(W)Revs Wrap: Fearing Columbus; Preseason Pain

As I threatened to do a couple of days ago, I expanded on my theory that the Columbus Crew could have a decent year, which, in turn threatens the New England Revolution's shot at one of the same. That's posted on The Offside and, given that I'm ostensibly that site's Revolution blogger, it probably contains too much commentary on the Crew.

There's one wrinkle in that post, this one regarding the changes made between 2006 and 2007 to the Major League Soccer's playoff format. Now, the majority of these rules are pretty straightforward - see seeds #1, 2, and 5-8. It's seeds #3 and #4 where things get a little wacky:

"3) Conference runner up with highest point total."
"4) Conference Champ runner up with the point total lower than the other Conference Champ runner-up"

And then there's seed #4a, which invalidates the rule on the fourth seed in the case that said team's roster contains more than five left-footed players....

I kid, I kid. I think I see what they're going for here - e.g. preserving some meaningful separation between the conferences - and that it's the language necessary for seeding the two conference runners-up that it read so clunky. But, if I'm reading this correctly, it's pretty straightforward: the top two teams from both the Western and Eastern Conferences, 1) make the playoffs, and 2) get seeded above the rest, which, again, if I'm reading this right, offers potential for only one free ride (e.g. the runner-up from one of the conferences could have a sucky record - worse in fact than one or more teams seeded below them - but not only still make the post-season, but place high within the bracket).

But, in concrete terms, it's hard to know whether this hurts or helps the Revs. I'm about to do a season-preview freak-out, which (I hope) will better familiarize me with the ramifications of this - e.g. how they stack up in the East and against the Western Conference teams who can pip them on points if New England fails to finish either first or second.

P.S. I like the new playoff format thus far. It should make people nervous and that's a good thing.

In other Revolution news, the Boston Globe ran a rare piece on the Revolution, this one looking at who's likely to play in tonight's friendly against AC Inter Playa del Carmen. To save you the read, it looks like Adam Cristman, who has impressed the Revs' coaching staff, will get a shot at forward while James Riley will (gulp) start in central defense. That's less a shot at Riley, who I like well enough elsewhere on the field, as it speaks to an uneasiness about him playing central defense in a three-man defense.

But, as the article points out, Revs coach Steve Nicol has faith...we'll see if it's justified later.

The new guy - and the new-ish guy - owe their breaks to a pretty scary injury bug making the rounds through the Revolution locker room. The missing include Pat Noonan (surprise), Daniel Hernandez, and Michael Parkhurst.

(W)Revs Wrap, 03.05.07: New Guys Profiles, Igwe, Gonzalez

I cooked up some decent profiles for New England Revolution new-boys Amaechi Igwe and Miguel Gonzalez - even if the latter took two attempts.

The Amaechi Igwe piece shows up here. And the Miguel Gonzalez items can be found here and here.

In other Revs' news, Soccer New England posted a check-in item on "Wee" Michael Parkhurst. RevsNet copied me (I swear...honest) by posting an interview with Amaechi Igwe. The most interesting thing there is the jersey number the youngster chose.

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(W)Revs Wrap, 02.08.07: Lord Hernandez

There's too much plainly wonderful material in Frank Dell'Appa's latest offering in the Boston Globe, a piece in which Daniel Hernandez waxes grumpy about the dearth of opportunities he's been given with the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT). I don't think I've ever disguised my affection for Hernandez and this piece only deepened my appreciation. Excerpts can't do his comments justice, so you'll have to read the whole thing.

RevsNet pulled together a servicably (whoa...spelling?) thorough report from the New England Revolution's first training camp. It's all there from who's there, to who's not, to Tony Lochhead's new do. The best news in there is that Pat Noonan is healthy and training....my word, what a difference that would make to the gloomy mood out New England way (at least in the Big Soccer universe). Between Noonan's improvement and Hernandez's swagger, I'm optimistic the Revs can at least field a solid starting 11. After that....mmmmm...best not say.

I've already linked to Marc Connolly's "happy" five points about the U.S. win, but there was one passage in there of interest to Revs' fans: Michael Parkhurst's chances with the USMNT. Connolly figures that between Cory Gibbs (if healthy...ever), Oguchi Onyewu, Jimmy Conrad, and Carlos Bocanegra, Parkhurst, along with DC's Bobby Boswell, and Houston's Eddie Robinson, are going to have a hell of a time cracking the USMNT central defense (if you want to see the argument in full, check out Point #2) For the record, I'm OK with that. All those guys are pretty good.

OK, one last thing: in the sidebar to the RevsNet training camp report, there was a poll posing the question of whether the team should can head coach Steve Nicol or not. The results so far:

"59% NO, we made it to MLS Cup
10% YES, We can't win the big one
6%, NO, we overachieved
4% YES, we're boring to watch
20% let's give him one more year"

For the record, I did the one more year thing. My second choice was, "Yes, We Can't Win the Big One." I also mulled "Yes, We're boring to watch

You've got one year, Nicol. One year.

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(W)Revs Wrap, 02.05.07: Joseph & Tryouts

A RevsNet story that ran on February 4, 2007 reports on the scene from the New England Revolution's invite-only tryouts; I'm not totally sure as to when the tryout took place, but Soccer New England's report carries a February 3, 2007 dateline.

Apart from noting that the RevsNet item compares more favorably courtesy of its tribute to men who dream big (e.g. those people who showed up for the long-shot attempt at making a professional soccer team), the more significant piece comes with which players showed well. Let the record show that RevsNet took time to name defender Dana Leary, goalkeeper Brad Knighton, and forward Dale Weiler; for their part, Soccer New England noted midfielders Ralph Meier and David Tuesta, right-back Christian Figueroa, and, again, Leary.

Now...we'll see if we hear any of these names again....

All in all, though, it appears no one stood out enough to get coach Steve Nicol excited. Still, he's taking some back for another look.

In other Revs' news, a Boston Globe piece fleshed out some details from the now-dead Celtic FC bid for Shalrie Joseph; turns out that reached a $2 million bid. Dang. And with Celtic continuing deeper into the Champions League, one still has to wonder how the big Grenadian is taking all this. Oh, and there's a bit in the article that says "Joseph, who has two years remaining on an MLS contract worth about $150,000 annually, has been in negotiations with the league to extend the deal."

The tricky thing is, that follows a paragraph in which only the deal with Celtic was discussed. But that language, specifically the word "extend" makes me think the discussion is about Joseph's MLS contract. I don't know. Maybe I'm making this harder than it needs to be. All I know is, wherever Joseph goes, they really ought to be paying him more than $150K annually.

Finally, it sounds like Michael Parkhurst's first run with the U.S. National Team is over for now. He's not on the roster against Mexico, anyway. But the interesting part of the article are Parkhurst's musings about the differences between playing in a three-man versus a four-man defense.