Revolution v. Chivas USA, 8.29.12: Shalrie Joseph’s Nearly Triumphant Return

For the first twenty-one minutes of tonight’s game, Chivas USA looked like they were going to get run out of the building by the New England Revolution. The Chivas defense in particular played wretchedly during that stretch. The poor play started in the first minute with a bizarre back-pass that looked like a through-ball to New England striker Jerry Bengtson. Chivas escaped that miscue, but three minutes later defender Rauwshan McKenzie attempted to clear a long ball into the box by Chris Tierney. McKenzei’s header fell kindly to Saer Sene, who turned and hit a volley into the side netting. Six minutes later, McKenzie scored an own-goal off a Kelyn Rowe cross. And ten minutes after that, Sene collected a giveaway and scored his second goal of the night on a left-footed strike from distance.

New England announcers noted that, through 27 minutes of the game, the Revolution had controlled the ball 72% of the time. The match was so lopsided at that point that it didn’t look fair. Shalrie Joseph and his new club were getting embarrassed, and not even the most ardent Revolution fan would want that on Joseph’s first trip back to Gillette in another team’s shirt.

Of course, any ardent New England fan of the last couple of years, or even someone who tuned in to New England’s 4-3 loss a few days ago to Columbus, knows that the Revolution haven’t learned how to kill a game, no matter how large their lead. Up 3-0 in the 21^st minute, the Revolution proceeded to give up two goals before the end of the half, both by their former captain. The first goal was vintage Joseph, a strong run to the near post on a corner kick ending in a solid, unspectacular, and courageous header in traffic. Joseph’s second goal was a beauty. Juan Agudelo received a pass in the final third with his back to the goal, turned, briefly ran at the defense, and played a square ball to Joseph, who was making a well-timed run through a static-looking Revolution defense and midfield. Joseph altered his run without touching the pass to set up his shot, which he one-timed with his left foot. It was a technical strike that curled around Joseph’s old friend and mate Matt Reis. That goal came in extra time, and it should be noted that, after controlling the ball for 72% of the time through 27 minutes, the Revs managed to lose the battle of possession during the first half, 62% to 38%.

The Revs conceded a third goal shortly after the start of the second half. Rowe lost his mark on a cross into the box, allowing Miller Bolanos to score off a pass played back across the goal from the far post. It was an extremely frustrating sequence for the Revolution, but there was actually a bright spot to it, or its aftermath. Revolution center back Stephen McCarthy, rather than chewing out Rowe or parading frustration, put a hand on Rowe’s shoulder in commiseration. That kind of gesture during hard times, combined with a lot of hard work, are the kinds of things that build winning teams.

Both defenses tightened up and played with more conviction after that, and the game ended in a 3-3 draw. After the match, the cameras caught players from both sides, along with a number of New England staff members, paying their respects to Joseph at midfield. A. J. Soares, who will likely assume Joseph’s old role as the so-called face of the franchise, seemed particularly gracious and happy to see his old teammate. Kevin Alston began exchanging jerseys with Joseph when my MLS Live feed went dead. It must have all been very poignant for Joseph, though I suspect he’d envisioned exchanging jerseys with Reis. He’d no doubt also envisioned a Chivas victory, but an old hand like him knows that things don’t always turn out the way we plan.

Revolution at Columbus Crew, 8.25.12

The New England Revolution lost 4-3 to the Columbus Crew tonight in Ohio. The Revs have now lost five straight games and are winless in their last eight. Their next game is at home on Wednesday night against Chivas USA, Shalrie Joseph’s new club. I can’t imagine the Revolution will draw more than about 9,000 fans for that one. I also can’t imagine more than about 20 neutral soccer fans worldwide sitting through the match. That’s a shame, because New England fans didn’t get a chance to give Joseph a proper sendoff before he was sent packing to the west coast.

But let’s return, however reluctantly, to tonight’s game against Columbus. If there’s a team in pro sports right now with a weaker killer instinct than these Revs, I don’t want to know about them. The Revolution went up 2-0 in this game and scored three goals total, but managed to squander just as many easy chances, allowing Columbus to stay in the game and eventually win it.

