Make Your Voice Heard!

No I'm not talking about the US Census though you should fill that out as well. I'm talking about the US Soccer 2010 Fan Survey where you get asked all important questions about what you think about there membership and my favorite question where you indicate if the reason you watch US Soccer matches on the television rather than attend is because of the commentary you get to hear on the television broadcasts. At the very least you're entered in a drawing for US Soccer Gear.

http://www.ussoccer.com/Social/2010-Survey.aspx

Blake's Random Rants and Musings

Blake here again with rants and thoughts about MLS.

Having seen Joel Lindpere of the Red Bulls now hit two great strikes for goals (one the exhibition match against Santos and the second in the Red Bulls opener at their new arena), I think he is going to be a great player for the Red Bulls - who look miles better then last year unfortunately.

Why or why did ESPN hire Max Bretos? Seeing him doing the halftime studio show for the opener for ESPN was jarring to say the least. At least Heaps has retired so I won't here him describe Heaps as from New Hampshire instead of Longmeadow, Mass where he went to high school. But that probably does mean if I happen to drop by CBS scene after a game he will be there with his bouncer entourage. Really ESPN? Max Bretos? You couldn't find anyone else? What did Rob Stone do to be confined to the role of sideline reporter? And keeping John Harkes? Paring Harks and Bretos is the soccer equivalent of Dumb and Dumber. At least at Fox, Bretos fit in with the other MLS announcing mediocrities.

What is it about Philly teams? Is there some requirement that they be thugs and bullies? It seems that the Philadelphia Union have taken the Broadstreet Bullies example to heart based on their performance against Seattle in the MLS season opener. They may be a dirtier team then Chivas under Preki. I don't remember Nowak's D.C. United teams being that thuggy, but then again they had better players. I guess if the other team is more talented, the best approach is to foul, foul and foul again. On a plus side, the ref issued early yellows and even doled out a Red in the first half. If we see more of that from the refs this season, perhaps that kind of play will diminish.

And finally a stadium rant.

O.K. the Red Bulls now have a great soccer stadium. Hey Kraft’s - where is the vaunted rivalry between New York and Boston. The Red Bulls now have one of the best soccer stadiums in the MLS. Aren't you challenged? Are you willing to stand by and let that go? Build a soccer specific stadium. Put it close to a T stop and see your attendance grow. Or continue to hold game in cavernous Patriots stadium with the football lines come pre-season and the Patriots cocoa mugs come football season. But if you don't, please don't tell us fans how important the Revs are to you.

Rev's Season Opener

photo courtesy of www.revolutionsoccer.net

Blake here,

So here was the Revs starting lineup for the first game of the season against the LA Galaxy:

Phelan, Alston, Shilawski, Dube, Nyassi, Niouky, Tierney, Sinovic, Gibbs, Osei, Burpo

Just out of curiosity, I went back and dug up the starting lineup for the opening game last year against San Jose:

Reis, Tierney, Heaps, Barnes, Alston, Thompson, Joseph, Larentowicz, Nyassi, Mansally,Dube

So if you're counting that's 4 players (Tierney, Alston, Nyassi, Dube) who started in both season openers. That's a fairly significant change. Now in fairness when Barnes, Joseph and Reis are healthy they will be starting and Osei was a consistent started by the end of the year. Still, I hope this doesn't turn out to presage a trend that emerged last year when I don't believe the Revs started the same lineup in two consecutive games the whole year. And with two new starters in the back line, you might worry that set pieces could present a problem. Sure enough in the fifth minute, Buddle scored on a header off a free kick that Nyassi gave away needlessly. I couldn't tell who lost Buddle on the free kick but in the halftime highlights, it looked like maybe Sinovic let Buddle get to the inside. There were a couple of other scary moments on free kicks in the first half as well.

