Shaky against the Quakes

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Clearly I jumped the gun on the end of the Rev's potential scoring woes and on the emergence of Schilawski. No goals for the Rev's and a fairly invisible game from Schilawski. Joseph once again proved his value to the Rev's by not being on the pitch. Without Joseph the Revs lost the midfield battle and therefore the game. One might quibble with the first goal (and I do - Chris Tierney was flattened in the play that San Jose got the ball and although I have not since a good enough replay to tell for sure, it appeared the goal scorer was offside), but one cannot quibble with the notion that San Jose controlled the midfield and that Bobby Convey ran rampant through the Rev's defense.

The pairing of Perovic and Schilawski did not seem to work well. Perhaps it is the fact that Perovic has simply not played enough with his new teammates. And since the midfield was losing the battle there was not a lot of linkup between the defense and the forwards. Without Joseph, Niouky was not as effective and was back to spraying passes as he did in the first game of the season. Phelan was his usual self. Bite in the midfield, but an inability to make that springing pass.

The second goal came off a corner kick by Convey on which Ike Opara threw Barnes to the ground to get into position to get the clinching goal. Opara had another open header in the first half which he hit over the goal and the San Jose attack generated significantly more chances then the Rev's attack did.

The defense showed troubling gaps against San Jose and the Rev's were lucky not to be down a couple of goals at halftime which was primarily thanks to Burpo who came up several good stops to keep the Rev’s close. Either San Jose is better then last year or the Rev's defense isn't as good as I though they were. It was interesting to read some commentary about how good Cannon was in this game and no mention of Burpo who made the more difficult stops. Cannon made stops on shots right at him and was saved by a San Jose player (Convey?) being at the right place on a header by Barnes.

So what will happen in tonight's game? Well Joseph will be back and that can do nothing but improve chances. On the other side of the ball will be our old friend Laurentowicz. It will be interesting to see how things go on the first 50-50 ball between them. I am a bit worried about this game. Colorado is a better team then they were last year and if Schilawski and Perovic are still not on the same page, I don't know if the Rev's will generate scoring chances. And hopefully I haven't jinxed Schilawski with my over effusive praise in my last post.

Home Opener

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Well, in my preview post for the home opener with TFC game I predicted Kenny Mansally would start and Joseph would not. Well fortunately for the Revs, Steve Nicol did not listen to me. When the Revs marched onto the field, who is the first one out? Joseph. And who is nowhere to be seen? Mansally. The game almost started with a Revolution bang when Joseph managed to get his head on a Nyassi cross and direct it towards the goal from an awkward angle. Dube in an attempt to knock it in while sprawling on the ground managed to knock it over the goal. I am still not sure (after watching the Comcast rebroadcast of the game on Sunday) that the ball wouldn’t have gone in on its own without any assistance from Dube for a quick one goal lead. Later in the half Nyassi scuffed a shot when he was alone in front of the goal with a fairly wide open goal in front of him and the goalie out of position. And then TFC gets a goal out of nothing when a partial clearance goes out wide and Garcia (Garcia!?) sends in a cross that De Rosario manages to head just inside the post. It was a great header and as always whenever De Rosario has the ball, it causes me unease. Toronto had the lead going into the half and with a Preki coached team I looked forward to a foul fest in the second half.

Well I hadn’t counted on the rise of Schilawski and the shambolic TFC defense. Two minutes into the second half, Nyassi and Dube played a beautiful bit on one touch soccer which led to a cross that Schilawski almost couldn’t help but knock into the goal. It woke the crowd and seemed to inspire the Revs. Shortly after that Schilawski stripped Garcia walked in on goal and calmly slotted the ball back the TFC goalkeeper on the near post. This was a poachers goal and finished in a way that –dare I say it – reminded me of Twellman (imagine the sound of knocking on wood). Then shortly after that Joseph sends a beautiful through ball down the right to Dube who hits a perfect cross that Schilawski sends into goal with a tricky side footed volley. As Schilawski walks to the flag he points at Dube with a wry grin. I liked that. He even had a chance for a fourth goal after another beautiful splitting past, but the ball seemed to get stuck on the turf and Schilawski couldn’t find the purchase to go around to the goalie or slot it past him. But that was not the end of the scoring. Nyassi pounced on an errant back pass from a TFC defender (not Garcia this time) and rocketed a shot that Frei got a hand on to no avail. Perovic came on for Dube and almost scored in his debut. He was taller then I expected for some reason but showed quality in his brief sting. Although advertised as a midfielder it seems as if Nicol wants to try him at forward. The rest of the game was uneventful and the Revs finished off the 4-1 win with little resistance from TFC.

So what do we take from this game other then the fact that the Toronto defense may well be the worst in the MLS?

