A Very Dangerous Place
by tedski
Fun, fun is in store in the SuperLiga tonight, and not just because the Revs have already beaten Morelia in this tournament. For those who aren’t paying attention, Federico Vilar, the former Atlante goal keeper who infamously struck Jay Heaps after his team lost to the Revs before, is now playing for Morelia (he was serving a long-delayed suspension for that incident earlier in this tournament). Heaps will be safely in the booth, but Vilar will have plenty of other targets after his team loses tonight.
And before you say “Well, the refs will be ready to keep the game under control and won’t let that happen again,” it’s the same ref, Carlos Betres.
Geez.
By the way, do we all have to promise not to call Morelia’s coach Tommy Boy?
Blue Paint and Taylor Lautner
by tedski
This weekend was the annual “Meet the Revs” day, which means we have Mike Toole’s annual video commemorating the event. The “Lautner” thing is an in-joke which I could explain, but naw.
Your Obscure CONCACAF Highlights, Presented Free of Charge
by tedski
in the first leg of the preliminary round in the CONCACAF Champions League, two of the best named teams in North America, Brujas FC and Joe Public FC, play to a 2 – 2 draw.
Bonus for Revs fans: the manager of Brujas FC is Mauricio Wright.
Rallie, Rallie, Rallie, or, Donkey Has Reason to be Cranky
by tedski
The Twitterverse, or at least the portion that is used by Revs fans, was consumed yesterday by outrage that Steve Ralston was going to be ineligible to play in New England’s SuperLiga tilt against Atlético Morelia. This was touted as Ralston’s final game.
Who’s at fault for this? Well, seeing as I live a couple of thousand miles from the people making these decisions, I can’t say definitively. But given comments that I’ve read by Steve Nicol, and comments from players and team officials that have gotten back to fans, this seems a screw-up by the league.
It’s a damn shame, really. Ralston was not a star that the league pushed on fans (think Alexi Lalas, David Beckham, Carlos Hermosillo, the list goes on). Instead, he was someone who developed his skills in the league, and made both of the teams he played with better squads for it. He became a fan favorite not because he was glamorous, but because he was a great player. Here was a guy who not only honed his skills as an MLS player and stuck around, but who in a small way improved the quality of the league. You’d think they’d be better at recognizing that.
The fans, both in and out of the Fort, gave Ralston the tribute he deserved. You gotta wonder why the experts in suits couldn’t see what they saw.
Rollie, Rollie, Rollie, Get Your Adverbs Here
by tedski
I think Hoover Dam summed it up best on her Twitter feed when she said that there would be a mutiny if Rev fans ever saw Steve Ralston in another team’s jersey.
“Mutiny,” get it?
If there were an all-time MLS Best XI, Ralston should definitely be on it, and I think he’ll still have an impact for the Revs. But, am I excited to see him back in a Revs uniform, or just relieved the I won’t have to watch him playing for someone else?
Revs Snakebit Again
by tedski
We all love the back and forth, the jostling, elbows, pushing and shoving. We know they can take it because they aren’t the doughy near athsmatics that we are. But, we also have to remember when they go full tilt at each other, it can be much worse than it is for the rest of us. Dane Richards ain’t that big (5′ 7″), but remember that the guy is stronger and faster than any little guy that you know. He comes at someone full tilt, he’s going to do some serious damage, even against a player with a much tougher reputation like Preston Burpo. Go back and look at accounts of injuries to Rudy Tomjanovich and Brian Kamler. Those were the results of violence outside the rules and flow of the game, but the fact that doctors in both cases compared the injuries to those sustained in car wrecks tells you what is capable of happening even in “incidental” contact.
Good News for Us Suffering Rev Fans
by tedski
Per a tweet from Frak Dell’Apa:
Shalrie Joseph 5-game suspension ended; returns to Revolution for Saturday game at Toronto.
Full story here. For those keeping track, the last time Shalrie played it was a 4-1 victory over Toronto.
Revs Start Trialists Tonight?
by tedski
I was joking around with Hoover Dam that the Revs will probably be starting Hudahel Izzat.
Well, I wasn’t far from the truth.
As it turns out, three trialists will be available for the team tonight against Portugese champions SL Benfica. I know it’s a friendly, but starting them against one of the better European teams? It almost doesn’t seem fair. Interestingly, the team makes a point of telling anyone that will listen that these players are not here to fill holes in a leaky line-up. It’s all coincidence.
The three players are:
(Read on …)
Janek and Alston Scratched for Columbus
by tedski
Edgaras Jankauskas and Kevin Alston will not be making the filght to Columbus. Here is your list of people not playing this weekend:
Shalrie Joseph (Personal leave)
Taylor Twellman (Injured)
Matt Reis (Injured)
Emmanuel Osei (Injured)
Mike Videira (Injured?)
Marko Perovic (Suspended)
Edgaras Jankauskas (Injured)
Kevin Alston (Injured)
Leaves me a bit bummed about their prospects against a good Columbus side. I have tried to stay away from Big Soccer, but I’m sure someone has blamed this on the lack of a jersey sponsor.
No Shalrie?
by tedski
Frank Dell’apa reports via Twitter that Shalrie Joseph will not be playing in the New England Revolution’s match against San Jose this weekend.
I’m sure this is sending Rev fans into a blind panic (cue the handwringing on Big Soccer). Shalrie is, after all, “Talismanic” (TM). The Revs have had three games so far, two without and one with. The two without included a loss to Los Angeles, arguably the best team in the league so far, and a 2 – 0 victory against DC United, who no one will argue is the best team in the league. Even the loss against LA, in which the team was criticized for the lacsadaisical play in the first half, included many great looks from the Revs’ forwards.
When Shalrie played, we were treated to a 4 – 1 rout of Toronto. Interestingly, Joseph showed up only as a “secondary assist” on one of those four goals. This is not to say that Joseph is unnecessary, but that the responsibilities seem to have been spread out and not every play has to go through him.
Much of what Joseph did was to keep defenders occupied with him creating space elsewhere. This can’t happen when he isn’t on the field: it is difficult to imagine that Chris Tierney or Joseph Niouky have the reputation that creates the sort of fear that causes teams to concentrate on them. But it is useful to remember that Toronto got so flustered that they quintuple teamed Khano Smith, so who knows?
One more reason I’m not worried: San Jose has been awful this year.
Next Page »