Bill Urban Finishes My Post

As much as I liked my earlier post on the reasonable, even considerable, progress the U.S. Men's program has made over the past decade, I want to flag Bill Urban's piece for USSoccerplayers.com as a(n accidentally) timely asterisk. The overall thrust of his piece is that the structure of Major League Soccer (MLS) - the glut of, effectively, meaningless mid-summer games in particular - possibly hinders the development of the American player. I say "possibly" because such things can't be quantified. But there's something in the gut that turns in agreement when Urban writes:

"Should [U.S. defender Drew] Moor find himself on the end of a corner against DC United in mid-July, with FC Dallas behind by a goal, and his header flies into Troy Perkins’ arms rather than the back of the RFK net, the adverse effect on FC Dallas’ play-off chances will be virtually nil. Disappointment for certain, even a derisive catcall from the Barra Brava to be endured perhaps, but a competition with too many teams qualifying for the play-offs does not put players into enough high-pressure situations where the consequences of failure are immediate."

Even if I don't buy into his construction of "need" versus "want," I buy Urban's general point wholesale. The example of a player like Taylor Twellman, who can find openings with the best of them only to repeatedly, maddeningly screw up the shot to follow, powerfully points to nerves as the culprit. His record in MLS tells us he can score - over 75 times now, in fact. But the number of times Twellman has successfully coped with pressure at the national level? I'm counting five (scroll down; you'll see it next to Twellman's name) and most of those came against one team.

MLS does a lot of good things for U.S. Soccer. But it tests players ability to beat the 'keeper while controlling their jitters only in the post-season - i.e. about five games out of 30. OK, and maybe the last five games at the end of the season...though that applies only to teams competing for spots...maybe it's not so surprising that Colorado Rapids tend to do well in the first round of the playoffs, while FC Dallas sucks.

On a related note, Twellman's record for composure even in MLS's version of pressure situations ain't all that hot either....paging Pat Noonan?

(#########)

U.S. Men: 2/3 a Good Team

To begin with full disclosure, I didn’t see a second of the U.S. loss to Paraguay; I haven’t even seen highlights. I have, by now, read three items on the game and, by my reckoning, the several consistent themes on which they agree tell me enough of what I need to know. Before getting into this whole spiel, here are the links:

Maryland Tolik (a reader’s comment, so go to the bottom of the post)
Jen Chang (on ESPN)
Jeff Carlisle (on ESPN)

And, now, to business: I come not to praise the U.S. Men’s National Team (Yanquis), but to bury them...and I mean that in precisely the same way Marc Antony did.

We all know we lost, with much of the blame for that going to the limitations of the American forward. To quote a favorite line (Bull Durham again - sorry) forwards Taylor Twellman and Eddie Johnson sometimes give them impression that they couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a fucking boat. Against opposition higher in quality than a Norwegian B-team, our current first-choice forwards have played with the vision and sharpness of near-sighted klutzes on multiple occasions.

On defense, a former strength when coupled with a “gritty” (read “thuggishly disruptive”) central midfield, we’re still fiddling with the dial in search of the right combination. For example, the consensus view seems to hold that Bradley needs to call off his love affair with Jonathan Bornstein; Oguchi Onyewu no longer looks the savior; judging by the Kansas City’s Wizards’ defensive record, Jimmy Conrad is slipping against Major League Soccer (MLS) forwards; the reality is, recently-fielded combinations of Yanqui defenses labored to contain teams like Guatemala, Panama, and Canada - never mind Argentina.

In midfield, we have mastered work-rate and fundamental technical skills - think competent passing and trapping...you may laugh, but I remember the days when this vital piece was lacking. Once in a blue moon, Benny Feilhaber or Clint Dempsey manages the killer pass, or Justin Mapp darts through seams in the opposing defense, but with nothing like the consistency the international game demands. Moments of inspiration aside, however, we still haven’t grasped tactical fundamentals like possession play and managing the game - and that conceptual failing only returns us to relying on energy and those odd moments where our players’ feet kiss the ball just so.

But for all that, reports from the last two games generally agree that, 1) we played world-power Argentina tolerably well for 60 minutes, and, 2) we essentially went toe-to-toe with Paraguay on every level but finishing and the more refined aspects of the game. On top of that, we not only won the Gold Cup, but now enter our regional tournament - not to mention World Cup qualifying - as an automatic favorite.

