Revolution at Philadelphia Union, 9.7.11: Rewind (and Taylor Twellman)

Before I got a chance to see the replay of the September 7 game against the Philadelphia Union, I’d heard that New England had collapsed yet again and given up a three-goal lead. The match ended in a 4-4 tie. I couldn’t bring myself watch the Union game until after I’d already attended and written about last Friday’s Dallas match, so this post is out of chronological order.

As expected, there was little pleasure to be derived from watching the Union/Revs replay, though it is true that eight goals were scored—six in the run of play—and a couple of those came off killer shots. But really: how much fun can you have when you know in advance that your team is going to melt down? Sadly, Philly’s late surge appeared foreordained even to the announcers who watched the game in real time. Color analyst and former Revolution striker Taylor Twellman routinely made the point that the game had a strange feel and that Philadelphia were going to come back. With New England up 4-2 in the 55th minute, for example, he said presciently, “With the way this season has gone for the Revolution, Stevie Nicol is nervous.”

New England was in retrospect lucky to go home with their single point. Philadelphia dominated possession (64%), outshot New England 28 to 9, and took 8 corner kicks to New England’s 3. As Twellman noted late in the first half, New England took five shots on target yet they’d somehow managed to score four goals. That bizarre statistic would hold up until the final whistle. When Sebastien Le Toux scored the equalizer in the 91^st minute—his second goal of the night—he rejected celebrating in favor of snatching the ball out of the net and sprinting back to the midfield stripe to try to get the win. Given the way Le Toux and his team were playing at the end, the fact that seven minutes of additional time had been given by the referee, and the fact that the Revolution were playing a man down due to an injury to Pat Phelan, it was a near miracle that Philadelphia didn’t in fact win.

Le Toux was man of the match. He missed some good chances to score early—two in the 4^th minute and another in the 14^th—but he fully redeemed himself in the end. I like the guy’s erect, almost regal European bearing on the field. He looks to me more Eastern European than French for some reason, perhaps because he sports a crew cut. He’s also as thin as Ichabod Crane, a reminder that good soccer players come in all shapes and sizes. All, I suppose, except fat.

I’ve already quoted Twellman, and I’ll go a step farther and say that I think he’s an excellent announcer. He’s knowledgeable, articulate, confident, opinionated, and passionate. Anyone who thinks Americans can’t by nature call a good soccer game ought to listen to him. I was moved to jot down many of his comments during the Philly match since they were so spot-on. I’ll end this post by quoting some of the better ones.

·       “[Rajko] Lekic is going to complain all game long. [He needs to] get off his rear end and get it.”

·      “I’ve seen closers come out of baseball games and throw the water cooler. That may have been my first experience of seeing a soccer player being subbed out and just kicking the water, Lekic just kicked the water all over the fans right in front of him. . . .  I was dying laughing over here. That’ll go over very well in the Revs’ locker room, I can guarantee you that.”

·      “Only in the Northeast do you get booed [in that situation].” [In the 89^th minute, after Phelan got a knee to the face and lay motionless on the field for a troublingly long time, many Philly fans booed as he walked off the field.]

·       “I’m not going to say I told you so, but New England has been God-awful this year.” [After Le Toux scored the equalizer.]