Manchester United Practice at Gillette Stadium, 7.12.11 (And Rooney Pic!)

What follows is a description of drills conducted by Manchester United at Gillette stadium on the eve of their friendly against the New England Revolution. The post may be of limited interest, even by the standards of an MLS-related blog, because it describes a practice. Then again, most people don’t get a chance to see an elite soccer team in training. I attended the practice for that reason and to get drill ideas for coaching at the youth level.

I talked to a very knowledgeable friend of mine about the practice, and he said he was familiar with all the drills I described, in fact told me that they constituted a typical pre-game-day training session. Besides being news to me, this fact might say something about soccer culture and how its traditions have been codified over the years. This established way of conducting practices stands in contrast to the NFL, where I’ve heard there are major differences in practice routines. For example, some teams practice in pads and hit hard, while others (like the old 49ers teams under Bill Walsh) forgo hitting in favor of working on the precision of their passing plays, etc.

My knowledgeable friend also told me—somehow managing to keep exasperation out of his tone—not to waste my time using Manchester United’s pre-game-day drills on a youth-league team, presumably because the drills are too demanding and don’t get the youth-league players enough touches on the ball over the course of an hour. Clearly, my friend should be writing a soccer blog, maybe this blog. Unfortunately, as of now he is not, so here, for soccer posterity, is my description of Manchester United’s training session.

Some additional preliminary notes: The team’s three goalkeepers practiced on their own for much of the hour, and I didn’t pay much attention to them. All the drills lasted ten minutes or so, and there were one or two breaks for water. Before practice, the players jogged around the field as a group and thoroughly stretched their legs. My probably wildly inaccurate guess is that there were four thousand specators spread out in the first ten or so rows on one side of the stadium. Needless to say, many spectators wore Manchester United jerseys. One such guy kept getting up and blaring out those team chants to the players, who were just yards away from us. It was a little surreal. The chants are meant to be shouted by many intoxicated fans, not a single sober one, and I felt embarrassed for this guy’s wife and children, who sat nearby but never joined in.

·      Drill 1: 7 v. 2 Keep-Away. Two sets of nine players ran through this drill. It took place inside a ten-by-ten-yard box marked off by cones. Seven players spread along the perimeter and passed the ball to each other while keeping it away from two defenders inside the box. If a defender was successful, he joined the players with the ball and the player who’d been dispossessed went inside the square to defend. I did pick up one training tip or procedure in this drill that can be used regardless of the players’ ages; it’s so simple and efficient I was surprised I’d never come across it before. Anyway, instead of going through the rigmarole of putting on and taking off pinnies, the defenders simply held the pinnies in their hands, then handed them over when they joined the “offense.” As for the quality of the passing and trapping by the players, it was amazingly high, especially given the tight spaces and speed of the drill. At times, though, even these players’ touches betrayed them, and they looked surprisingly, refreshingly human. Being a human myself, I often trained my eyes on the biggest celebrity of the bunch, Wayne Rooney. More than once he actually “went to ground” when playing defense in an effort to get the ball back. I believe he was the only player to do that during the drill, and I was thoroughly impressed by his competitiveness. It radiated off him even during the first drill of the season.

·      Drill 2: 9 v. 9 Keep-Away. The non-goalkeepers divided into two teams, one team wearing yellow pinnies. Each team tried to maintain possession inside a fifty-by-fifty-yard area. Players looked to make long passes as well as short ones. I think one of the biggest differences between the best teams in the world and the merely good ones is the ability to send fifty- and sixty-yard passes out to the wings and still seemingly effortlessly maintain possession. There are few things more impressive to me in soccer than a pinpoint pass over that distance to a winger who settles the ball while standing on or even over the sideline. Clearly, this drill was meant to work on that kind of thing, as well as on quick runs and passes in tight spaces.

·      Drill 3: Shooting and Crossing Drill. This drill looked fun to participate in, though I despair of describing it accurately. Basically, it took place on one side of the field, using one goal. Three groups of offensive players faced the goal—one group in the center, the other two on the wings. Two defenders in pinnies played in front of the goal, which had a keeper. The offensive player in the center started by passing to one of the defenders, who passed it back. The striker then took a shot on goal, presumably to work on his shot and on the keeper's skills. Then the offense worked the sides of the field, sending the ball from the center to the wings, where a triangle of players then passed the ball in a (to me) cryptic pattern, one player eventually dribbling towards the flag and crossing the ball to his teammates, who then tried to score on the defenders and keeper.