If you told me that the above would pertain after France 1998 - hell, after the 1990s, period - I would have wept with joy. And how long ago is 1998? Nine years, people.

Heading into - and out of - the 2006 World Cup so much was written about the elevated expectations under which Yanqui teams now operate. There’s so much talk still about how labored our steps toward world-power status have been, along with prescriptions for what can ease that climb; crowning a rising player as The Anointed One who will provide the vital leg-up comes up all too often...with the advisability - no, the necessity - of sending said player to Europe’s proving grounds rarely far behind. The reality, though, is that it’s going to take more than one player to lift us to the top of the heap - a team of such players is needed - and no matter how many go to Europe and how soon.

The real question is why so many fans expect so much - and so soon. For every advantage we enjoy - a population of 300 million, for instance, against relevant rivals who have only 80 million - a commensurate downside exists: those 80 million live in a country where soccer is the most popular sport, whereas we have at least three sports competing for, and still winning, the scramble for athletes. The hard reality is, we’re in, at best, late adolescence as a soccer-playing country. We are developing - quickly even - but expecting any American squad to beat a big alpha-male team like Argentina at this stage in our development leaps from enthusiasm to delusion. Reasonable as it is to point out that we have beat Argentina further down that developmental curve, that confuses a great day with a great life; it’s not so different, really, from assuming that finding a $100 bill lying on the ground one morning means you’ll find one everyday.

A comment just came in (on that same post as Maryland Tolik’s) by Gareth Sleger, who hopes Bob Bradley won’t use sending a b-squad as an excuse for our Copa performance. While I think he’s correct on that, I also don’t believe we have anything to excuse. We sent the team we sent, they’ve lost, but proudly. More important, we learned a thing or two (e.g. axe Bornstein; send our forwards to the Wizard of Oz, Johnson for some courage and Twellman for that tool he hawks on TV, plus an allotment of several thousand hours to practice with it) and deepened our player pool in the process. That poor finishing looks something like the final hurdle constitutes a hell of a step up in my mind: having 1/3 the way to go beats the hell out of having more.

The key component to improving the Yanqui soccer program is, and always has been the same: time. And trends here are good: we’ve got players entering the national team pool at a younger age and further along in their personal/technical development. Again, tell me we’d be here nine years ago and I would French kiss the nearest available human being regardless of age, gender, and physical beauty (though one can hope the stars line up). Assuming the developmental infrastructure doesn’t collapse and that the numbers generally grow - as they seem to be doing - we’ll get there...even at forward.

Gold Cup Hiccup

Just a thing or two to throw out ahead of the Gold Cup.

On the practical level, Jeff Carlisle turned in his usual good work with his previews of tomorrow's games for ESPN.

But the one item that really caught my eye appeared at the bottom of a San Diego Union-Tribune article previewing the Gold Cup semis:

“It was just one of those days,” U.S. forward Taylor Twellman said after missing several easy chances in front of the net against Panama. “But we won, so who really cares?”

Someone call Twellman's mother. We need someone to seize his ear and yank him to the kitchen table for a stern talking to.

Who cares? WHO CARES?!

I'll tell you who cares, young man. About a third of the number of people showing in the Nielsens for U.S. Soccer games, that's who! You're paid to score goals, son. If I had an accountant doing his job as poorly as you did against Panama, he'd lose my business...and I'll warrant the business of many others as well.

Shape up, youngster.

U.S. v. Guatemala: That Was What...Exactly?

In keeping with usual practice, what appears below comes before reading a single line of anyone else’s scribblings (the theory* behind this is explained below, in case you’re curious).

United States 1 - 0 Guatemala
Big Picture
Sloppy. Sloppy and ugly. Wait. Sloppy, anxious, and ugly. A few more adjectives probably apply, but those get at the meat of things. The CONCACAF rankings peg the U.S. Men (Yanquis) at #2 in the region and Guatemala at #10, but the proverbial Man from Mars wouldn’t have thought as much - at least not in the second half. We started strongly enough - and a few Yanquis had strong nights throughout - but we had surrendered the upper hand in this game well before Oguchi Onyewu received his marching orders. All in all, the players on the field looked nervous as I felt watching them.

