Home Opener

courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net

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.