MLS 2014: The U$MNT Comes Home

Zososoxfan

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What a game. It was played at an incredibly fast rate for the majority. Obviously, the result was huge. Really physical game, and part of me wishes the ref had given out some early cards to settle down the game, but with the stakes being what they are, the teams likely would've stayed physical anyways. The Revs early high press put a lot of pressure on NY and led to the first goal. Once NY's defenders figured out how to break the pressure, NY did well in midfield and attacked down the flanks effectively. The 2nd half started pretty evenly, but the Revs' stars shined a bit brighter, with Nguyen making an unreal pass to Bunbury, who made a bold decision to pass to a streaking Jones for the finish. If I was Nguyen, I would've made the pass to Jones directly or look for the shot, and if I was Bunbury, I DEFINITELY would've shot. I'm happy I'm not on the Revs. Henry is unreal and it's amazing how much skill he still has. Defenders have to back off of him because he creates space and does well with hold up play. Just a pleasure to watch. Lastly, I thought Farrell looked really good on offense down the flank and in support. The announcers were giving a lot of love to Tierney, who really does provide excellent services from the left side, but I thought Farrell had a very solid game, although I could be forgetting some defensive breakdowns.
 
What's the list of players suspended for Saturday?
 

Titans Bastard

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Zososoxfan said:
What's the list of players suspended for Saturday?
 
Just two guys for NY.
 
  • Bradley Wright-Phillips, who is out on yellow card accumulation after his idiotic caution against NE.
  • Roy Miller will continue to be suspended after getting a yellow in both legs against DC and then a straight red later in the second leg.  He served his yellow-card accumulation suspension yesterday and will be serving his red card suspension next week.
 
Miller is a total wild card who is known for insane red cards and the occasional crazy decision.  He's a little more defensively sound than Oyongo, but doesn't offer as much pace going forward.
 
Losing BWP is a big problem, of course - he's the league's leading scorer.  I expect Tim Cahill to come in, who is a better player than BWP, but who doesn't fit into this NY team as well as BWP does.
 
Yellow card accumulation does not carry over to MLS Cup, so Jermaine Jones can feel free to pick up his usual yellow without fear of missing anything.
 

Titans Bastard

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- Tesho Akindele wins Rookie of the Year - not bad for a guy who spent last fall playing DII ball at Colorado School of Mines.  I think Harry Shipp and Steve Birnbaum were more deserving candidates, but in the end it doesn't mean much.
 
- Toronto came out with a cool video overview of their stadium expansion.  BMO Field comes off as a somewhat erector-set-like venue, a mild upgrade on Crew Stadium.  With the massive canopy, that will change.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJfXwBxqu4M
 
- Montreal named Adam Braz their technical director - a Canadian former defender who played mostly in the USL and had a brief stint with Toronto in their debut season in 2007.  Who knows if he'll be any good.
 

Titans Bastard

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- Chad Marshall wins Defender of the Year and in the process becomes the first three-time winner ('08, '09) -- Carlos Bocanegra and Robin Fraser each won twice.  Marshall is a deserving winner.  His concussions and (reported) personal problems with Bob Bradley resulted in a minimal NT career.  But it wouldn't be surprising to see him in January camp.  At age 30, he isn't a huge prospect for the USMNT, of course, but it's not impossible to imagine him contributing to the qualifying campaign.
 
- Looking good for Saturday:
 
https://twitter.com/RevsPrez/status/537286967621591042
 
The last conference final at Gillette drew barely over 10k.  It's great to see playoff attendances above regular season attendances.  They aren't included in ST packages, so people are actually turning out.
 
- Houston declined options on Omar Cummings, Andrew Driver, Bryan Salazar, Brian Ownby, and Anthony Arena.  Cummings has value, but at $250k wasn't going to fly.  Driver is a mediocrity, the rest are scrubs.
 