In the 10^th minute, Benny Feilhaber played a perfect cross to Ryan Guy, who couldn’t get his uncontested header on frame from about six yards out. (It must be observed that Guy atoned for this error less than ten minutes later with a killer strike from the top of the box to score the first goal of the game.) Immediately after Columbus’s first goal—one of two excellent dead-ball strikes by newly acquired Crew Designated Player Federico Higuain—the Revs squandered another chance, this time when Kelyn Rowe got behind a slumbering Crew defense and sent a ball across the goal to a wide-open Guy, who couldn’t get a foot on it. Just four minutes after that missed opportunity, Saer Sene played a good through ball to Guy, who beat the defense and had all the time and space he needed to put a shot on goal or pass to Rowe at the far post, but instead sent a low shot wide of the far post.

Despite New England’s missed chances, the Crew showed better quality and deserved the three points. Higuain had a brace and so did Costa Rican striker Jairo Arrieta. All four of the Columbus goals are worth checking out, as is Guy’s aforementioned strike, so I’ll include the highlights at the end of this post.

Regrettably, the Revolution backline was again shredded on a couple of critical occasions. No one could blame them, or Matt Reis, for Higuain’s world-class free-kick strikes (other than blaming them for the fouls that led to those free kicks), but Arrieta found a seam between A.J. Soares and Stephen McCarthy on his game winner, getting behind New England’s center backs easily and beating them badly. Arrieta found that same seam just a couple of minutes later, in the 88^th minute, but on that occasion his shot missed the target.

All of which is to reiterate that this New England loss was no fluke, and thank God there were no borderline controversial calls for anyone to whine about or invoke as tiresome excuses. With twenty-five games played and nine to go, and with the Revolution sitting on only twenty-three points, the rest of New England’s season is strictly for the diehards.

Revolution at Chicago Fire, 8.18.12

The Chicago Fire beat the New England Revolution 2-1 last night in a performance that left no doubt Chicago is the superior team. Individual Fire players on balance looked faster, stronger, hungrier, and more skilled than their Revolution counterparts. As a team, the Fire were noticeably more organized, particularly in the closing minutes. With the game on the line, Chicago’s back eight were composed and nearly impenetrable. The Revolution backline and midfield, on the other hand, looked scattered and vulnerable throughout much of the match. They routinely succumbed to the strength of Sherjill MacDonald, the speed of Patrick Nyarko, and the playmaking of Chris Rolfe. Chicago also displayed more depth than the Revs, bringing on quality players Dominic Oduro and Marco Pappa late in the second half.

So, until and unless the Revolution go on a multi-game winning streak, all optimistic talk from players, coaches, and critics should cease. I was slightly surprised to have heard such talk recently on a couple podcasts, from the guys on MLS’s Extratime Radio, for example, who find the Revolution to be an exciting team to watch, and in an August 2 interview with A.J. Soares on Beyond the Pitch. In the BTP interview, Soares said, “We genuinely believe that we can make the playoffs. . . . Jay [Heaps] has been incredibly positive and pushing our team to believe that we’re an excellent team.” After the interview, the hosts gushed about the changes going on within the New England organization, including this observation: “They’ve just been so tough and so resilient that you have to feel good about where this thing is headed.” Last night’s poor performance in Chicago severely undercut such arguments.

The definitive play of the match, if not the season so far for the Revolution, occurred in the 5^th minute. Rolfe and Nyarko worked a give and go, Rolfe receiving the final pass in the box. Rolfe drove to the end line and was taken down by Soares near the edge of the six-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick. The Revolution broadcasters variously described the referee’s call as “an absolute crime” and “terrible” and “shocking” and “criminal” and on and on. These are the opinions of broadcasters, true, but those broadcasters are employed by the Revolution. And there has been far too much talk lately by people within the New England organization about bad calls. Lame teams complain about calls after a match. Good teams take out their frustrations on their next opponents.

In any case, the call against Soares last night was not in fact terrible or shocking, let alone criminal. I’ve watched the replays multiple times and I still can’t tell if Soares got a touch on the ball before Rolfe went down. Many referees would have made the same call, and any announcer who criticizes a call so harshly should also observe that slide tackles in the box are risky even when they are unambiguously clean, as Soares’s on this occasion most certainly was not. Indeed, if there was anything terrible or shocking about the play it was the defending of Revolution holding midfielder Clyde Simms. Stephen McCarthy clearly pointed and told Simms to follow Rolfe after Rolfe made his initial pass to Nyarko. Simms, however, immediately lost his mark, drifting towards the ball and giving Rolfe plenty of time and space to receive Nyarko’s pass and make his run. In short, Simms should never have put Soares in a position where he had to make that tackle. The Fire didn’t earn that penalty so much as the Revolution gifted it to them.

