May 25th is rapidly approaching, and so is Mario Gotze's rehabilitation process. A left hamstring injury in the second leg against Real Madrid forced the German international to exit the match not even 20 minutes in, and caused instant uproar whether or not he would be able to feature in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich.
Mario Gotze of Borussia Dortmund (Google Creative Commons)
Not even 20 minutes into the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mario Gotze was carted off the pitch after suffering an apparent upper leg injury. According to ESPN FC, the 20-year-old suffered a "suspected thigh tear at the Bernabeu" and is unlikely to feature in the Champions League final at Wembley Stadium later this month.
The New England Revolution are ready to return from an extra week off for the international break as they prepare to take on the Chicago Fire at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night. The evening's Eastern Conference rivalry clash marks the final home match of a disappointing 2012 season for the Revolution.
The New England Revolution are in Chester, Pennsylvania to take on the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night. The Revs will hope to even out a season series that hasn't favored them so far, after drawing 0-0 at home and losing 2-1 at PPL Park already this season. Both teams have already been eliminated from playoff contention.
The New England Revolution are facing D.C. United at RFK Stadium on Saturday night. RFK hasn't been a forgiving place for the Revs historically, and this season United already hung a 3-2 defeat on the Revs back in May. That said, United will be missing their best player in 2011 MLS MVP Dwayne De Rosario, and their recent results haven't been the best as they've tumbled from the top of the Eastern Conference to the fringes of the playoff race.
It's been a long, arduous ten match winless stretch, but at long last, it has come to an end.
The New England Revolution got the gorilla off their back last Wednesday night and defeated
Columbus 2-0.
The crazy part of it all? It was done with a few fresh faces, and some unsung heroes. With
players injured, star players in limbo, and an upcoming FIFA International Break, Jay Heaps got
creative, and it paid off in a big way.
With the entire country enjoying a long weekend filled with barbecues, fireworks, and running
for the ice cream truck, the New England Revolution puttered along on their march towards the end
of the season with two very different looking draws at home.
While the offensive renaissance continued on Wednesday night against Chivas USA (the Revs scored
3 first half goals), it all came to a screeching halt on Saturday night with an indescribably poor
0-0 draw against Eastern Conference rival, Philadelphia Union.
After a whirlwind week in Foxboro, the New England Revolution produced what many have called
their worst performance of the season. The Revs endured a week that saw them trade away an icon, as
well as their captain, Shalrie Joseph, and the quality on the field resembled a side that were
knee-deep in turmoil.
Colombian striker Jose Moreno waived by the Revolution on Monday. (Photo: Kari
Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)
Advertised as the New England Revolution's new number 9 back in February, Jose Moreno came to
the club on loan from Colombian side Once Caldas with high expectations. From the beginning,
nothing seemed to go as planned and now Moreno's time with the club is over after being waived on
Aug.
Despite what some people on some local radio stations may think, Kansas City has their biggest game
since the 2004 MLS Cup on Wednesday when they play the Seattle Sounders in the US Open Cup final.
Before that though, Kansas City has a league game tomorrow against the New England Revolution. This
is the third and final meeting between the two teams with Kansas City leading the series so far
this year with a 1-0-1 with a +3 goal difference from the home opener.
Shalrie Joseph's New England Revolution career is over. It can do strange things to a locker
room when such a dynamic piece of the puzzle is removed. It's like playing Jenga...you have to take
a risk and remove a certain piece of the structure, doing so will help you win, but you do risk
toppling the whole tower and going down in flames.
With an injury report longer than some Greek literature, Jay Heaps certainly had his work cut out for him tonight in Houston when assembling his starting lineup and bench. However, given what he had to work with, Revs fans can be quite pleased with the squad they'll see on the field.
The back four is solid, with all four healthy veterans getting the start.
After every match this season, the staff here at The Bent Musket will be putting together player
ratings. Ratings are on a 1-10 scale, with 5 representing a thoroughly average performance, and 6 a
decent/capable showing. The final ratings will be averages of individual ratings from Corey Major,
and Matty Jollie.
Road trips are one of the more difficult things that coaching staffs have to deal with in
soccer, especially ones that require you to play 3 matches in 8 days (it's 4 matches in two weeks
really, if you go back to NYRB) so Saturday night's result in Kansas City shouldn't be glossed over
by any stretch of the imagination.
Friday afternoon's injury report lists the Seattle Sounders with only regular player with a 50% chance of playing or less. Both Christian Tiffert and Mauro Rosales are at Probable (75% chance of playing) and Patrick Ianni is Questionable (50%). This means it is quite likely that Sigi Schmid will be able to field an Ideal XI, a rarity this year it seems.
It seems funny to think about it now, but not that long ago there was some serious concerns
about the Seattle Sounders' offense and their supposed lack of depth. Funny how a couple moves,
along with some key players returning to health, can change perceptions.
The Sounders now sit on 65 goals scored through 34 competitive matches following their
second-three goal performance in CONCACAF Champions League play.
Full game recap coming, but a post-game discussion got me to do some research. Namely people were
asking why Pareja seemed to be unwilling to play Casey and Cummings at the same time. I wondered
how much of that was by choice and how much was due to injury so I looked it up.
Only 9 times this season have they both been Probable on the injury report or better, and in each
of those games at least one of them was listed as Probable, so they've never been completely
healthy (Casey has been on the injury report every game this season).