- Colorado declined options on 11 players - most notably a well-past-his-peak Edson Buddle, Marvell Wynne, and Nick LaBrocca.  Gale Agbossoumonde, Carlos Alvarez, Davy Armstrong, Kamani Hill, Danny Mwanga, Joe Nasco, Thomas Piermayr, Grant Van De Casteele.  It seemed to me that the Rapids underutilized a promising AM like Alvarez - hopefully he lands on his feet elsewhere.  But mostly, the Rapids were a bad team and it's not surprising to see so many players dumped.
 
- KC declined options on six, including their top two GKs Eric Kronberg and Andy Gruenebaum.  They also got rid of Michael Kafari, Antonio Davale, Victor Munoz, and Sal Zizzo.
 
EDIT:
 
and video games!!!!
 
 

Eric1984

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Taking my 9 year old, who is as fanatical and knowledgeable about soccer as I was about baseball at that age and was begging and pleading to go (and he's far from a rarity in the elementary school set - bodes well for the sport). Bringing my poor South Carolinian father in law too, who does not particularly care for soccer or the cold but wanted to experience something new. I can't wait - it should be a great time.
 

Titans Bastard

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Gameday, folks.
 
Some news from around the league:
 
- Columbus Crew announced that they are affiliating with a new USL club, the Austin Aztex.  Geographically, it makes less sense than their prior affiliation with Dayton.  However, it's widely known that Dayton is more or less a basket case and if they folded tomorrow, no one would be surprised.  Austin looks to have their shit together and will probably be a better long-term partner.  It was expected that Austin might affiliate with one of the Texas clubs, but Dallas is rumored to be finalizing an agreement with Arizona United and Houston may stick with Pittsburgh after all.
 
- The Crew also hired Nico Estevez to work in their academy at some capacity.  He was a youth coach at Valencia and appears to have won an award for best futsal coach in Spain one year.  You never know if any one particular coach will work out, but this is exactly the sort of move that more MLS clubs should be making.  Hire prominent outside expertise, have them take over the academy and train domestic coaches.
 
- Montreal made two more cuts, including their erstwhile starting goalkeeper Troy Perkins, as well as little-used Spanish midfielder Gorka Larrea.  Perkins had lost his job to Evan Bush towards the end of the season.
 
- Twellman on the CBA:
 
https://twitter.com/TaylorTwellman/status/538532739218030593
 

Billy R Ford

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At the game now, Red Bulls supporters have mostly filled one section at the far end, the Fort looks just about full. Rest of the crowd starting to fill in, though i imagine a lot are waiting out the cold until they take their seats. Should be a good one!
 

Harry Hooper

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It was all in the wrist for Davies on the equalizer goal, apparently.
 

SoxFanInCali

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California. Duh.
This is why away goals are awesome.  No extra time is possible now.  NY scores, they lead.  They don't, and NE wins.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Sweet!  
 
Revs will be pretty heavy underdogs - but that's fun!
Scrappy underdogs ending Henry and Donovan's MLS careers is a fun thing to root for, should LA make it past Seattle.
 

nickandemmasuncle

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Anus slowly unclenching.

And yes, the dynamic that away goals creates, where you can go from advancing to eliminated with a single goal, is underratedly awesome / awful. Those last 20 minutes were painful.
 

Dalton Jones

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First time I've watched a full MLS game. I was shocked by the excellent quality of play. Thierry Henry was unreal. Really impressed by Tierney and Nguyen for the Revs. And Jermain Jones is really solid. Hope a new stadium is built in Boston. I will buy season tickets.
 

Billy R Ford

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Hell of a match, after New York went up 2-1 I was saying Heaps needed to take off Tierney or Alston for another attacker. Shows how much I know  :buddy:
 
They'll be underdogs in either LA or Seattle, but given how hot this team has been I'd say that's mostly the home-field advantage. The key is to come out attacking. The team is so much better when they are pushing for a goal than when they sit back. Can't wait til December 7th.
 

Youkilis vs Wild

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What an amazing game to be at. Crowd was fantastic (though chants were out of rhythm at points -- I'll call it jitters), and both teams just played what appeared to be quality soccer all around. The tension in the final 20 minutes, when an equalizer for NY would have actually given them the tie breaker on away goals was tough to bear but well, well worth it.
 
