Red Bull Crush

Blake Here:

For the second straight game, the weather at Foxboro was delightful. The Revs lineup featured a lineup that I think we will see most of the time when Twellman is not on the field. The backline appears to have stabilized with Alston – Osei – Barnes – Heaps. The midfield lineup was Nyassi – Phelan – Laurentowicz (apparently recovered) – Mansally. Ralston and Joseph up top with Reis in goal. The first half was a back and forth game and both sides generated chances. The Revs broke through in injury time with Heaps (Heaps?!?) scoring the goal – and not off a header. With that assist it is clear whatever slump Joseph was going through is now over. He had his best game of the year. And although we didn’t know it at the time, that goal at the end of the half was the beginning of a rout.

Twellman came on for Phelan at the start of the second half with Joseph dropping back into the midfield which gave the Revs the lineup I think is probably the best in the league. The Revs came out firing on all cylinders and scored 3 goals in the first 20 minutes of the half. The first was off a great bit of work by Heaps (yes Heaps!). After losing the dribble near the end line Heaps hustled to pick the defenders pocket and then sent in a perfect cross which Ralston headed in for the goal. Shortly afterward Joseph sent one of his great long balls to the far post for Twellman to knock in for the third goal. Ralston fed Twellman for the fourth goal. If Twellman hadn’t decided to try and return the favor to Ralston, I think he could have had 2 more goals. It was great to see Twellman get a goal – which turned out to be his 100^th MLS goal. Reis got his 50^th shutout and Heaps played in his 300^th game in the MLS while scoring a goal and getting an assist. I can’t remember the last time Heaps had a goal. All in all a great night for Revs fans. The Rev next travel to Kansas City and we will get a chance to see if the Revs are ready to go on one of their runs. After that it will be time to defend their SuperLiga title and I will be in my usual seats in section 106 watching each of those games.

One question I have on this game though. How much did Red Bulls pay Kraft so they could send a couple of parachutists (in Red Bull parachutes) to deliver the game ball? Although one was wearing a Revs uniform, it was irksome to see Red Bull parachutes drifting down into Foxboro. And then after the game – they were giving out cans of Red Bull outside the stadium. As the victory was a crushing defeat for the Red Bull, I accepted the gift while refraining from crushing the cans right there. I hope the Kraft’s got good money, because if the Revs had lost, that would have been salt in the wound.