·      Drill 4: 10 v. 10 Scrimmage, including Keepers. The players scrimmaged on a short field, the staff leaving one goal on the end line and moving one up to the midfield stripe. The sideline cones were moved in maybe ten yards from the normal sidelines.

The two players that most impressed me during the practice were Patrice Evra—who lit up the field with his speed and quickness—and Rooney. Rooney impressed me not only with his foot skills and hustle, but also by taking shots on goal during one of the water breaks. He was the only guy working and not hydrating at that point. This may have been because he turned an ankle during one early drill and wanted to test that it was okay, but it also may be because he’s the hardest worker on the team. Finally, Rooney was the last guy out there signing autographs, almost an hour after practice ended, and seemed exceedingly gracious in the face of a bunch of rude Americans screaming "Rooney!" in his direction. The guy I went to the practice with brought his son, who got half a dozen autographs on a Manchester United scarf, including Rooney's and Ryan Giggs's. I got a picture of Rooney signing, and I’ve pasted it below. It’s this blog’s first photo, taken with my cheap but reliable Sony cyber-shot. I like the picture’s borderline artsy or aqueous quality, which does nothing to obscure the identity of the renowned subject.

Revolution at Colorado Rapids, 7.23.11

At around the 85^th minute of this game, I reflected that sometimes a loss is greater cause for optimism than a tie or even a win. The Revolution were down 2-1 at that point and almost certainly destined for yet another road defeat. But for most of the second half they’d played with only ten men, and they’d played Colorado tough. New England’s effort was particularly impressive considering the Colorado altitude and game-time temperatures in the 90s. The only goals they’d allowed came off a penalty kick and a complete fluke of a 60-yard shot that Matt Reis misjudged and let skip over his head and into the net.

In short, I knew the Revolution wouldn’t get a result in this one, but they easily could have gotten a draw or even a win with their effort. It would be the kind of hard-fought loss that often deeply pisses off the losing side, bringing them closer together as a team and propelling them to a convincing win in their next game. (By contrast, the Revolution’s lifeless 3-3 draw over Real Salt Lake on July 4 was a mirage that didn’t adequately reflect New England’s lame and uninspired play. The tie in Salt Lake was the kind of result that usually precedes a thorough drubbing.)

Anyway, those were my thoughts near end of the Colorado game. Only, I didn’t have to wait until next Saturday’s match against Kansas City for the Revolution to justify my good opinion of their efforts against the Rapids. In the 89^th minute, Kevin Alston capped a good night with a long ball in to Darrius Barnes, who’d made a run into the offensive third. Barnes headed the ball to a nearby Kenny Mansally, who had gotten behind the defender and drew a foul in the Rapids’ penalty box. Shalrie Joseph then converted the penalty kick for his sixth goal of the year.

After the PK tied the game at two goals apiece, Joseph’s teammates Benny Feilhaber and A.J. Soares converged on him for a three-way man-hug. All three had played well, in particular Feilhaber, who’d scored the game’s first goal off a long throw-in and who’d hustled on the defensive end all night. Maybe New England’s previous road victory against the D.C. United—which Feilhaber had to watch from the sidelines due to his red card against the Union—had inspired him.

But to paraphrase Mel Torme, the Revolution’s performance wasn’t all velvet. To start with, they continued their troubling trend of allowing opponents to dominate time of possession. In this game, New England managed to hold the ball a pathetic 31.5% of the time. Also, Zack Schilawski had a forgettable game on the wing and Rajko Lekic was similarly ineffective at striker. Despite his lame numbers this year, I do believe Lekic is dangerous. But he needs to play on a team that repeatedly sends in crosses from the wings, and the Revolution aren’t capable of doing that now, don’t ask me why. (Mansally came on for Lekic in the 75^th minute and looked more impressive playing with his back to the goal. Within five minutes of checking in, for example, he’d already drawn two fouls. True, Mansally wasn’t able to settle a long ball from Alston in the 85^th minute, but he promptly redeemed that gaffe by drawing the penalty kick.) Finally, the Revolution simply must find a way to generate more chances in the run of play. Amazingly, and yet again, their goals in this game came off set pieces.

