After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of
the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5
average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Brian O'Connell contributed ratings for theÂ
New England Revolution's 4-3 loss to the Columbus Crew.
Settle in on your couches, crack open a frosty drink, grab the chips,
and get ready for what promises to be a really, really long night for the New England Revolution as
they take on the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park this evening. The Revs have never won in Bridgeview
during the regular season, and given the way the team has been playing - especially on the road -
they don't look to likely to turn that little streak around right now.
After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of
the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5
average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed ratings for theÂ
New England Revolution's 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls.
For what seems like the first match all season, Jay Heaps and the Revolution fielded what one
could argue to be a first choice squad on Saturday night. Other than the absence of Jose Moreno,
you could make a case that what we saw on the field was the best the Revs had to offer, and more
importantly, the result matched the talent on the field.
It's half-time at a cold Gillette Stadium and the New England Revolution lead the Colorado
Rapids 2-1 in an entertaining game.
Colorado took the lead in the 21st minute when Matt Reis came for a near post corner by Martin
Rivero and got nowhere near, leaving Castrillon with a simple header.
With the regular season now within sight, the clock is ticking for Heaps and his staff to round
out the Revolution roster. Before this week, the Revs had 24 players on their roster. The addition
of Lee Nguyen brings that number to 25 and the expected signing of Blake Brettschneider would make
it 26.
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,
Matty Jollie, and Abram Chamberlain.
In today's installment of the Couch Captain we take a look at the Revs 1-0 loss to San Jose, and
the coaching decisions made by Head Coach Jay Heaps throughout the match. Without his full
compliment of players at his disposal, did Coach Heaps' have his hand played for him? Or were there
places he maybe could have done a little better?
We're closing in on Saturday's big East Coast clash with DC United, and the New England
Revolution are scrambling to cope with the loss of captain Shalrie Joseph. Elsewhere, the dream
season for Americans Abroad has continued as Jozy Altidore, Fabian Johnson, and others have put up
some good numbers in mid-week action.
On Tuesday, the Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee suspended New England Revolution
midfielder Shalrie Jospeh for one game for a 'reckless challenge' that took place against FC Dallas
last weekend.
Along with the suspension, Joseph will also be fined an undisclosed amount of money.
"I didn't even think twice about it," explained Joseph in an article on the official Revolution
website.
The Sounders traded with the Vancouver Whitecaps to earn the No. 1 overall pick in the
draft and used it to select defender Marc Burch, who spent the past five seasons with D.C. United.
Terms of the trade with Vancouver were not released and are expected to be made public by the clubs
later on Monday.
I can understand protecting Charlie Davies if you've got a rumor of trade interest that you
think might enable you to significantly improve the team1. I can even plunge past the mystifying
decision to protect a well-past-it Simms if a pay-cut or trade are on the horizon.
Goff's version of the protected list is out, so I thought I'd stir from my hibernation1 to do
some comparisons. (Revisit my list in four parts by hitting the links highlighted in the
sidebar.)
On both lists: Willis, Jakovic, De Rosario, Kitchen, McDonald, Pontius,
Quaranta, Wolff
Goff also protects: Korb, Woolard, King
I also protect: Boskovic, Brettschneider, da Luz
We're in alignment on a number of points beyond the obvious (De Rosario, Kitchen, Pontius).
In the first three parts of this series, I worked my way through the thick weeds of the roster,
pruning and purging. On the far side, I arrived with the roster sorted into the following
categories...
Four of the twenty-seven players on the roster don't need to be sheltered from the rapacious
grasp of L'Impact de Montreal by virtue of their being home grown talents.
In Parts I and II we looked at the first two-thirds of United's roster in an attempt to compile
preliminary lists of players to PROTECT, players to EXPOSE, players on the BUBBLE, and players who
didn't have to be protected (N/A) for the expansion draft at the end of November that will stock
L'Impact's stables for 2012.
Can't fault the second half effort1. Can't fault the entertainment value. Can't argue we didn't
deserve to crash out either. Heroic last-ditch efforts aside, it was over the last four games that
the ghost was well and truly given up, not this one match that sealed the deal.
You want me to recant? To say that Wednesday's Reaction Post was a mistake?
Keep waiting.
I suppose if I were going to be really cynical, I'd point out that our first team could
absolutely dominate the MLS Reserve League[1]. I'm not going to go there. I'm going to
give United credit for finishing chances, for learning their lessons from last time around, and for
generally answering the challenge Olsen laid down.