Bottom line, though, we won. We played well enough, had just enough moments of brilliance, as well as the proper mix of share of timely interventions and lucky bounces, to win this important, opening game. The down side: at this point, we don’t look like a team that’s going to win this tournament.

Moving on to details:

- I friggin’ HATE watching the Yanquis play Guatemala. Just drives me nuts. They are U.S. Men’s Bolton Wanderers. Since it’s possible I’m not current on my EPL bogey-men, let me rephrase that: they are the team your guys really should beat, but against whom they always, always struggle. While the Guatemalans’ use of gamesmanship is both expert and maddening, the real rub is their prodigious ability to keep their shape combined with having just enough talent on hand to catch out a good team.

- That said, our defense pulled off the impressive trick of blocking my throat with my heart; they achieved the feat with a generally harried appearance. On a couple occasions, my heart even tried to make an escape - think the near-own goal by Carlos Bocanegra and the joint flubbing of a series of Guatemalan long-balls over the top early in the second half. Apparently, my heart had the good sense to try to leave the room rather than sit through those 25 minutes of torture.

- Speaking of, nearly everyone noted Onyewu’s unsettled performance. There was, of course, the red card, but that only slapped a big, red exclamation mark on a rocky evening. Regarding the card, it’s possible that Onyewu shouldn’t have picked up that first yellow, but, on the second, the ref simply had no choice. And it’s not like the man didn’t know he had the card...a detail that should have made that hip-check the last course of action.

- The subject of the officiating does, however, bear noting. I can’t dredge up the man’s name right now, in spite of hissing it to my wife late in the second half. While he didn’t have much choice with Onyewu, the ref did seem a little card-happy when it came to the Yanquis. This only grew upsetting after seeing U.S. players carded for the first offense, while DaMarcus Beasley endured three consecutive fouls without a single Guatemalan player getting so much as whistled.

- The officiating does, however, open a pathway to some praise for the commentary - I know...weird, right? Late in the game, Christopher “You’re From Where Now?” Sullivan offered an insight that might have made the officiating seem less bizarre. He noted that the ref seemed to be letting certain kinds of contact go unpunished; if memory serves, it involved using one’s arms a certain way and then getting the legs involved. I wasn’t watching the officiating on the same level so I can’t say whether he was on to something, but I appreciated commentary that spoke on that level of detail.

- For a spell in the first half and until the Guatemalans got hold of the game from the start of the second half till about the 80th minute, players started bypassing the midfield and sending high, hopeful balls over the top, or long, semi-desperate leading passes down the wings. Not surprisingly, we lost a good deal of possession through these tactics. Bad idea.

- We did look good for a couple stretches. For instance, we started strong (either that or the Guatemalans ceded too much of the ball) and closed the first half so strongly that the start of the second half felt a lot like a let-down.

- But the part of the game that most impressed me came with the end, when, perhaps, the Guatemalan side wore out. Still, we pushed into their half for much of the closing ten minutes and kept possession better than we had at any point during the rest of the second half...

U.S. Player Ratings
...y’know, in order to keep this from sprawling indefinitely, I’m just going to rate the U.S. field players and call it good (suddenly, I understand why people do this). By way of scale, it’s a 1-to-10 affair, with 5.0 signifying entirely adequate play that involved doing no harm, but also doing little in the way of noticeable good.

Tim Howard, 6.0: Didn’t have a lot to do, but did it well enough. I like that he’s a yeller. All ‘keepers should be yellers as far as I’m concerned (I’m looking at you, Troy Perkins).

Frankie Hejduk, 4.5: Nice headlock tackle, Frankie. Columbus is rubbing off on you. In all seriousness, his defending was tolerable (and would have yielded a “good enough” 5.0), but his passing and forays forward had me yelling, “NO!” at the screen.

Carlos Bocanegra, 4.5: Just too nervous, as evidenced by nearly slicing in an own-goal, and passed too long, too often.

Oguchi Onyewu, 3.5: Frankly, “Gooch” played unsteady, uncertain, barely controlled soccer. And going in for obstruction so clearly that he may as well waved the linesman's flag for him and while carrying a yellow, that was just a dumb play.