Maybe Turbo and Ozone can help us... Due to being in Portland for the weekend,
this will be a combined game review, such as it was, and game preview. Though there really isn't
anything to review, due tot he nature of the game and the fact that I was seeing it in person from
a lousy seat there isn't much to talk about.
Hopefully a good metaphor for the Timbers after the game The Rapids head for the
Rose City on Friday night to face the Timbers, a team they have never lost to. Portland, of course,
is where long-time Rapids fan favorite Kosuke Kimura was traded to and I'm sure he's going to want
to show Colorado what they're missing.
Ah, the Clash Back to the main point of this blog. Things don't get easier for the
Rapids as their at the Supporters Shield leading Earthquakes tomorrow night. Not an easy place to
turn things around. Game time tomorrow is 8:30pm on Altitude, so go out and enjoy the bike race in
Golden, Boulder, or areas in-between, get a good dinner, and settle down for some soccer.
Maybe some roasted goat at the tailgate? The Under-A-Chivas are in town tomorrow
coming off a beat down at the hands of the LA Galaxy. The Rapids really need to pick up home points
to have any playoff chance at all, so this is almost a must-win game. Game time tomorrow is 7pm, so
the tailgate starts at 5.
Yep, still using this pic :D The Rapids are in Dallas tomorrow, aka DSG Park South
(at least in the playoffs). Two teams that have fallen greatly since they met almost two years ago
in Toronto for MLS Cup. Dallas is in worse shape than we are though, needing a miracle to even
sniff the playoffs while if the Rapids can get hot over the next 5 games, 4 of which are against
teams out of the playoffs, they can be back in the picture.
As much as I love the Rapids, this will be my sporting obsession for now So the
Rapids have one more chance to get a meaningful win this month, being 0-0-5 so far. Tomorrow the
Sounders are back for their first game in Colorado since the Steve Zakuani incident, and hopefully
he'll be playing.
It would be nice not to lose this tomorrow At this point the last thing the Rapids
probably want to do is play a game. On top of the horrible events in Aurora last night the team had
to change its plans for today. Originally the team was scheduled to fly straight from Toronto to
Salt Lake City but they stopped in Denver today for the funeral of Marisa Colaiano.
BROADCAST INFORMATION: Fox Soccer - 9 p.m. Univision Deportes Network - 9 p.m. La Ranchera
850 - 9 p.m. PREVIEW: The Houston Dynamo continue their 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League campaign with a
trip to Honduras on Thursday to face domestic champion C.D. Olimpia.
The average age of the Vancouver Whitecaps' probable starting lineup on Saturday is 30.3. That's
as compared to the Portland Timbers' likely starters' average age of 26.9. In fact, the Timbers
have just two players on the entire roster -- Jack Jewsbury and Donovan Ricketts -- who are older
than Vancouver's starters' average age.
Vancouver Whitecaps Midfielder Gershon Koffie was suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee
for one game and fined an undisclosed amount in the wake of his actions on Saturday afternoon at
Century Link Field. The suspension was handed down for the dangerous play where he kicked Andy Rose
in the chest.
After having the full week off for the majority of the team, Sporting KC is back at it on Saturday
when they take on Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field in Toronto. After 8 weeks with two
games a week KC had a full week of training ahead of the game. And for the first time since May
27th when KC played San Jose, they'll play a team on shorter rest than them tomorrow.
It has been ten days since the last time we had a Portland Timbers game to watch, but with the
changes that have been made in the interim, it seems like an eternity. Emotions will be running
high for the Portland faithful today, as, for the first time since April 2011 -- a run of 51 league
matches -- a Timbers game will start without Troy Perkins in goal.
Fortunately, injuries are no longer the huge story they were earlier this year for FC Dallas.
But one fixture on the injury report since early May has been captain Ugo Ihemelu, who has missed
the last 13 games due to concussion symptoms and there are no encouraging signs to think the Cedar
Hill product could play again this season.
On Tuesday's MLS injury report, FC Dallas had a player pretty unfamiliar to that realm listed as
out as versatile Brazilian midfielder Jackson was on the list with concussion symptoms. It turns
out the man who currently leads FCD with five assists picked up a knock in the second half of
Saturday's 1-0 loss to the defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles Galaxy at FC Dallas Stadium and
Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman was giving him a break as a precautionary measure.
Usually the MLS injury report isn't exactly a compelling read. But on the latest version of the
report, which was updated on Tuesday, July 31, had a somewhat surprising name on it: Jackson, who
is listed as out with concussion symptoms.
The post Jackson Now Bothered by Concussion? appeared first on 3rd Degree.
Life has not been easy for Real Salt Lake without centerback Jamison Olave, but after a spell of
struggles the club's back line appears to be hitting its stride.
After dropping three straight league matches after Olave's latest injury, RSL won their CONCACAF
Champions League match 2-0 over Tauro FC and played to an ugly, but effective, 0-0 draw with the
Philadelphia Union Friday at PPL Park.
It's been 56 days since Sporting Kansas City defeated Toronto 2-1 at Livestrong Sporting Park. That
game started a string of 17 games in that time frame. Basically a game every 3 days for an 8 week
period sees KC with some very tired legs. Meanwhile in that same stretch of time, Kansas City's
opponent tomorrow is DC United has played only 8 games.