Well the midfield tandem of Joseph and Niouky has the potential to be the best midfield pair in the MLS. Niouky was very tidy in the game and not only did the dirty work expected of a defensive mid, but made a lot of nice little passes to get out of trouble and start attacks. In the first two games it was almost as if he was trying too hard to impress. He was spraying passes to no one in particular and had some bad giveaways in the middle of the field on the wrong side of the halfway line. In this game while he had a couple of errant passes, none were on the wrong side of the halfway line.

The Revs defense had a chance to be really good. Gibbs continues to impress as does the rookie Sinovic. When Barnes is healthy Nicol will have a nice dilemma. He has 5 quality backs with four spots.

The Forward position may not be as threadbare as I was worried it would be.
So what do I think in lieu of the first 3 games? Well I hesitate to draw too much from games against two clubs that are clearly struggling but I think that Dube and Schilawski have the potential to better a better forward tandem then anything we saw from the Revs last year. I have seen far more fluidity in the attack this year and the Revs may have the personnel to play the kind of possession and attack oriented soccer that they played with while going to the MLS cup 3 out of 4 years. For the past two years they have played a gritty almost ugly kind of soccer that got results but didn’t generate the attacking fluidity we had come to associate with the Revs.

So on to San Jose who went into Chicago and beat the Fire at home after starting with two fairly dreadful games. Let’s hope the Revs draw confidence from this win and continue to play with steel in back and center midfield and attacking fluidity on the wings and up front.

One last note – with the win against TFC, Steve Nicol reached the 100 win mark – only the 3rd coach in MLS to reach that milestone. He has made the playoffs every year he has coached the Revs. In some ways, I think he did his best job last year when he got a battered Revs team that simply didn’t have the same level of talent on the field as the other team on many nights into the playoffs. LA and Real Salt Lake (and their respective coaches) deservedly got most of the press last year, but Nicol quietly did a better job – or so says I.

Home Opener Preview

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Tonight is the home opener for the Revs playing against TFC. Given that TFC is now coached by Preki, I suspect that TFC will be as dirty a team as Chivas was last year - which means the potential for injuries. Given that, I expect Nicols to start Phelan and Niouky in the center midfield as they will certainly match the predicted physical play of Toronto. The only change I expect for the starting lineup is Mansally in place of Schilawski.

I hope the weather is nicer then last year's opener which as I recall was brutally cold. Earlier this week, we had some unseasonably warm days, and I was hopeful that would continue for tonight’s game. But alas the weather made one of its usual New England right turns and it was quite chilly this morning. As I type this, it is sunny, but I know it will be cold and windy tonight - just like we New Englanders like it!

So here's hoping for early goals, a large fan turnout and a complete pasting of TFC by our Revs.

Last Week's Game in Brief

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So one again a day late (well several) and a dollar short (well blogs are free so maybe not). At any rate, several things stood out in last Saturday's game for me. The first was the fantastic debut of Jay Heaps as the color man for the Revs. At one point during the game he spoke of how as an defender when the attacker gets close your blood begins to boil. At another point, after the ref (Baldomero Toledo) gave a warning to Alston for grousing about a call not made, Heaps sympathized with his former teammate. So even though I miss Greg Lalas (the smarter Lalas), I do like Heaps.

Interesting to note that the Revs started the same lineup as the first game. I don't remember if that happened once last year.

Overall the defense looks good. Gibbs continues to impress and once Sharlie gets back on the field, the midfield will be strong as well. But Nicols will have to make some tough lineup choices pretty quickly. Where does Barnes fit in? You can't displace Gibbs, he is playing way too well. Osei is also playing well as is the rookie Sinovic and of course Alston. Then you add in the arrival of Perovic (assuming he is as good as advertised) and you have a pretty congested center midfield with some interesting possibilities. You can photo courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net

go defensive (as the Revs did in the first two games with Niouky and Phelan), you can go attacking (Joseph and Perovic) or some combination. On the wings, it looks like Tierny has earned a consistent starting position on the left and based on his performance in the first two games is probably the best choice.

Lastly what a great (and surprising) display from Kenny Mansally. In 21 minutes he scores two goals, the second of which was a great individual effort that left two D.C. defenders looking for their shorts and the goalkeeper standing flat footed in admiration. So who starts up top against TFC in the home opener? My guess is Dube and Mansally. Even though Nicols tried to fashion Mansally into a back to the goal attacker for the past two years, it is clear that is not his forte. If he and Dube can form the partnership they weren't able to two years ago, the Revs could finally start to generate some goal scoring opportunities to go with their defensive strength. If so, then my fear that the Revs don't make the playoffs this year quickly goes away.