To return to the bright side: The Revolution’s paltry time-of-possession number is mitigated somewhat by their being forced to play a man down after Chris Tierney was sent off in the 64^th minute. More importantly, much of Colorado’s possession wasn’t really dangerous possession—a point made by Colorado defender Drew Moor during an on-field halftime interview. The Revolution seem to be regaining some control on both sides of the ball, and forgoing bitching and moaning at each other in favor of playing hard and communicating.

I hope I’m right about all that, and further hope that pulling level with the Rapids in the final minutes of this game didn’t take any edge off the Revolution players’ desire to take it to Sporting KC next week. With four road points in two games, the Revolution’s season may just be on the cusp of redemption.

Revolution at D.C. United, 7.20.11

I rarely get excited by the play of a goalkeeper, but Matt Reis was magnificent yesterday. He bailed out the Revolution time and again in their 1-0 victory over D.C. United.

Though there were other candidates, Reis’s best save of the night probably came in the 82^nd minute, with his team holding on to a rare late-game lead. The United’s Andy Najar sailed a perfect ball in to Dwayne De Rosario, who was having a splendid match himself. De Rosario had nearly scored at least a couple of times earlier in the game, and now it looked as though he wouldn’t be denied. He settled Najar’s pass with a deft downward knifing trap. The ball bent to his will and he got off a characteristically quick, hard shot. Reis then seemed to morph into that other, more renowned Boston goalie—Tim Thomas—and kick-saved the shot into the outside of the netting. The crowd thought D.C. had scored and sent up a cheer, but De Rosario knew immediately that he’d missed. He clenched his fists in front of him in controlled frustration and looked down at Reis as if to say, you have got to be kidding me! Indeed, against almost any other keeper, and maybe even against Reis on any other night, that shot would have gone in.

The Revolution deserved this win, which is in itself almost as remarkable as the fact that they broke their nine-game winless streak. True, New England did look shaky in the first half, particularly on defense, and were exceedingly lucky to come out of it with a 0-0 score. D.C. controlled that period and created many excellent opportunities but failed to actually score, and that state of affairs usually spells doom for a soccer team. (Just ask the players on the U.S. women’s national team.)

D.C.’s best opportunity of the night came when Pat Phelan handled a ball in the penalty box. It was one of those inadvertent handballs that nevertheless must be called, since Phelan unthinkingly raised his arms when defending a cross. Charlie Davies stepped in to take the penalty kick and, delightfully for Revolution fans, his attempt sailed over the crossbar.

Could that missed PK signal a turning point in the Revolution’s currently dismal season? It would be folly to say so after their recent performances, and after continuing their trend of losing the possession battle. (They held the ball for only 39% of the game against D.C.) But this was the first time in what feels like (and may actually be) months that I felt something like hope while watching the Revolution. In the second half, New England actually looked pretty good. Let me repeat that: New England actually looked pretty good in the second half. Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally came on as substitutes (for Zak Boggs and Zack Schilawski, respectively) and added some speed and life to the offense. The defense tightened up, even though Darrius Barnes had to fill in at center back for Ryan Cochrane, who came off injured in the 22^nd minute. After getting barraged in the first half, and leaving runners wide open, the Revolution limited the United to only a few shots on goal in the second. And at the end of the game, the Revolution seemed to be the fresher team, another pleasant surprise. The announcers frequently mentioned the sweltering heat on the field, and I would have thought that those conditions, and the fairly raucous D.C. crowd, would have greatly favored the home team but that wasn’t the case.

While D.C. isn’t the best team in the east, they aren’t a terrible team either. De Rosario looked really good against the Revolution, and I have to wonder if New York is kicking themselves for the Dax McCarty trade. D.C. also has a good young goalkeeper in Bill Hamid and a good young center back in Brandon McDonald. Combine those players with Najar, Davies, Josh Wolff, and Chris Pontius (not to mention the injured Branko Boskovic), and you have the makings of a respectable MLS side. It’s also an improving team that was fighting for a playoff spot at home.