Jonathan Bornstein, 5.5: My comparative bright spot in the back line.

Benny Feilhaber, 5.0: Apart from a flash here or a decent, defense-upsetting pass there (few and far between), Benny seemed relatively anonymous out there. Came on stronger during the second half, but a pretty unremarkable outing.

Michael Bradley, 5.5: Roughly the same applied here as to Feilhaber, but I caught more of Bradley disrupting.

DaMarcus Beasley, 6.0: Take a good first half and add some useful things in the second on both sides of the ball and Beasley did pretty well for himself.

Landon Donovan, 6.5: He was the Yanqui’s man of the match for me. Yeah, a few free-kicks really sucked, but he did more than most to keep the Guatemalans honest in the back. Oh, and does anyone know what happened between him and Ruiz?

Clint Dempsey, 6.0: Great awareness on the goal in terms of separating from his marker; he did it so well he had one of the Guatemalan defenders jumping in frustration. Deuce had a decent day in general, though he held the ball too much on a few occasions.

Taylor Twellman, 5.5: Good day on the whole, not least on the assist to Dempsey’s goal (incredibly, he outran someone from behind to play that in). He would have ranked higher - by quite a bit - if it weren’t for boning that header on goal...after calling off Dempsey. But his worse habit was trying to pass with his head too often; it was great when it worked, but he also killed a lot of plays when he didn’t hit these little passes just right.

Eddie Johnson, 5.0: While he didn’t do much in terms of breaking down the Guatemalans, he made some smart plays in keeping possession toward the end.

Jay DeMerit, 6.0: I think he did very well in stabilizing the back-line when the U.S. went a man down; the overall picture felt more composed. He should start against Trinidad and, if he performs well there, he should get the start till he loses it.

Did we have another sub? We must have, right? Can’t recall who right now, which probably means they did OK. All for now. Looking forward to Saturday - enough so that I’ll probably post over the weekend.

- Crap. Credit to Jeff Carlisle for reminding me that Steve Ralston came on as a sub. Moreover, he did fairly well - call it a 5.0. But he gains at 0.1 on that ranking for corralling Bocanegra late in the game.

(* OK, here’s the theory behind the commenting before reading. If I write down what I think I saw, it teaches me something about what I’m seeing and not seeing when I watch a game. That way when I do go back and read everyone else’s stuff, I get a stronger sense of what I’m not catching in games.)

Another Crew Draw: Wraps, Mine & Others'

I wrote a collossal wrap-up for last night's 2-2 draw between the Columbus Crew and the New England Revolution over on The Offside (LINK). As such, I won't get into details in this space, at least not about the Crew. For a fairly thorough look at the game from their side, interested parties should check out that piece...and, as I usually do, I wrote that before reading anyone else's work, so all errors and idiocies contained therein are entirely my own. I'll chuck out a bunch of links at the bottom; and, for the record, the one behing the "2-2 draw" above is MLSnet.com's official match report.

I'll touch quickly on the Revolution's game, but want to note something up front: while I did predict the draw last night, I got full of myself and named a specific score. As such, I'm counting this a blown call to punish my hubris. So, here I sit at 6-9 for the season; we're talking LA Galaxy bad.

Now, here are some quick thoughts on the game:

- A familiar Taylor Twellman showed up last night: he buried a beauty from range (that he really should have never been made available to him), but missed the silver-platter set up delivered by Pat Noonan late in the game; he scores that, the Revs win over a conference rival and perceptions go crazy.

- Speaking of Noonan, the manner in which he used his head when his body didn't totally cooperate - e.g. he looked a bit tentative out there, if not outright constrained - really impressed me. Even in his limited state, he provided two sterling opportunities that teammates failed to finish.

- What the hell happened to James Riley last night? Even with Twellman missing, the win could have come through surer defending or, failing that, competent trapping. Bad one, James.

- In Riley's defense, it's possible he got caught napping. The Revs got into a great, positive rhythm in the second half and, by the 85th minute, looked to be cruising home. The breakdown is still inexcusable - especially on the individual level - but it's also fairly easy to comprehend.

