MLS All-Stars v. Chelsea in Philadelphia and Liverpool v. AS Roma at Fenway Park

It’s soccer-friendly season again in the U.S., a time when teams from England, Italy, Spain, and France play MLS teams and each other during what is in effect the non-American sides’ pre-seasons. It’s a little like those old mixed-“universe” comics from the 70s, joint Marvel/D.C. efforts that saw Spiderman or the Fantastic Four “teaming up” with Superman or Batman. They're not serious, not for the purist, but somehow for most of us they’re intriguing. I saw Liverpool play AS Roma a couple of days ago in Fenway Park, for example, and I thought the game had an appealing mix of hard and fair play. That is, the match didn’t have the air of a mere exhibition, with lazy play and smiling, backslapping opponents. And at the same time, it lacked flopping and other tedious gamesmanship (like time-wasting) that often mar competitive soccer matches.

I went into that match interested in Liverpool’s new, young coach, who evidently wants to play a more attractive and attacking kind of soccer. I hoped perhaps to find an English Premiership team to which I might affix my European-directed loyalties (which are now entirely with FC Barcelona). As it happened, I found myself at Fenway seated near an annoying Liverpool fan, the kind of follower (in at least two senses of that word) who feels that all fouls or potential fouls committed by players against “his” team are red-cardable offenses, and all fouls committed by “his” team’s players are egregious miscarriages of justice. As a result of his obnoxious bellyaching, and the fact that U.S. international Michael Bradley is now playing for Roma, I quickly glommed onto the Italian side. To my mild satisfaction, Roma won 2-1. They deserved the victory, too. Liverpool, down 2-0, pulled one back in the 80th minute, but the game failed to open up after that as I expected. Roma took it by the throat, thanks in part to Bradley’s hard-nosed work in midfield. (Bradley also scored the game’s first goal, by the way, a second-half strike that hit the far post and caromed into the net.)

To my mind, the most intriguing U.S. summer friendly is the annual MLS all-star game, which for some years now has pitted the MLS all-stars against a top-flight team, usually from the EPL, though a few years ago the all-stars played Celtic. This year’s game involved current Champions League winners Chelsea and took place in Philadelphia, shortly after the Liverpool v. Roma game on Wednesday night. A friend of mine emailed me yesterday saying he didn’t know what, if anything, to take away from the match, a 3-2 MLS all-star win. Indeed, many qualifications must be placed on such a match, all of which have been cited before. The MLS players are in midseason form and fitness, the European sides working to get in shape and knock off technical rust. The European teams’ players have mostly trained and played together before, whereas the MLS players are thrown together and have to figure out each others' tendencies over the course of a single exhibition game that sees numerous substitutions on both sides. There is really nothing to play for other than professional pride. Et cetera.

There are other points to be made against reading anything into MLS all-star games. And yet, I think you can draw some conclusions from Wednesday’s match, especially when you think about it in the context of previous all-star games. After years of performing well against mid-table EPL teams like Everton, and against Celtic, the MLS all-stars were indisputably outclassed in 2010 and 2011, getting drubbed by Manchester United both years. Man U’s quality and depth are of course matched by only a few soccer clubs in the world, and that fact was made clear against the all-stars, whether or not Man U players were in mid-season form and whether or not they were regular starters.

I was happy when MLS announced that this year’s game was against Chelsea. That club is somewhere between Everton and Manchester United on the quality spectrum—a more realistic standard for comparison than Manchester United but still a highly ambitious club with a well compensated roster. I became even more pleased with the choice while watching some of this year’s Champions League matches involving Chelsea. I grew to hate the club during that time. Their near-total lack of creative attacking players forced them to sit back and rely on an organized defense while hoping to score off a rare counter or set piece. Watching those Champions League games involving Chelsea put me in mind of being chained in a bathroom and forced to watch a person grapple with constipation. The fact that some fans and critics preferred Chelsea to Barcelona and Bayern Munich perplexed and almost enraged me, the kind of feeling I get when people support a certain kind of politician over another who seems to me to be the logical choice.