I think the Revs match up better with Seattle but that home crowd scares me more than LA's. Plus LA has the history built in...so give me the Galaxy.
 
Also, was able to listen to Revs talk on The Sports Hub all the way home. Mostly uninformed Revs talk, but the 1510 signal was poor so it made do--and was surprising to hear them stick with the Revs straight through.
 

Eric1984

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That was a great time. Outstanding atmosphere in the stadium and a very exciting game. Great for soccer in New England.
 

SocrManiac

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Great atmosphere and a shockingly friendly crowd. We started the grill at 11 and had strangers coming and going all day.

It's a cavernous stadium for the number of tickets they sell and it didn't feel like it ever really filled out. The Red Bulls fans did a fantastic job, one must say... Very loud, very organized.

After the game it took them twice as long to get a quarter of the cars out. We assumed there had to be an accident. Anybody know the scoop? We ended up getting a box of Duraflames from CVS to keep warm until things cleared out, which wasn't until around 8:30. If it was filled to Pats capacity we'd still be there.
 

Titans Bastard

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That was a great playoff series.  Great crowd for the game last night - it's hard to believe that it would have been well over capacity in the majority of MLS venues, but that's life in Gillette for you.  Arriving around 2pm, we took a quick look at the normal Revs thoughts, pulled a U-ie, and went straight to the overflow lot across the street.  It's weird having to worry about parking.
 
Honestly, I think NY had the better of the series over the four halves, but they didn't take their chances and Bobby Shuttleworth is in very good form.  I viewed Shuttleworth as one of the weakest starting GKs at the start of the season, but I think he's improved this year, to somewhere in the middle of the pack in my estimation.
 
Dax McCarty did a fantastic job containing Nguyen this series.  Lee was still able to create danger and in particular create the first goal in the first leg, but the contrast with the Crew series was notable.  Nguyen ran wild on Trapp and Tchani.  I think we see McCarty in January camp - he and Danny Williams may be next in line for the Beckerman role, at least until some of the younger, higher-ceiling guys develop.
 
It was heartening to see other players step up this series after NY spent so much effort containing Nguyen.  Bunbury was huge in the first leg, and this time it was Tierney and Davies.  Davies' speed will never come back, but his old strength is 100% back.  He's been doing good target man dirty work this season.  Jones has been fantastic throughout.
 
We gave up too many good chances to NY this series.  Against LA or Seattle, we'll be punished.   The defense needs to be tighter in MLS Cup.
 

Titans Bastard

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Zomp said:
As someone who doesn't follow MLS much can someone explain to me why the final isn't on neutral ground?
 
1. To confer an advantage upon the team that did better in the regular season, a small step towards alleviating concerns that the regular season isn't meaningful enough because of the playoff system
 
2. Better atmosphere than neutral ground
 

Titans Bastard

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Seattle - LA coming up shortly.  Alonso is back from injury and as long as he's 100% that's a huge addition for the Sounders.  Getting Neagle back from a personal issue is also important, as being able to bring Marco Pappa off the bench later in the game has been very effective for them lately.
 
I'm not sure who to be rooting for from a Revs perspective.
 

soxfan121

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Root for poor Landon Donovan to finally be able to put this horrible soccer thing behind him and get on with being awesome in retirement.
 

Titans Bastard

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This game turned on a dime.  Seattle couldn't string three passes together and now they are taking it to LA.  2-0 now, terrible goalkeeping from Penedo.
 

Titans Bastard

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ThePrideofShiner said:
What happened on LA's goal? I was in the pisser. The energy is gone a bit from the stadium.
 
Juninho nailed a loose ball volley from outside the box that hit the inside of the post and caromed in.
 
 
2-1 FT.  LA through on away goals and will host MLS Cup.  This is going to be a tough game for the Revs.
 

Billy R Ford

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I love Landon Donovan. I really, really love Landon Donovan. I'm on record here arguing hard that he should have been on the World Cup team.
 
 
And I sincerely hope his career ends in misery next Saturday.