In the second half, the Revs looked better and Shilawski and Tierney both delivered great passes that Dube converted into... nothing. Damn, I miss Twellman. At a minimum he puts away one of those chances if not both. As for the rest of the team, Phelan did nothing to suggest that he is an adequate replacement in midfield. He sprayed passes mostly to LA and other then that wasn't much of a presence. Niouky, a new player from Senegal at times looked good, but had several bad giveaways on the wrong side of the halfway line. Nyassi still seems to wait too long to make the pass. His speed gives defenders fits but until he learns to make the pass before he has dribbled into a situation where he loses the ball, he is still more promise that actual danger.I was impressed with Gibbs. The last few times I have seen him play for Colorado, he seemed a shadow of the player who at one time was an automatic selection for the U.S. National Team. If he has recovered from all the knee injuries and can play at that level again, I may not hate the Kraft’s quite so much for trading Larentowicz .

On a side note, has anyone noticed that the Kraft’s have traded or released a couple of players who trialed with European clubs - think Noonan and now Larentowicz. If Twellman hadn't been such a huge name, I wonder if they would have traded or released him after he tried to join Preston.

So what did we learn from the opener? Not much. Without Sharlie Joseph, the Revs are a different team (well duh!). They will have trouble scoring (that is different from last year how?). The Revs play better in the second half of games (a Nicol trademark). Fox soccer announcers make my teeth hurt (no change there either). It will be interesting to see how they fare against D.C. at D.C., historically a bad place to travel for the Revs and perhaps more so after the 4-0 shellacking they took at the hands of K.C.

Back to Blogging - The National Team Plays Holland

Blake here. So I know I am late to the blogging party after the Holland game and no doubt everything that could be said has been said. And yes it seems like this blog has been on sabbatical for quite some time. In my defense, I have none.

So Holland and the U.S. The standout player in the first half was Stuart Holden until the vicious tackle by De Jong. On the replay of the De Jong tackle, it is pretty clear it was intentional. No one has remarked on this, but the ball is already out of reach when De Jong begins his slide. Then he clearly kicks Holder aiming for the ankle. FIFA won't do anything of course because De Jong plays for Holland and Holden plays for the U.S., but that should have resulted not just in a red card, but in a several game suspension.

In the second half it was DeMarcus Beasley, really!I think we have seen the resurrection of DeMarcus Beasley's corpse. Presumed dead after the disastrous Confederations Cup in Africa last summer, he was the best player on the pitch in the second half for the U.S. tormenting the Dutch back line. Bedoya was also a revelation, he created chances with great runs and opened up space. I would like to see more of him.

And where was Landon? The darling of the Everton supporters was invisible in this game. I can’t think of a single play he made that had any impact on the game. Landon rarely shows up to play against "better teams", to put it another way if he's not the prettiest girl at the ball he doesn't dance.

Now for who stood out for the wrong reason, how many catastrophic mistakes does Bornstein get? The tug on the jersey in the box was the kind of mistake that loses games. And it's not like Bornstein has done anything near enough to earn the benefit of the doubt for that kind of mistake. What happens if he makes a mistake like that in June? He may be faster then Pearce, but Pearce provides much better service and seems to be much smarter positionally. This is one of Bradley's blind spots much like Arena's with Agoos in 2002 and Reyna in 2006.

So what did we learn? Well, we learned that the U.S. can go toe to toe with the Dutch. Yes the Dutch won 2-1 but one of those goals was a penalty and the other a deflected shot (Bornstein again). In the second half the U.S. was taking the game to the Dutch and I am sure that was a pretty nervous team in the final 10 minutes. The U.S. still has trouble building through the middle and we still don’t have a replacement for Charlie Davies. Robbie Findlay is not ready and Eddie Johnson still can’t play at the speed he needs or take advantage of chances that come his way. Johnson has the skills I think, but lacks the necessary arrogance to impose his will. A telling side note – in a game earlier (much earlier) in the Premier League, he come on late in the second half for Fulham. He makes a great play to steal the ball and has a clear shot on goal, but rolls in just wide. What happens if he makes that shot? Does his confidence explode? He would be the hero of the game and no doubt get more playing time with Fulham. But the chance and the opportunity goes begging. That I think is the story of Eddie Johnson.