Wednesday’s MLS all-star game was evidence—perhaps a small bit of evidence, but still evidence—that this iteration of Chelsea is a team whose true nature was revealed in the Champions League. They’re uncreative and don’t know what to do with themselves if they can’t defend and counter against a better team. Their deficiencies were on display in the final minutes of the all-star game. With the MLS all-stars up 3-2, Dwayne De Rosario gave the ball away at midfield and exposed the MLS back line. The Chelsea right winger (I didn’t catch who it was) had virtually the entire final third at his disposal when he got the ball at his feet. Did he attack and shoot? No, he turned the ball back towards midfield. Man U would have promptly punished MLS for De Rosario’s giveaway, but in the event Chelsea didn’t even get a shot off. It may be cause for concern for Chelsea that the two goals they did score in this game came not from young players like Romelu Lukaku, but from old-timers Frank Lampard and John Terry. Both goals were, of course, scored off balls whipped into the box, one off a set piece.

To add to that, the MLS players looked comfortable on the ball, knocking it around with composure even in their own third. That’s in contrast to the 2010 and 2011 all-star games, when the MLS players rarely showed composure, in fact were mercilessly and efficiently cut up and run off the field. In short, the 2012 MLS all-star game will lead many of us to conclude that Chelsea is not nearly as good as Manchester United and that MLS has enough quality players to field a team (relative to the Blues, a very, very cheap team) that can at the least compete with Chelsea.

Revolution at Montreal Impact, 7.18.12

A week and a half ago the Revolution beat the New York Red Bulls at Gillette. After that win, New England hadn’t lost a game since late May. However, their five-game unbeaten streak included only two wins to go along with three ties, hardly a dominant stretch. And Jay Heaps surely wanted to come away with at least four points in his team’s next two matches, one against last-place Toronto and one against the expansion Montreal Impact.

Instead, New England has done damage to their playoff chances, losing to Toronto at home last week and to the Impact last night. It was the Revolution’s first-ever game in the newly expanded Saputo Stadium, a forgettable 2-1 loss.

For anyone just waking up from a coma, the Revolution are a dim shadow of the team that once included players like Clint Dempsey, Taylor Twellman, and Steve Ralston. The Revs do have a couple of holdovers from that era in Matt Reis and Shalrie Joseph, but they are of course older now. The latter didn’t play last night due to nagging injuries, and Reis made his first start in three games against the Impact. In short, the current Revolution—while they do have a roster with some promising new, young players like Saer Sene and Lee Nguyen—are looking for an identity. That’s not surprising given all the recent roster changes and head-coaching change. But the fact remains that they just lost to a team that wasn’t even in MLS last year. I would’ve liked to have seen a far more aggressive effort from New England last night. (I should add that Nguyen had his third straight impressive match for New England. It wouldn’t surprise me if Heaps tries to run more and more of the offense through him.)

The standout play of this game involved a goal by Montreal’s Sanna Nyassi, brother of the Revolution’s Sainey. (Sainey came on in the 79^th minute to play his first eleven minutes of the season for the Revs, by the way.) The goal unfortunately said as much about the Revolution as it did about the Impact. It occurred in the 67^th minute, with the game tied 1-1. New England defender Kevin Alston had a chance to clear a ball in his own third, but he headed it down in an attempt to gain control and make a run up the right sideline. His ball was intercepted by, I think, Montreal’s left back, who had pressed forward for a Montreal free kick. He played the ball into the corner for Justin Mapp, who sent a cross to the back post that found Nyassi. Nyassi’s one-time volley was excellent, a crisp seeing-eye strike that slipped between Reis and the near post.

But while Nyassi’s strike was good one, he was unaccountably wide-open when he made it. New England left back Chris Tierney will probably be blamed for the goal, but to me it looked like a miscommunication between him and midfielder Kelyn Rowe. Nyassi originally appeared to be Rowe’s mark, but Rowe drifted off him while Tierney was edging towards goal. Whoever had ultimate responsibility, the Revolution defense looked far too soft on the play; the lot of them got caught ball watching, which is inexcusable, especially given the time, score, and situation. It was exactly the kind of confused-looking sequence you’d expect from a first-year expansion team, and the Revolution proved last night that they are no better—in fact looked just a little bit worse—than that.