What surprises and distresses me most about the Revolution’s recent slide is the play of their defense, which seems to suffer at least one big mental mistake a game. The Fire’s second goal, for example, occurred off a quick throw that left the Revs’ back line on its heels. Nyarko beat Alston to the line (not the last time he’d do that during the game) and played a ball back to MacDonald, who looked like a power forward banking in an uncontested lay-up as he headed the ball into the net. I am a fan of all of the Revs’ current starting defenders, particularly Soares, but they don’t seem to be improving much despite continued time playing as a unit and despite suffering relatively few injuries so far this season. More than that, they aren’t as tenacious as one would hope. I would never advocate for dirty play, but I do think McCarthy and Soares in particular need to impose their will more strongly on their opponents. In my opinion, the attitude of the entire team should spring from those two gifted and physical young players.

Much of the blame for the Revolution’s recent slide must also be placed on the midfield, supposedly the strength of the team. Simms has not looked effective since the departure of Joseph, Benny Feilhaber still has just one assist and one goal on the season (both of which came against Chicago in June), and rookie Kelyn Rowe seems to have hit the rookie wall after his season’s promising start. Feilhaber and Rowe came on as second-half substitutes in this one, and Rowe looked particularly out of sorts, giving the ball away repeatedly in his 21 minutes. Fernando Cardenas looked good in the first half, and scored the Revolution’s goal, but he faded in the second, which may explain why Heaps doesn’t play him as much as some of us think he should. Ryan Guy did have a solid, hardworking effort against the Fire, whereas Lee Nguyen—this season’s revelation in midfield for the Revs—came off at halftime, perhaps due to an injury. The cameras caught him watching the second half on the sideline, kicking up his heels with an icepack on his left foot. The image boded ill for the Revolution and the rest of their season.

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Mexico, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 8.15.12

Any impartial viewers watching last night’s friendly between the U.S. and Mexico probably changed the channel before the game’s conclusion. The match was sloppy and one-sided, with the home team dominating possession and chances on goal but unable to finish those chances, seemingly due to cosmic forces beyond the players’ control. The U.S. simply appeared destined to win this one against the run of play, rather as Chelsea seemed destined to beat Bayern Munich in this year’s Champions League final. It is true that U.S. players (not just cosmic forces) had a hand in thwarting Mexico’s attempted finishes. In particular, recent MLS standout (and even more recent Stoke City acquisition) Geoff Cameron had a mostly excellent game at center back. And stunningly consistently solid U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard was at times magnificent, particularly in the game’s closing minutes.

But again, the match abounded in miscues. To give some examples, Cameron sailed a free kick across the field and out of bounds when trying to play a simple pass back to Maurice Edu in the 65^th minute. In the first half, midfielder Kyle Beckerman played a similarly uncontested back pass over the end line for a Mexico corner kick; ESPN announcer Ian Dark proclaimed it “an awful piece of work by Beckerman in truth.” On the other side of the ball, Javier Hernandez eluded Cameron in the U.S. penalty box in the 76^th minute, received a perfect cross from teammate Elias Hernandez, but couldn’t put the close-range header on goal. Late in the game, Darke’s fellow commentator Taylor Twellman lamented, “How often have we seen that tonight? Just careless giveaways from both teams.”

So the game wasn’t pretty—and it was of course only a friendly—but it was in fact historic. It must be mentioned in any account of this friendly that it ended in the first U.S. victory in Mexico in 75 years and 25 tries. Coming into the match, the U.S. men’s national team’s record in Mexico was an epically poor 0-23-1. That sustained futility bears some consideration. If a fan or commentator wants to comment on one sports team’s total dominance over another, he or she might say, “If these teams played ten times, X would beat Y nine times.” Very few would think to say, “If X played Y 24 times, X would never lose.” It is, in short, mindboggling that it took the U.S. so long to get a single victory south of the border, especially given the fickle nature soccer, a game in which the stronger team so often fails to win.