How can you love a team, desperate for points in the playoff race, that takes a 2-0 lead at home to
one of the worst teams in the league and conspires through a combination of catastrophic defending,
a complete inability to retain possession, and, most damningly, sheer gutlessness in the face of
adversity, to throw away two points?
Guess what? United are a middle of the road club. They slot in somewhere between the also-rans
like Chivas and the league elites like Seattle. Hard to find these last couple of results shocking
when you put things in that perspective, is it? Nor was it surprising to see United struggle
offensively in their first game without their second most influential attacking player1.
I sat down at the keyboard last night and stared at the screen. Nothing. I just couldn't get
jazzed to write a reaction piece. Some of that was because I could copy and paste many of my prior
talking points. Some was because the match was pretty dull.
But the main reason was because the result was so infuriatingly predictable.
Busy couple of weeks, busy weekend. All conspiring to keep my post production low, and that
means...Grab Bag time.
Better Up Top
Those damnable "local blackouts" applied, leaving me with only the Match Day Live condensed
version of the United vs. Quakes tilt. Obviously, I feel pretty unqualified to deal in minutiae as
a result, but that won't keep me from making the one obvious observation: De Rosario needs to be up
top.
DC United at FC Dallas: Dallas Heat Shows No Home Field Advantage
The extreme heat and humidity in Saturday night's contest was extremely evident on the faces of the
players of both teams. FC Dallas was coming off a disappointing effort on the road at Real Salt
Lake that we profiled earlier this week.
Philadelphia Union at DC United
Saturday night's contest was an exciting one, at least on paper leading up to the match, as it put
the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia Union on the road at DC United, who were excited to
show off their new acquisition, MLS All-Star Dwayne DeRosario.
Midweek swaps saw two new faces appear in Ben Olsen's starting eleven. Unfortunately, the DJ was
playing the same sorry tune when it came to the match itself. Good moments going forward, patchy
periods of possession, and, of course, the inevitable defensive comedy routines. You'd think we'd
have worn out that record by now.
So I was part of the way though prepping a series of posts on probable moves for DC United in
the summer transfer window when...
McBoom!
De Boom!
Boom goes my post series.
Hmmm. The best laid plans of mice and fullbacks, eh? Instead of tossing out the whole thing, let
me just post what would have been the key conclusions in that series and look at how the moves for
De Rosario and McDonald address (or don't address) what I saw as the outstanding needs for United
at the midway point.
Ah, youth. It has its pleasures and it has its pain.
Oh boy does it ever have its pain.
The young defense has had its teething troubles this season, and I was shocked that they managed
to shut out LA last week on the road. Looks like they just deferred the inevitable. Three rooks and
a USL guy arrayed ahead of a second-year keeper isn't anybody's recipe for consistency.
Join the guys as they look back at DC United's last two matches, including the win against Seattle
and the draw against FC Dallas. The boys also look ahead to Colorado and talk about the rest of the
league.
Includes when it was called the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Qualifying games like the ones Colorado and
LA played in the 90s are not included. However, the preliminary round games that are a part of the
new Champions League are included (as they're considered part of the final tournament).
Alltime Records
GP W L D Pts GF GA GD DC United 40 16 14 10 58 64 58 6 Houston 22 7 8 7 28 28 31 -3 Columbus 18 8 7
3 27 25 26 -1 Chicago 11 6 3 2 20 18 14 4 Los Angeles 14 5 5 4 19 20 24 -4 San Jose 8 5 3 0 15 10
12 -2 Real Salt Lake 6 4 1 1 13 17 11 6 Toronto 10 3 3 4 13 8 10 -2 Kansas City 8 3 3 2 11 9 11 -2
Seattle 8 2 5 1 7 8 12 -4 New England 6 1 4 1 4 4 12 -8 New York 2 0 1 1 1 3 4 -1 Chivas USA 2 0 1
1 1 1 3 -2
This season, Colorado and Dallas will make their debuts in the competition.
United picked up midfielder/defender Perry Kitchen, fullback Chris Korb, and goalkeeper Joe
Willis in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft. There are a number of points I'm curious about in relation to
these picks, but the most interesting tactical talking point seems to be what Olsen's going to do
with all those central midfielders.
