). There's nothing to forgive.
Nothing but winning the Cup qualifies this as a successful season. Do you think teams that have been successful would define "hey, we made the playoffs, so it's been a good year?" Of course not. When you're an RSL or a Chivas USA, this has been a successful year, a huge step forward for both. When you've gone through a wonderful season like last year (in reality, you're first), the only improvement you can have is to take the next step ... winning the Cup.
Monty, I agree. I'm anticipating the post-season opining that 50 points represents a good season, when in reality it is under-achieving. Perhaps "successful" is not the word I should use in questioning this season. Amazingly, Soccer Doc has given my favorite response so far! The best post-season advice is 'breathe"
Last season, after losing the Cup, I still felt we had a great season. 1st place for much of the season, a lot of good wins early on. In general, I felt like more of the approximately 22 games I went to were good than bad. Also, they went to the Cup, which is better than 10 other teams did. So, if they win it all this year? I'll forgive the mediocre season in exchange for the Cup, just like I forgive the bad performance in the Cup last year in exchange for a great season. A win tonight will let me start the forgiving process for this year. If we win the rest of our games, then I'll forget as well.
That would be my view as well. We lost the Supporters Shield. We lost the Open Cup. We win the MLS Cup Post-Season Tourney.
Yep ... it's kinda sad to think of the fact that (and myself included in this) we'll accept yet another season of mediocrity if we win three games out of a possible four (all it takes to win the Cup).
50 points 1. Not likely to happen - SN will want to "not lose" the last few games of the season heading into the playoffs. We will see more ties. 2. With 96 points up for grabs, and the team we thought he had - 50 isn't good enough. Pile on the numerous games where they came out flat, uninspired and unprepared. 3. SN will be around next year as long as he makes the playoffs which is almost a sure thing.
Here is the nub. Another school of thought says they were never that good, and the world cup interval completely wrecked whatever rhythm we had. Not just us either - look at Galaxy. Look at KC.
there's always the matrix view - there is no season, just one continuous mish mosh of electrons forming players that come and go in the same old story - having potential but never fulfilling it.....
In my "looking through the crystal ball" or whatever that thread was called i wrote something to the effect that how the revs handle the world cup and it's aftermath with define there season. I think that has had a major impact on this season. TnT not getting the call, Dempsey reaction after his transfer bid was turned down has all had a negitive impact on the season. It's also something that you can't really game plain for so going around trying to blame people is really just point less. At the end of the day, if the revs play well though the rest of the season and run though the playoffs to the MLS cup and win it i think I'd be very please with this season in the end.
OK, I will go on the record here. If I ran the Revs, Steve Nicol comes back next year if the Revs win MLS Cup. Not if they lose in OT to Chivas (do they have any Guatemalans to score the winner?), not if they have an "exciting" playoff season and lose a "close" Eastern final, not if they lose a knock-down, drag out "hard-fought" series to Chicago. Win the Cup if you want to keep your job. If it's anything less, then it's time to "go in a different direction" as they say. And while we are at it, it is time for the whole front office to be re-evaluated. Considering that we will likely have the opportunity to sign 2-3 major players from outside the league this off-season, it is time to get a full-time scout to beat the bushes of Central and/or South America and other parts. You can get a pretty decent player from Latin America who would be willing to come here for $100-150,000 a year, but it takes some time and work to find him. I don't want to hear about some "great" player who we "might" sign next March, I want to see them sort these things out right now.
my opn.. crapped out of the ccc and open cup, never challeneged for the supporters shield and a huge string of losuy results (tooo many ties and horribly dropped points like rsl). I can't forgive and I can't forget. I can move on though. even if we won the mls cup this season, I would still be a little disappointed with the season overall. We have a lot of problem and none of them have been resolved. and I don't see how we can improve much next year. In fact if we lose guys like dempsey, we will be worse. And I don't expect (based on history) for this club to make the moves it needs to make to 1. replace CD and who ever else we lose. 2. fix the left which has sucked for 2 years. 3. to make any significant pickups, other than who's available in the draft. and to be better, we will need to do all 3 Don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled to win it even if it's ugly (which at this point, it would be) but LA's winning it all was a joke last year and showed just how f**'d up the MLS playoff system is and why the regular season is close to meaningless. We deserved it last year. We do not really deserve it this year. I simply want better from this organization. more and more, I feel like the we are to the krafts what the royals is to walmart.
Yeah, there's some guy who spends his weekdays in Columbia (not Colombia--you might actually find a real player or two there), and his spare time deciding if the next USA coach should be named "Jurgen," "Sven," "Guus," or "Mooch," plus a local guy from Maaaahhl-burra who we don't quite know what he does, and then we have a few other people who spend most of their time convincing various youth leagues to buy a bunch of tickets for certain targeted games. Even Fernando Clavijo has a better network of contacts for considering potential new players.
You keep bringing up coaches that have had some issues around this league whenever someone mentions Nicol should be fired. Why? Who says it has to be one of those guys? Why not try a new name? What do you have to lose? The point is to get better each and every year, and yet other than one year, we've been mediocre with Nicol as coach. And even that year, we didn't win squat. Rongen, like him or not, helped DC win the Cup. Hudson, like him or not, led the Fusion to an incredible 16-5-5 record, and the Supporter's Shield.