Here are the full match highlights. Go to the 6:50 mark to see the Nyassi goal.

Revolution v. Toronto FC, 7.14.12

The Revolution lost 1-0 at home to Toronto FC at Gillette stadium last night. The loss was deeply disappointing for at least a couple of reasons. First, New England lost ground in the tight race for the fifth playoff spot in the eastern conference. (Teams five through nine in the east are currently all within five points of each other.) Second, the Revolution positively deserved to lose at home to a Toronto team that had a 1-6-2 away record coming into yesterday’s game. Statistics show that New England dominated possession (65%) and had twice as many shots on goal (18 to Toronto’s 9). But those numbers don’t tell the story. New England’s shots on goal were weak, and Toronto’s chances—almost all off counters against a frequently disorganized Revolution defense—were the better ones.

Perhaps most importantly, and most painfully, the Revolution did not—at least from this viewer’s perspective—generate a sense at any time during the match that they were going to come back and tie (let alone win). New England did appear to score in the 83^rd minute off a corner kick, but replays showed (and the referee saw) that Shalrie Joseph’s equalizer had been played off the hand, not the head. (Joseph could’ve been sent off for the offense, but was given only a yellow.) The Revolution may have, in the immortal words of Bum Phillips, knocked at the door in this game, but they didn’t come remotely close to kicking the son of a bitch in. They looked limp, showing none of the edge and desire they exhibited in recent matches, not just last Saturday’s win against New York, but the exciting draws in Toronto and against Seattle at Gillette. New England’s flat home-field performance against Toronto, more than the loss itself, is most concerning for a team trying to gain respectability after a historically inept season.

The Revolution looked out of sorts from the outset of this game. Rookie midfielder Kelyn Rowe was unavailable due to a suspension, and starting center back Stephen McCarthy had to leave the game in the second minute with concussion-like symptoms after knocking heads with Toronto’s Ryan Johnson on an aerial challenge. Still, the Revolution are a mostly healthy team this year, and they should have been able to compensate for these losses. Joseph, who started on the bench and wasn’t expected to play, came on for McCarthy to play center back, and quality veteran Fernando Cardenas started in place of Rowe.

Cardenas looked impressive at times—he has a good first touch and almost never forces the ball or turns it over—but didn’t have significant impact on the game and was taken off after 73 minutes for Diego Fagundez. Unfortunately, Joseph was not well integrated with his back line mates, who repeatedly let Toronto attackers get behind them. Toronto easily could have scored on breakaways in the 14^th, 31^st, and 37^th minutes, but their strikers—Danny Koevermans and Johnson—failed to finish on those occasions. As good as Joseph is, he’s coming off an injury, and there is no substitute for continuity on a team’s back line. McCarthy’s absence was a reminder that, while the Revs have more depth this year than last at forward and midfield, they are notably shallow in the back.

Lee Nguyen had another impressive game for the Revolution. He is excellent standing over the ball and then blowing by defenders and creating space for shots or passes. Unfortunately, all his finishes against Toronto were well off target, including a rare dead-ball strike in the 90^th minute that he sent wide near post.

In lieu of embedding a highlight from this dismal match, here’s a good recent MLS highlight in case you haven’t seen it. I can’t remember seeing a soccer player get this much air when going up for a header.

Revolution v. New York Red Bulls, 7.9.12

 

The transformation of the New England Revolution continued last night. They beat the New York Red Bulls 2-0 at Gillette, benefiting from strong performances by first-year player Lee Nguyen, surprise starter Bobby Shuttleworth, and recent designated-player signee Jerry Bengtson. Bengtson came on for Kelyn Rowe in the 60^th minute and took less than twenty-five minutes to score his first MLS goal, tapping in a rebounded Saer Sene shot.