- That left side is proving problematic - or, put another way, is it possible Khano Smith's golden outing against Toronto FC had more to do with the opposition than him? His replacement, Wells Thompson, showed nice aggression, but he was also clumsy/spazzy. Seeing as he's a rookie, I'll over look it for now. But Revs coach Steve Nicol ought to be open to options (Miguel Gonzalez, Amaechi Igwe, especially Arsene Oka) in that position.

- That first half? Friggin' nightmare. New England looked scrambled and stupid far too often; they couldn't connect passes, etc. It's a small wonder Nicol was pissed.

Now, on to the links, and I've only read the first one:

The New England Revolution Offside LINK - short, sweet and primarily concerned with Andy Herron's elbow.
The Boston Globe LINK
The Boston Herald LINK
Columbus Dispatch LINK
Sensory Overload LINK - looks to be a live-blogging run-down; should be interesting.
Hunt Park Insider dang...not up yet...maybe later, maybe next week...

New England Revolution: 2007 Season Preview

(Don't ask about the photo...it's the devil in me.)

Past
MLSnet.com: 2006 Season Wrap
MLSnet.com: Big Questions after '06
My Thoughts on the Revolution’s '06 (Know my biases)

Present
2006-07 Off-Season Changes
Soccer New England’s Ins & Outs for roster changes (wait...those aren't just ball boys?)

New England Revolution’s roster from MLSnet.com

And now, the Future...

Key Men
Taylor Twellman - Before you assume it’s just the goals, flash back to the 2006 playoffs. Recall Twellman bellowing in the face of a prone Ivan Guerrero, remember him drifting back to defensive midfield to protect the lead against DC United, and mourn the fact he finally scored a goal in a final only to have Ching’s quirky goal cancel it seconds later. There’s a reason Twellman is one of the faces, if not the face, of the Revolution. He does so much for this team.

Daniel Hernandez - Unlike Coach Steve Nicol, I was a fan of Jose “Pepe” Cancela. The biggest question facing this team is who provides the “cultured” passing Cancela could very well have supplied if he ever saw the field for the Revs. It helps immensely, not least with Nicol, that Hernandez is a solid, if injury-prone, two-way player. But there are times when the team struggles with coherence in the attack and Hernandez looks the likeliest candidate to provide that. Assuming he can, the Revs become a better team without question, because when they stall....(shudder).

Matt Reis - It feels like a bit of disservice to the three men who will line up in front of him, but Reis anchors that line and, therefore, gets the nod here. Frankly, watching Reis play scares the bejesus out of me; it looks like he’s going to miss more than he stops, but there’s the dang ball in his hands and not in the net, so I have to call the man a great ‘keeper for this team. The Revs did manage the league's best defensive record last season, after all.

Andy Dorman - One of the most frequently asked questions of the 2006-07 off-season was what the Revs will do without Clint Dempsey. Dorman’s 2006 answers that one. While Dempsey was away, he improved on his 2005 totals by tripling his goals tally and doubling his assists (stats here). Hard to say. He’s already topped Dempsey for a one-year assists total (Dempsey maxed out at 9 in ’05; see here), but, naturally, this isn’t an apples-to-apples kind of thing: it was Dempsey’s ability to unsettle defenses that provided value; I’m assuming Dorman will do things differently - e.g. pass the ball better. Still, this is an experiment worth watching.

Additional Assets
Great Front Office Support - HA HAA HA HA HA HA!!

Liabilities
Aging - The big issue here, key performers in a number of positions - Steve Ralston, certainly, but also Joe “Personal Leave” Franchino, Avery John, Daniel Hernandez - are on the wrong side of 30. Obviously, different players age differently, so it’s not so much that these guys suddenly start sucking wind once they blow out 30 candles on the birthday cake, but there’s no question that there’s a transition coming; depending on the player (think Ralston) that could start this year.

Snake-bit - The chuck an NFL analogy into the discussion, do the Revs become the Buffalo Bills or the Denver Broncos? The former, of course, reached the cusp of success three times and haven’t been heard from since (maybe...I haven’t follow the NFL for shit since the 1980s/90s). I’ve got a bad feeling about how this team recovers mentally from a second consecutive let-down.