So the Revolution can take heart from this performance and look to build confidence and (dare we say it?) string together some wins. Let’s also hope they continue to use a 4-3-3 formation, as they did today. The key to this formation—really the key to any formation used by New England—is captain Shalrie Joseph. It was great to have him back in the lineup after the suspension. True, he very occasionally loses balls at midfield these days, and sometimes isn’t shy about making ridiculously dangerous passes back to defenders and his goalie in traffic (remember the pass to Didier Domi against Chivas? he made a similar pass back to Reis today), but he’s clearly the player around which the whole team revolves. His teammates all look to work the ball through him, as they should. Against D.C., he was working hard until the end as usual, nearly springing Nyassi for a game-clinching goal in the 86^th minute with a beauty of a through ball. Unfortunately, Hamid broke up the play and eventually collected the ball.

This may be way off base, but I wonder sometimes if Joseph’s eventual successor at midfield might be rookie Stephen McCarthy. I’m not putting McCarthy on a level with Joseph, but both are big and have games that can look unspectacular but are actually deceptively strong and effective. Sometimes Joseph looks like he’s running at half speed, and then you realize that he’s beaten his man and has headed in a goal, or that he’s shed his defender and is making a killer pass up the sideline, his ponytail flapping. As for McCarthy, I’ve noticed that he looks to hold the ball and make short passes in favor of the long ball, and this team needs a whole lot more of that kind of thing. Against D.C., he also happened to head in the game’s only goal, which came off a Chris Tierney corner kick. (The last time the Revolution actually scored in the run of play was over a month ago, but let’s not dwell on that now.) McCarthy’s header was textbook—he ran towards the ball and snapped it down to the ground and just inside the far post. The Revolution could use a whole lot more of that kind of thing too.

Revolution v. Philadelphia Union, 7.17.11

In order to delay the unpleasant task of dilating upon the Revolution’s 3-0 home loss to the Philadelphia Union, I’ll first address some recent changes to New England’s roster. As I discussed in an earlier post, fellow Serbians Ilija Stolica and Marko Perovic—two skilled and likeable veterans—were quietly and, it seems, rather coldly let go by the Revolution a few weeks ago. And now, two more skilled European vets are gone: Didier Domi was released and Ousmane Dabo retired.

New England no doubt brought in Domi and Dabo this season to add skill, experience, and leadership to an unsettled roster that includes such young players as A. J. Soares, Kevin Alston, Sainey Nyassi, Zak Boggs, and Zack Schilawski. Management’s reasoning must have been that these old French vets—along with established Revs’ veterans Perovic, Shalrie Joseph, and Matt Reis—might just help propel the young team into MLS’s large playoff pool. And from there, who knows?

But Domi and, in particular, Dabo have been unavailable due to injuries and never got a chance to mesh with the team. Since they are too old and injury-prone to be in any club’s long-term plans—and since Lio Messi himself couldn’t save this season’s bottom-of-the-standings and still-sinking Revolution squad—Domi was cut and the Revs’ front office must have been only too happy to tear up Dabo’s contract and throw him a retirement party. The release of Perovic—who was last season’s team MVP and is only 27—still perplexes me, but fans of the Patriots will know that Bob Kraft’s organizations are ruthless when evaluating veterans, no matter what their previous levels of service.

As a fan of the game, I’ll miss all four of New England’s recently departed players, no matter how seldom they were on the field this year. Each possessed soccer talent and knowledge that the Revolution could dearly use. Dabo in particular was a joy to watch, and his extremely limited time playing might define the word “tantalizing” for New England fans. I imagine that each of these players (with the possible exception of Dabo, who retired) was told by management that the team is “moving in a different direction,” which of course is an old euphemism for “our initial plan didn’t work out so we’re kicking you to the curb.”

There’s no telling how these releases have affected team morale, but judging by the Revs’ flat and lifeless performance against Philadelphia, my guess is that the effect hasn’t been a positive one. New England extended its winless streak to nine games—eleven if you care to count the friendly against Manchester United and the U.S. Open Cup play-in game against Sporting KC—and did it with a certain flair for the undramatic. In this match, the Revolution actually failed to get a single shot on target. They’ve outdone even themselves.