I have a good feeling about the Bengtson signing. Revolution management eschewed signing an older big-name, big-money DP (e.g., New York’s Rafa Marquez and Thierry Henry, neither of whom made the trip to New England for this game) in favor of a relatively unknown 25-year-old Honduran who already has an impressive eight goals in twenty-two appearances for his national side. Lest anyone dismiss Honduras’s men’s team, they not only qualified for the 2010 World Cup, they also qualified for this summer’s Olympics in London, something the United States U23s failed to do. It is both good and bad news for the Revolution that Bengtson is good enough to have been chosen by the Honduras Olympic team coaches to be one of that squad’s three overage players. As a result, Bengtson will likely leave New England to fulfill his Olympic duties following the Revolution’s July 18 match in Montreal.

The New England PA announcer declared Bengston man of the match last night, but even given Bengtson’s goal, the designation strikes me as more of a welcoming gesture than an objective assessment. Lee Nguyen was for me clearly the best player on the field against New York, hustling until the final whistle, seeing a lot of the ball, making numerous dangerous crosses and through balls, and scoring the Revs’ first goal off a killer outside-of-the-foot strike from distance that slashed into the net between the near post and the diving Ryan Meara. Of Nguyen’s other impressive plays, one stands out. In the 64^th minute, working on the right sideline, he held the ball and drew three New York defenders towards him. Those defenders looked like leaden-limbed zombies as Nguyen executed a couple of step-overs and calmly slid a pass between them to an overlapping Kevin Alston. Unfortunately, Alston’s ensuing cross was cleared before it could find Bengtson at the back post.

One more note on Nguyen. He has something of a young pretty-boy affect, playing as he does with a headband and a thatch of hair that seems particularly springy. Still, he’s plenty tough. He was clearly not intimidated by scrappy New York midfielder Dax McCarty, and they mixed it up quite a bit during the game, shoving each other at one point after a foul, as I recall. Nguyen was also on the business end of a rather brutal and cheap-looking forearm to the face from Joel Lindpere in the 67^th minute. Fortunately for New England, the play occurred ten feet from the ref, who booked Lindpere.

More could be said about this promising game. Sene played well, as did the entire New England back line. Shalrie Joseph—who before the game was listed as doubtful due to a left knee sprain—came on in the 73^rd minute and helped set up the Bengtson goal with a pretty one-touch lofted pass into the box to Sene. But really, wouldn’t it be more interesting to see a photo of this aging blogger surrounded by four patient, good-natured, and no doubt long-suffering Rev Girls, taken before the New York game? (Speaking of long-suffering, my wife urged me to get my picture taken with the “Girls,” in fact took the picture herself, chuckling resignedly at my suggestion that we send it out as our Christmas card.) Incidentally, after checking the Rev Girls roster link above, I see that Kelsey’s (second from left in the photo) favorite book is Slaughterhouse-Five, and that Kristine’s (far right, assuming that’s her) is A Clockwork Orange. Further proof that the beautiful game attracts thinking fans.

--> (I’ve cropped out the image of another guy in our party to protect the innocent.)

I mentioned in my last post that I and my family might be permitted down onto the field before the game to greet the players or something as a result of the fact that we were part of a group-ticket sale. It turns out that I didn’t go down for the introductions, but a few of our party did. One of those later told me that he found himself at one point standing next to head coach Jay Heaps. “So, Jay,” he asked, “what’s the score of the game going to be?” By way of response, Heaps discreetly raised his hand to near belt level and extended three fingers. His confidence turned out to be fully justified.

Revolution v. Seattle Sounders, 6.30.12

Coincidentally, one might almost say amazingly, for the second straight week the Revolution scored a goal in the fourth minute of extra time to tie a game at 2-2 and earn a point in the standings. In Saturday’s game against Seattle, as in their last against Toronto, the Revolution were on the front foot during the last ten minutes, creating numerous chances before eventually finishing in the waning seconds.

The Revolution back line had a hand in the final goal. Stephen McCarthy received a back pass from Kelyn Rowe and switched fields, finding Fernando Cardenas along the left sideline. Cardenas settled the ball and got to work near the edge of the box. He executed a nifty step-over move to create space and sent a right-footed cross towards the far side of the six-yard area. Saer Sene was in that general vicinity, and the tall Frenchman jumped to try to meet the ball, but fortunately for him and his teammates he missed it. I say “fortunately” because Diego Fagundez had found space in behind Sene near the back post. Fagundez tracked the ball flawlessly in traffic and sent a clinical snap header down off the turf and into the side netting for the equalizer.