Cheap Front Office - While it’s hard to substantiate charges by Shalrie Joseph about “disenchantment” on the Revolution roster, it wouldn’t be all that surprising given their front office’s apparent pride at consistently running this team under budget. There’s something to be said for keeping a tight rein on personnel costs, but there’s also something to being generous with your players when they take your tax write-off to the final two years running. While it’s true they made Twellman happy - though only after several bitter months - the Joseph mess says something about the relationship between players and admin.

Unknowns
Draft Class - I had originally typed “(Insert New Guy Here)” in the “Key Men” section above. Good as the Revs’ starting eleven is, I can’t see this team having a successful season without several of the new guys (for the record: Arsene Oka, Wells Thompson, Miguel Gonzalez, Ryan Solle, Amaechi Igwe, Chris Loftus, or, the one garnering the best press and looking likeliest to start*, Adam Cristman) becoming solid, first-team contributors.

Injuries - Before the season has started, this team is coping with persistent injuries for Pat Noonan*, a freak injury for Michael Parkhurst, and niggling injuries to Hernandez. If the injury bug keeps biting at this rate, I’m guessing the Revs will face a dreaded “transition year.”

Prospects - Using Gambling Analogies
I think the “snake-bit” liability will be telling. There’s an air of desperation, exasperation - perhaps some other kind of “-ation” - surrounding this team, a wild-eyed vibe one might see in a gambler striking off to the pawn shop down the street from the casino. It’s like they’ve got the wedding ring in hand and ready to hawk and they’re hoping against memory that the stone is real diamond and not cubic zirconium. To me, the quality of that stone is Nicol’s Superdraft savvy. If he guessed right - and he may have - the Revs remain a playoff team; I can’t say a contender, but, in all truth, I stopped believing after 2005. But I can also see the Revs missing out this year.

The Nicol model relies on slow, steady growth and that may work. But there are also worrying signs that it’s done as much as it could and bigger intervention is needed. I suspect his seat is getting warm this year; it will only take a bad start to get it up to hot.

USMNT: The Games, Some Scouting, One Observation

As nearly everyone who could find this site through Bloglines or Soccer Blogs knows, the U.S. Men's National Team (screw "USMNT"; let's call 'em...the "Yanquis") has a pair of games coming up over the next week: Ecuador on Sunday (and damned early....mimosas?) and Guatemala on Wednesday (won't catch this one; bookended between much, much more alluring CONCACAF Champions' Cup games; drool....).

But, for people who don't follow the game (soccer) or this site (title is up top) regularly, I sent a preview of both games to the good people at Write On Sports. It's nothing fancy, but it gives the reader a few names and implies the crucial thing: if you can only watch one of these games, make it the Ecuador game.

Regarding the Guatemala game, this one is likely to tell us only one of two things: 1) that we're still better than most teams in our region and that's only a question of degree on a given day; 2) in the event of a win or a draw, that the Yanquis had a bad day. Anything else we learn - whether we score, or totally fail to score - will carry an asterisk to signify that this was Guatemala, after all. I'm not belittling the Guatemalans for sport, or mocking them; I'm merely saying the reason the Yanquis haven't lost to them since 1988 matches the reason why Liechtenstein freaks friggin' out when they draw, say, the Republic Ireland. There are simply expectations.

Ecuador, on the other hand, promises to be educational. In writing the item for Write On I did a bit of digging on Ecuador, something to refresh my impressions on the team. That digging, which mainly happened on Wikipedia, reminded me of Ecuador's 2006: they made the Round of 16 (where they lost to England) in Germany by beating Poland and Costa Rica. In qualifying for the 2002 World Cup, they topped Brazil in the CONMEBOL marathon. The team they're sending featured a name or two people may recall: Carlos Tenorio, who bagged two goals last summer; Ulises de la Cruz, from Aston Villa and now Reading. I want to pretend I remember more of these guys, but I don't.

What I do remember, though, is that Ecuador looked something solid last summer. Till they hit the hosts (Germany) and England lulled them to sleep in the second round, they looked impressive back-to-front. Their game against a familiar foe, Costa Rica, saw them beat that team by a score the Yanquis attain on a good day.

Based on that, they ought to provide a decent measuring stick for the Yanqui team in terms of where both the trialists (one in particular) and the regulars are. Looking forward to this one...Guatemala...not so much.

