Last Week's Game in Brief

photo courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net

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.