The loss was hardly unexpected. You may recall that the Revolution’s last regular-season match came against Real Salt Lake way back on July 4. A recent Boston Globe article misrepresented that pitiful performance by the Revolution as “spirited.” Honestly, what game did the Globe reporter watch? The Revolution were pathetic against Salt Lake and they were predictably pathetic against Philadelphia. Only this time around, the Revs didn’t get the benefit of unjustly playing with a man advantage for over an hour, nor did they convert any fluke set-piece goals, as they did in Salt Lake.

To move on: Shalrie Joseph once again proved his importance to the Revolution, this time by missing the game due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Without him on the field, his teammates muddled through the first half as if they’d just awakened from a yearlong nap. Philadelphia promptly scored two goals—one in the run of play, one off a free kick—that looked so similar I almost thought the second was a replay of the first. Suffice it to say that each goal came off a cross to the far post that was headed back to a comically wide-open Union player who volleyed home the shot. The goals were impressive in a training-ground kind of way, but the Revolution’s poor defensive marking necessarily diminished their impressiveness.

Veteran Carlos Ruiz was the man of this match, setting up and scoring the game-winning goal, generally being a pest up top, and baiting Benny Feilhaber into a second yellow card in the 66^th minute. Feilhaber’s frustration was again evident, and his second yellow was a dumb foul that really hurt his team. The Revs had actually managed to regroup at halftime—changing to a 3-5-2 formation—and for the first twenty minutes or so they played with a passion that was so lacking from the first half. I hate to say it because I like Feilhaber and I’m glad he’s on the team, but his reaction to his second yellow was embarrassing and borderline shameful. His desire to win and his frustration during this winless streak are obvious, but shouting at and pushing opposing players after your own stupid foul only makes you look like a petulant schoolboy about to pick up his ball and go home.

Surprisingly, some Boston-area fans did have something to cheer about in this one. Union rookie Sheanon Williams, who grew up in Boston and went to high school in Weston, played well on defense and sent his family and friends home happy with an icing-on-the-cake toe-poke goal in the final minute of stoppage time. He’d been making frequent runs forward in an attempt to get that goal, and he deserved it.

Need I add that the Revolution yet again lost the possession battle? You might attribute the Revolution’s 44% time-of-possession number to their having played a man down for much of the second half, but you’d be mistaken. When playing at full strength in the first half, the Revolution managed to hold the ball only 37% of the time.

Revolution v. Manchester United, 7.13.11

There may be some arguments to be made against MLS teams playing midseason friendlies against some of the best European club teams in the world, but you won’t find them here. I prefer to dwell on the saner arguments in favor of MLS’s inter-league competition known as the World Football Challenge.

Let me begin with some of those arguments in favor of the friendlies. First, the European teams can build their powerful brands in the huge and growing North American market. And because July is the very start of the foreign leagues’ preseasons, the European teams can begin getting their players into game shape. On the other side, the MLS and Mexican-league teams acquire instant cachet by hosting matches against the acknowledged best clubs in the world. MLS and the Mexican league also get a chance to prove that it's not totally absurd for their players to be on the same field with the likes of Manchester United and FC Barcelona. Furthermore, existing North American fans of European clubs get to see their teams’ multi-millionaire superstars up close, they get to don their Rooney and Messi jerseys, they get to show off their knowledge of silly team chants in public. MLS fans get to see their hardworking and modestly compensated players temporarily infiltrate the highest circles of the soccer universe.

There are other arguments in favor of these matches, but do we really need to make them? If you don’t admit to being at least mildly intrigued by the prospect of an MLS team taking on a soccer superpower, even in a friendly, then you’re either a boring soccer snob or a liar (or more likely both).

There was enough interest in the Revolution-Manchester United friendly to draw over 50,000 spectators (including myself) to Gillette stadium. That’s over four times the Revolution’s current average home attendance figure of about 12,000. I for one was not disappointed by either team’s performance. Revolution starters acquitted themselves well in the first half, holding Manchester United to zero goals. I liked Steve Nicol’s strategy. He played Franco Coria at centerback alongside A.J. Soares. Coria is excellent in the air and would be in a position to disrupt the many crosses that would rain down on New England’s penalty box, and A.J. Soares is remarkably consistent and composed for a rookie. The speedy Kevin Alston started at right back as usual, but Chris Tierney—not Darius Barnes or Didier Domi (the latter still presumably injured)—started at left back, just behind workhorse Zak Boggs. Tierney, with his great ability to cross from the left, made routine overlapping runs forward. In the 12^th minute, one of his crosses deflected off the foot of Man. U.’s Nani and found Shalrie Joseph, who headed the ball just wide of the back post. It was one of the Revolution’s only good chances of the night.