I'll close with the observation. Look at the list of forwards called up for these two games:

Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

Where do all these guys earn their paycheck? Does that tell us anything, either about the players themselves or about Yanqui forwards in general? Is there a problem? If so, is there an answer?

For now, I'm willing to say there isn't a problem problem. Like any sane person, I'd rather see the forwards leading my side drawing love from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, and so on. But I also take comfort from the fact that Yanqui teams usually field competent defenders and defensive midfielders. And the fact that American teams know how to defend well enough means that forwards playing in our league at least have some educational work in figuring out how to beat them.

So it could be better, but it could also be worse. We're learning at least.

(W)Revs Wrap: Hatcheting the New Guy; Twellman!

My impression that Ryan Solle is essentially "this year's model" of Jeff Larentowicz - who I like just fine, by the way - led me to write a bit of a harsh profile on the new kid. That's posted over on The Offside, where I elaborate on my fears using DC United's Justin Moose as the vehicle.

In other New England Revolution news, looks like they're shipping out to Cancun, Mexico shortly (or they've already gone - don't know, don't care), an event covered on both the official site and over on Soccer New England. For my money, Soccer New England writes the better piece, not least because they inserted this significant detail:

"the Revolution have been training indoors at Gillette Stadium and Jay Heaps is looking forward to feeling the sun on his back again..."

Whoops. Not that one...here we go:

"With just over four weeks until the Revolution kick off their regular season campaign in Chicago, Nicol admitted that he will treat the games on the Cancun trip a little differently to those in Bermuda, in which the main aim was to get as many players time on the field:"

"'We’ll probably get everybody a game again but we will be looking to get the squad together that will probably start.'”

Sounds like we need to watch those rosters, kiddies.

I mentioned the Revs filling out their developmental roster on The Offside yesterday, but figure it belongs over here as well. So, welcome to Adam Cristman, Chris Loftus, Gary Flood, and Brad Knighton - and welcome back to Miguel Gonzalez (more on him here and here). So long as you don't remind me too much of Jeff Larentowicz, I'll be way nicer to you in my profiles.

Finally, it's time to explain the "Twellman" exclamation at the top of the page. With a hat-tip on to The Magpie, who actually found the piece for me, I'd like to pass on a nice article about Revs forward Taylor Twellman and how he's adjusting to having some more change in his pocket. In reference to that, the one line that jumped out at me was this one:

"Despite the increase, Twellman sounds like someone that has yet to earn a spot in New England's starting 11."
"'I've still got to earn my keep on this team,' he said after a recent training session."

To add some more gushing to the gushing in the article, I fully embraced Twellman as a player, if not a concept, during last year's unlikely run to the final, notably in the second game in the series, where he chased all over the field like he was trying to put out a fire (sorry...pun unintentional), barked at Ivan Guerrero (who I still really like, in spite of it all), and just generally fought like hell. It's not often you can see a player's desire to win, but there was Twellman's positively blazing for all to see. Seeing him deep in the defense deep in the game during the MLS Cup final sealed what can only be described as a man-crush.

So, good to see he's making some money these days. The man deserves it.

(W)Revs Wrap, 02.13.07: Twellman's Payday (Mystery)

So, what will Taylor Twellman really earn over the next four years? Depends on where you look. After posting the figures that appeared in yesterday's report in The Boston Globe - this is the "around $300,000 per year" figure - I've since come across reports pegging the payday a little higher. An Associated Press piece that appeared on ESPN reported:

"Twellman will make $375,000 in each of the first two years of the contract, more the third year with the total based on performance and $450,000 in the final year."

For the record, several non-AP sources cite the same numbers (LINK and LINK - at least with regard to the first two years). Against that, Boston's other daily - The Boston Herald - goes with the same numbers as The Globe's.

So...what to think? At first I thought I'd go with the most recent date-lines, but that didn't fly: the AP's report ran on February 12, the same day as The Globe's. The rest of the stories appeared on February 13, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just read the AP's numbers and reported from there. I suppose it doesn't matter, seeing as Twellman's reportedly "delighted with the deal."

Then again, unless I'm misunderstanding the whole designated-player deal - or, possibly, the league maximum - it seems like those AP figures would put Twellman in designated-player territory, something the original Globe report explicitly precluded.

Whatever. I'm calling this for the local media, greater detail in the AP's report and what this means for Twellman's pocket-book be damned.