Fagundez’s goal must have sent New England’s upper management into paroxysms of bureaucratic ecstasy, as it should create buzz in advance of next week’s Diego Fagundez Bobblehead Night at Gillette, when the Revs play New York. I’ve already secured my own ticket. Speaking of which, I was asked to go to the game by some Jamaica Plain friends who are Thierry Henry fans and who are putting together a group-ticket buy, which requires purchasing at least forty tickets. As I imperfectly understand it, our group-ticket status will not only entitle us to a discount and a bobblehead doll, but just may get us down onto the field for team introductions.

I may have that last part (about going down onto the field with the likes of Thierry Henry) wrong, but if I’m right, it shows the Revolution are still relatively desperate to get paid fans into the seats.* Before this match, according to Soccer America, the Revolution were averaging 11,819 fans for home games, which is below their final 2011 average of 13,222 and puts New England second-to-last in MLS attendance so far this year. 

The Revolution drew a little over 15,000 fans for the Seattle game, which will increase their season average a bit. Given the frantic ending, the fans must have left Gillette pleased, though the game didn’t boast many standout individual performances by Revolution players. Sene, for instance, was named man of the match by the Revolution announcers, but I don’t agree with that assessment. Sene looked offside to me on his goal and made no fewer than three poor strikes on goal, sailing shots over the bar in the 6^th, 12^th and 48^th minutes. If I had to name an outstanding Revs player on the night it would be McCarthy, who not only helped set up that final goal, but was strong on defense. He stonewalled Alvaro Fernandez in the penalty box to break up a counterattack in the 80^th minute after a Sene giveaway at midfield. And he executed a good slide tackle in the box to dispossess Eddie Johnson in the 72^nd minute after a giveaway by Rowe. (Johnson, by the way, was on a hat trick at the point and in excellent form.)

But while no New England player stood out the way Feilhaber did against Toronto, the team continued to progress as a unit. The Revolution again won the possession battle, holding the ball nearly 60% of the time, in no small part due to a strong effort at midfield by Shalrie Joseph. But this season, New England players don’t have to rely on their captain as much as they did last year. They’re a much deeper team. It’s worth noting that Cardenas, Fagundez, and Rowe were all substitutes in this game, and that they all came on for effective players (Clyde Simms, Blake Brettschneider, and Flo Lechner) who weren’t even on the roster last year. Another new player, Lee Nguyen, continues to work well on the left with Chris Tierney. Tierney overlapped with Nguyen so many times in the first half against Seattle to send in crosses that I was put in mind of a kid picking at a scab. The New England coaching staff clearly wanted to relentlessly work that left side, and it finally paid off on the Fagundez goal.

Speaking of depth, Flo Lechner mostly played well in place of the injured Kevin Alston. However, Lechner was largely responsible for allowing Seattle’s first goal. He made a couple of errors in the 23^rd minute, first forcing a long pass to Brettschneider that was intercepted in the Revs’ own half and sent back into the box. Lechner had a chance to redeem himself when the ball fell to him, but he failed to clear it, losing possession to Seattle’s Mauro Rosales. Rosales quickly punished the Revs, sending a perfect ball in to Johnson at the back post for a header and the score. A.J. Soares and Tierney played their parts on that one, allowing Johnson to find a large seam in between them in front of goal. The sequence showed that, while the Revolution back line are much improved, they (like the rest of us) still have plenty to learn.

* It also puts me in mind of an unattributed joke I heard maybe twenty years ago, about Northwestern University football (when Northwestern’s football program was notoriously poor). The joke goes something like this: “Hi, is this Northwestern ticket sales?” “Yes it is. How may I help you?” “I’d like to buy tickets for this Saturday’s football game.” “How many tickets would you like?” “How about forty?” “Okay. Where would you like to sit?” “How about the fifty-yard line?” “No problem. You’re all set.” “That was easy. Say, what time does the game start?” “What time would you like it to start?”