Joseph and the starting defense mostly played well, while Rajko Lekic had a forgettable, ineffective game. Sainey Nyassi had one of his lesser games as well, combining impressive speed with an unfortunate knack for giving the ball away and seeming to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, as when, about twenty minutes into the match, Benny Feilhaber expected Nyassi to make a run and passed the ball wide to him and out of bounds. Near the end of the half Feilhaber tried the same thing and got the same result, though this time it was all on Feilhaber—Usain Bolt couldn’t have caught up with that pass. Feilhaber did his best work on the defensive end against Man. U., including breaking up a play between Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov in New England’s penalty box.

As for Manchester United, they looked predictably fast and skilled and powerful. But in the first half they were just a little off on nearly everything they tried, also predictable given that this was their first match since playing Barcelona in the Champions League Final on May 28. (These guys get paid well, but they sure don’t get a long off-season.) It seemed that every five minutes Manchester United had a good chance to score but failed to finish. Berbatov headed at least two headers off target, and in the 41^st minute he missed a wide-open shot from the six, though to be fair Matt Reis made a great save on that one. Rooney also sailed a header over the crossbar, and he flubbed a bicycle-kick attempt in the 35^th minute. A minute or so after Reis’s great save on the Berbatov shot, Rooney also miss-hit what looked to be a sure goal.

By one important measure—that of the 0-0 score at the end of the half—the difference between the starting lineups was not great. In other important ways, and in virtually all senses, Manchester United is in a different league than the Revolution. When Manchester United players maintain possession, as they did throughout most of this game, it is a seemingly effortless exercise. They radiate competence and authority when dribbling, trapping, passing, and shooting. They think two or more moves ahead, like good billiards players. When the Revolution players hold the ball, they look rushed and unsteady, like someone learning to walk a tightrope; there’s always a good chance a pass will be off target, a touch will be too heavy, a run will be mistimed. Manchester United players are also human and subject to miscues, but they’re a little less human. And better quality almost always prevails, even in the fickle world of soccer.

There were massive substitutions in the second half, and the game got out of hand quickly. Manchester United scored three goals in the first fifteen minutes or so, then tacked on another one near the end of the game. The Revolution managed to score a fluke goal of their own off a set piece. (Scoring fluke goals off set pieces is becoming a Revolution hallmark this year.) It’s worth noting (for the millionth time, but still) that Manchester United’s roster is deep. They can sub in guys like Rio Ferdinand for Nemanja Vidic, Ryan Giggs for Nani, Federico Macheda for Berbatov, and Michael Owen for Wayne Rooney. That’s a downright laughable embarrassment of riches and just spelling out the names makes me realize why so many Premier League fans don’t bother watching MLS games. The Revolution’s substitutes included guys like Ryan Guy, Stephen McCarthy, and Otto Loewy. Otto Loewy! If I’m not mistaken his only MLS appearance this year came in a 5-0 U.S. Open Cup loss to Sporting KC at a place called the Blue Valley District Activities Complex in Blue Valley, Kansas. Could you come up with a farther cry from playing for Manchester United at Old Trafford?

Still, you have to give Steve Nicol credit for scheduling this game, for playing his best available players in the first half, for playing his best player (Joseph) for the entire game, and for playing most of his lesser players during the second half, giving those players the opportunity to tell their future grandchildren that they got to square off against the mighty Man. U. That’s the kind of thing these friendlies are good for. It was a kick to watch these Revs’ players I’ve gotten to know so well in the last few months taking on some of the best in the world. And whatever the Revolution’s deficiencies, this game was for me a pure joy to watch. There was no flopping, no gamesmanship, no posturing, just a remarkably good team playing against another one that gave its all and was happy to be there.