And it should indeed be admitted that the U.S. was very fortunate to get the win last night. As a smiling Jurgen Klinsmann said afterward: “Eventually, you need a little bit of luck too and in some instances we were a little bit lucky tonight and we had Tim Howard in our goal.” As usual, Klinsmann was spot on. Very few keepers other than Howard could have saved Javier Hernandez’s final two shots on goal (one in the 85^th minute that was deflected and initially wrong-footed Howard, the other a close-range header in the 89^th) during Mexico’s late-game surge. Those saves in particular and the end of the match in general were truly exciting, and that’s rare in a friendly. The climax was reminiscent of the U.S.’s similarly historic 1-0 victory over Italy in February, in which the home crowd nervously urged their troops to avoid the ignominy of losing to the Yanks on home soil.

The Mexico victory was doubly remarkable since Howard was the only one of the U.S.’s “big four” players to make a significant impact on the game. Landon Donovan, who’s been in fine form lately with the L.A. Galaxy, didn’t see much of the ball in the first half (no U.S. player did) and was subbed at halftime, apparently due to hamstring tightness. The U.S.’s other two big-name players—Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley—were not even summoned from their European club teams to make this strange FIFA date, which occurs immediately before the start of the European leagues’ seasons. As a result, the game was a showcase for players from MLS and from Mexico’s top league, Liga MX. Of the twenty-three players on last night’s U.S. roster, six play in Liga MX and ten (eleven if you count Cameron) play in MLS. Obviously, they acquitted themselves well in the 1-0 victory.

One of those MLS players, Brek Shea, was a surprise call-up by Klinsmann. Shea has had a down year for FC Dallas. He was suspended in May for kicking a ball at an assistant referee, and he had a publicized sideline exchange with head coach Schellas Hyndman during a July match against San Jose. However, given Shea’s recent national team performances, and his youth, I thought he deserved the call.

In any event, Shea justified Klinsmann’s decision during his brief time on the field against Mexico. Shea didn’t come on until the 78^th minute, but he had a near-immediate impact. In the 80^th, he received a good pass from Beckerman on the left wing and immediately ran at Mexico defender Severo Meza, nutmegging Meza and driving hard to the end line. The run wasn’t especially pretty; one of Shea’s right-footed touches was too heavy and almost betrayed him. But he ultimately got control and played the ball back across the goal to Terrance Boyd. Boyd, with his back to the goal, back-heeled a no-look pass to another surprise call-up, U.S. defender Michael Orozco Fiscal, who side-footed a shot past the Mexico keeper and into the net. Orozco Fiscal is one of those Liga MX players I mentioned earlier, and he looked ecstatic after the goal, running to the corner flag and pointing to the stunned crowd.

While Donovan did not have a memorable match against Mexico, he made news nonetheless. A couple of days ago, Goal.com reported that Donovan is considering retiring after his Galaxy contract expires at the end of next season. Readers may recall that Donovan, in an interview prior to the Scotland friendly in May, seemed to question his desire to play soccer. I’m not sure if these two mildly controversial interviews—each of which mentioned retirement and occurred just prior to international friendlies—constitute a pattern, but one thing is clear. Klinsmann is building towards the 2014 World Cup finals, and he can’t be happy that one of his star players is suggesting there’s a realistic chance he may retire after 2013. I’m a big Donovan fan and think the U.S. is a much better and more attractive team with him on the field. Judging from Donovan’s age and recent form, he has many more years of good soccer left in him, should he want to play. Here’s to hoping that he isn’t sending hints to Klinsmann that say, in effect: You guys go ahead to Brazil without me in 2014. I’ll be working on my golf game.

Revolution v. Montreal Impact, 8.12.12: No Fun in Foxborough

In the opening minutes of tonight’s New England Revolution game against the Montreal Impact, Revolution color analyst Jeff Causey observed that New England was playing “its most solid lineup in months.” (That may not be a direct quote, but it’s close.) And indeed, the Revolution started newly acquired forward Jerry Bengtson, the Honduras international who recently scored three goals in four games at the 2012 Olympics, including a game-winner against Spain. Bengtson started up top with Saer Sene, the French international and former Bayern Munich reserve player currently leading the Revolution with nine goals. New England also started long-time U.S. international Benny Feilhaber and fellow former U.S. international Lee Nguyen, along with an impressive back line that included former first-round draft pick A.J. Soares, former MLS all-star Kevin Alston, and left back Chris Tierney, who may deliver the best free kicks and crosses in MLS by anyone not named David Beckham or Brad Davis. (Or Landon Donovan, who had four assists tonight against Chivas USA.)