In other Revs news....

Twellman & Noonan
An MLSnet.com article, the one about Twellman being delighted, thinks out loud a bit about what a healthy and active Twellman/Pat Noonan partnership could mean to the Revs' offense this season:

"After sharing 60 goals and 34 assists in their first three seasons together, the forward pairing badly missed each other in the 2006 regular season. Twellman's total of 11 goals was the second-lowest output of his career, while Noonan found the net just once."

In a word, said partnership would mean a lot, especially with Dempsey absent. Get well, both of you...we need you

Free Avery (or pay him, tightwads!)
If Twellman's delighted, there's another man on the roster feeling a decidedly opposite emotion: Avery John. Soccer New England caught up with the defender who sounds somewhat philosophical about MLS blocking a move to England's Queen's Park Rangers. Along with a few posters on the Bigsoccer thread (sort of) devoted to John's situation, I'm hoping the Revs front office makes up for blocking the trade by giving him a raise over the comparative pittance he earned last season. The Revs defense looked a fair sight better when he came on late in the season.

Miscellaneous
- This doesn't effect me so much, but there will be thorough regional TV coverage of the New England Revolution in 2007. Unfortunately, my Portland, Oregon (well...Beaverton, actually) cable package doesn't get TV38. Maybe when I go satellite....

- Here's the latest on the Revolution's preseason schedule according to MLSnet.com's grand round-up:

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
Feb. 16-24: Training in Bermuda
March 8-16: Training in Cancun, Mexico

Matches scheduled
Matches in Bermuda TBD
Matches in Cancun, Mexico TBD

Remainder of preseason schedule TBD

Mmmm...still thin on detail, I see.

(W)Revs Wrap, 02.07.07: Right Coach for the Owner?

One of the first contributions I've seen from the Boston Herald this preseason, New England Revolution Head Coach Steve Nicol says something that makes me think he's the right coach for a Kraft family operation:

"“We got the core group, and they start to get the stuff done. But if we can bring in a couple (new guys) in at a time, and people start pushing somebody else, and then just keep it flowing, then that’s ideal. I don’t think it’s an ideal situation when you bring tons of new faces in.”

He cites his days playing for Liverpool as an inspiration for this line of thinking...though it's also fair (but only just) to note that his old Liverpool teams managed to actually win a thing or two.

The same article, by the way, contains some good copy on the Revs' mental state going into the 2007 season. Unlike a fair number of fans - including me - the players and staff view the widespread continuity as a plus.

Lazy mug that I am, I didn't look at the Revs' 2007 schedule closely enough to notice that six of their first eight games will be on the road. Hey, waitaminute. That sucks! Then again, it's familiar from previous years, so we may as well get used to it. And, like everyone else, the local media took time to note the dates when Beckham will likely be in town. Happy as I am for all that free interest, another part of me finds it kinda pathetic.

If you want really pathetic, however, ask me what I'll do if the Portland Timbers played a Beckham-packing LA Galaxy in the U.S. Open Cup (NOTE: Given the match dates, Beckham's ETD, not to mention Portland's history in the tournament, this probably can't happen. Still....)

In other news, Frank Dell'Appa wrote a good-sized article on Taylor Twellman's unlucky past with the U.S. Men's team. It contains a lot of interesting numbers and details, many of which are new to me (i.e. it's worth the gander), but it also didn't move me one way or the other on Twellman's fitness for the U.S. team. Because I love Twellman as a player - and he seems a decent sort besides - I'd love to see him make the team and take the trip to South Africa in 2010. But that's kind of a personal thing. I can't really blame people for not seeing him as national-team caliber; he simply hasn't produced. Anyway, here's to hoping he does tonight; that'd do him a world of good.

Finally, file this under "Oh God. He didn't say that," but Revs' defender Jay Heaps dished this whopper to the following whopper to the Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Appa:

"Obviously, for the first couple weeks, it was a tough pill to swallow because I take pride in being able to step up. If I had to do it all over again, I would, but this time I would make it."

Dude. This time doesn't matter. We needed you to "make it" last time.

Anyway, in case Heaps reads this for any reason, I'm just yanking his chain. I have all the respect in the world for his willingness to steps up when called. Still, disastrous quote.