Two Manchester United goals were for me worth the steep price of my well-cushioned club-level seat. Their finest goal was their last. The build-up started on the left side with Gabriel Obertan mesmerizing Zak Boggs and the crowd with some step-over moves that gave his teammates time to get into position. Obertan ultimately found Ji-Sung Park, who one-touched a perfect pass in traffic to Giggs, who then one-touched another perfect pass back to the streaking Park, who settled the ball, dribbled once, then calmly, leisurely, almost patronizingly chipped it over the sprawled Revs’ goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth. I don’t want to sound like one of those boring soccer snobs I mentioned earlier, but it was the kind of combination and finish that no MLS team is now capable of producing. Then again, how many teams in the world are?

The other worth-the-price-of-admission goal came off the foot of Macheda, who scored two goals against New England and nearly had a third. In the 61^st minute he settled a long cross at the back post and put it into the net. The almost superhuman speed with which he got the shot off was reminiscent of Brazil’s Rivaldo in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. I hadn’t thought about him in years, and was happy to have the memories dredged up by Macheda’s lightening strike.

Revolution at Real Salt Lake, 7.4.11

You could make a strong case that this was the Revolution’s most inept performance of the year so far, and that’s saying something. Real Salt Lake’s captain Nat Borchers was given a red card in the third minute, ostensibly for tackling Benny Feilhaber from behind though replays showed there was no foul and that the call should have been a goal kick for Salt Lake. As a result of this gift from the soccer gods, Rajko Lekic (not Shalrie Joseph, as is typical) took the penalty kick, converted it, and the Revolution played a man up for over 60 minutes.

Not long after Lekic’s goal, Chris Tierney very fortunately scored off an unspectacular free kick that leisurely bounced into the net from about 30 yards out. So, fifteen minutes into the game, the Revolution were up 2-0 and playing with a man advantage. Incredibly, infuriatingly for Revolution fans, Salt Lake proceeded to dominate time of possession. Let me repeat that: playing a man down for over an hour, Salt Lake dominated possession, holding the ball for 61% of the game. They also outshot the Revs 20 to 6, and had 6 corners to the Revs’ 1. (I wonder about those shots-taken statistics. Try as I might, I can’t recall a single shot by the Revs that came during the run of play.)

The Revolution looked listless and generally horrible. RSL scored its first goal off a free kick in the 24^th minute. The kick hit the crossbar, and three RSL players crashed the rebound while only one Revolution player (Pat Phelan) bothered to make even a token effort to retrieve the ball. RSL tied the game at 2 off a penalty kick in the 56^th minute.

Amazingly, given how they were being dominated, the Revolution again went up a goal in the 63^rd minute. And again the Revs’ goal came off a set piece—Benny Feilhaber sent a free kick into the box and Shalrie Joseph scored off a beautifully redirected header as he was moving away from the goal. But, as was inevitable given their dominance, RSL tied the game in the last ten minutes. As should be obvious, RSL should have won this one. I was reminded of the old saying, “If we played them ten times, we’d beat them nine.” This was the Revs’ one-chance-in-ten coming through for them, and yet still they couldn’t manage to actually win it.

Are the Revolution’s players really so bad that they can’t manage better than 39% possession when playing a man up for over an hour? I can’t help but think that part of the problem lies in the scheme. Lekic, despite his PK goal, had a most unimpressive game, trotting around near the sidelines and never a threat in the run of play. With the way Steve Nicol usually plays Lekic—alone up top—and with the way Lekic plays—sometimes at a leisurely pace, or when he feels like playing—the Revolution are in effect always playing a man down. How better to explain the 39% possession stat in this game, which is particularly egregious given the circumstances but also part of a season-long pattern?

And far too many times in this match a Revolution player would elect to send a long ball up the field and give away possession instead of playing keep-away while a goal (or more) and a man up. Kevin Alston did it; Benny Feilhaber did it; Chris Tierney did it; Ryan Cochrane did it before he got sent off for an ill-considered jersey-grab in the 67^th minute. Multiple times I said to my TV screen, like Cindy Lou Who (who was no more than two) in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas: “Why? Why are you needlessly sending long balls up the field? Why?”

I had seen the 3-3 result of this game before I watched it and was hopeful that the Revolution had finally gotten on track against a good team. Instead, they got lucky on all but one of their goals, undeservedly played with a man advantage, played without passion, couldn’t string passes together, bitched at each other. Relatively expensive players Lekic and Feilhaber continue to have minimal positive effects on the field and both are too quick to express frustration with their teammates. They ought to look to their captain Joseph, who continues to play hard and lead by example rather than whining and moaning. After a team performance like this one, he’s one of the few New England players who could have been excused for venting.

MLS and Media Coverage

A friend of mine who directs the Center for Court Innovation in New York City (and who writes a varied and excellent blog) lamented in an email to me this week that his two favorite sports leagues—the English Premier League and the NBA—are dormant. I suggested now might be the time for him to turn his attention to the New York Red Bulls. He wrote back that the Red Bulls are playing some frustrating soccer lately, letting opponents back into games and settling for draws. He also noted that the New York papers don’t regularly cover the team.

His last observation reminded me of how important media coverage is to almost all sports fans, whether they’re highly educated professionals who read the New York Times or tradespeople who read the New York Post. No one wants to follow a sports team in a cultural vacuum. Simply watching the games isn’t enough for most us. We want to read about the team in the local paper, watch analyses of the team on TV shows, listen to commentary about the team on sports radio. This kind of coverage leads to more personal social exchanges: barstool and water-cooler talk, exchanges of opinions between friends over email, blog posts, etc.

I grew up around Washington, D.C., and after I moved to Boston I used to watch Redskins games by satellite at a Brighton pub. This was in the days before the Internet, and one particular fellow Skins fan would usually show up with a fat Washington Post under his arm, purchased at a premium from the old Out of Town News in Harvard Square. He would kindly let other Skins fans read the sports section. The sports section of the Post seen outside the D.C. area had a numinous aspect to me back then, even if it was a week old (as it usually was). My God, I used to think when I went to the pub, I can read about the Redskins! And talk about them with other informed individuals! To repeat: reading and exchanging ideas are crucial aspects of the fan experience and almost as much fun as watching the games themselves. (Actually, watching those Charmin-soft Norv Turner-coached teams was often torture compared to reading and talking about them.)

If we accept this as true, then the continuing lack of MLS-related coverage in traditional media outlets is a serious impediment for most potential fans. To take a recent example of skimpy MLS coverage, I found out today that last year’s Revolution MVP—the injured Marko Perovic—is no longer a member of the team. (And unfortunately neither is fellow Serbian Ilija Stolica.) On June 30, Revolution management chose not to renew Perovic’s contract, which seems a rather ruthless thing to do to an injured former star. I discovered this from the MLS website, which referenced a post from The Bent Musket blog about Perovic’s release. I then went to the Boston Globe’s/boston.com’s Revolution section homepage, where there is currently no link to any article about Perovic. This is borderline amazing; surely New England’s decision not to renew its MVP’s contract must be the biggest Revolution-related story of the last seven days, if not the entire sorry season? (I eventually found a July 1 Globe article about Perovic’s release by Googling it.)

Imagine if the contract of last year’s Patriots or Red Sox MVP was not renewed? Seemingly everyone in the Boston area would be talking about it, and there would certainly be wide, long-lasting coverage in newspapers, on sports radio, and on TV. Yet when the Revolution actually do lose their skillful, still-young, and productive MVP—a real blow to New England sports, in my opinion—no one seems to care. Kudos to the Globe for reporting on it at all, but one would have thought that Perovic and Stolica both essentially getting cut from the team would warrant more than one 400-word article (with no picture) that’s quickly dropped from the website’s soccer section. (By the way, this paltry media coverage can work to a fan’s advantage in one important way: there is virtually no need to impose a personal media blackout if you plan to watch an MLS game on your DVR or your computer after the game has been played.)

Blaming the media—itself an old phrase, at least as old as the Viet Nam war—is almost always a mug’s game. Newspapers, radio, and TV cover sports teams insofar as they think doing so will generate an audience and therefore ad revenue. The Globe doesn’t have extensive Revolution coverage not because it’s a backward or inept organization, but because its editors are running a business and they think there’s no demand for extensive MLS coverage. It’s hard to argue with them, given the poor attendance at Revolution home games and what I take to be a general lack of interest in MLS among my own Boston-area friends and acquaintances. 

Still, given rising league-wide MLS attendance, widespread and increasing American interest in the World Cup and other international soccer competitions and foreign leagues, and potential readers/viewers/listeners like my New York friend and me, traditional news outlets may be underestimating demand and missing an opportunity by not devoting more of their resources to covering MLS.