So, yes, by MLS standards, those are good players (and I didn’t even mention stellar goalkeeper Matt Reis), players that should beat an expansion team that has, to date this season, given up more away goals than any other team in the league. But the Revolution not only failed to tie the Impact on their (the Revs') home field, they failed to score a single goal and lost 1-0. As a result, the Revolution have managed to pick up only a single point in their last six games. The team is now 0-2 against Montreal this season and are ten points behind them in the standings.

Some Revolution fans, players, and coaches may complain that the Revolution were unlucky against the Impact. And it is true that a flicked Bengtson header in the  36^th minute hit the post, that a Sene shot hit the crossbar five minutes later, and that a Ryan Guy shot in the 74^th minute hit a Montreal defender’s hand in the box and should have resulted in a penalty kick. To which I say: New England played quite poorly enough to lose this one and there was no great injustice.

The game’s lone goal, for example, was not the result of New England’s bad luck or Montreal’s good fortune. It was the result of a good run and finish by a Montreal player and of sloppiness by multiple Revolution players. Feilhaber—currently the Revolution’s highest-paid player—failed to protect the ball in the final third and was dispossessed by Sanna Nyassi. Nyassi, who is one of the fastest players in MLS, proceeded to run with the ball at his feet from box to box. Feilhaber gave chase helplessly, Soares was nutmegged in New England’s half, and Stephen McCarthy—the last defender—failed to even attempt to tackle Nyassi before the latter finished beautifully with a right-footed blast past Reis.

Statistics will show that the Revolution had more shots on goal, more corners, and more possession than the Impact in this game. But the Revolution failed to truly control the match. And now New England management must—without resorting to the lazy argument that the Revolution were “unlucky”—try to determine why the team lost such an important game at home to an expansion team.

I don’t believe Montreal has more talent than the Revs, and I don’t believe Revolution players lack what is often called “heart,” or the will to win. I like and root for those players and I do believe they try hard. However, I confess I wonder lately if they are trying quite hard enough. Nyassi, for example, should not have been able to dribble fifty yards and shoot like he did (no matter how fast he is). The Revolution don’t seem to have that toughness, that consistent will to pressure the ball and win it back in all areas of the field, that the top teams possess, teams like Kansas City, Real Salt Lake, and San Jose.

There was a good commercial the NFL used to run some years ago that had Vince Lombardi addressing his team during training camp. “This, gentleman,” he said, holding up a football, “is a football.” The point, of course, was that every season, Lombardi felt his team needed to be reminded of the basics. And any team better master the basics before it moves on to anything else. Revolution players need to be reminded of the importance of sustained effort all over the field.

Those players also, in my mind (Lombardi no doubt would have disagreed), need to be reminded of the most basic fact about soccer: that it’s a game and that it’s supposed to be fun to play. The teams that give the most effort are usually those that play with the most joy. Yes, the Revolution are losing and they’ve just had their long-time captain traded to another team, and there’s nothing joyous about that. But soccer’s still a game. For God’s sake, go play hard and have some fun.

Revolution v. Sporting KC, 8.4.12: Why Should We Support the Revolution?

There are many reasons to follow a sports team. Most kids grow up supporting their local teams because their parents and friends support those teams and because the teams appear on local TV and in local venues. And since most of us value loyalty, we tend to keep following those teams of our youth, even if we move away from our hometowns. We may also continue supporting those teams because our allegiances help us (and others) to define who we are. Nick Hornby is excellent on this subject in his memoir Fever Pitch, which should be required reading for anyone who’s ever passionately followed a particular club.

There are other reasons besides loyalty and proximity to pull for a sports team. I, like many others, am a fan of FC Barcelona’s not because I’m from Barcelona, but because the current team plays attractive soccer and because it has such great and likeable players. That last point has become increasingly important to me. Real Madrid is, like Barca, a great team comprised of great players. But for whatever combination of subjective reasons, I find Ronaldo, Pepe, and Marcello not nearly as likeable as Messi, Iniesta, and Xavi. Barcelona players are not only great athletes, they’re also respectful of each other. Ask yourself how many times you’ve seen Messi or Iniesta or Xavi bitch at one of his teammates for not providing proper service or for a poorly timed run or whatever. Clearly, Barca’s culture dissuades players from openly griping at each other on the field, and I like that.

Which brings me back (or down) to the subject of the New England Revolution. Why, I asked myself on Saturday during their 1-0 home loss to Sporting Kansas City, am I even supporting this team? There are so many reasons not to support them, beginning with their poor record of late and the team’s characterless and ill-attended stadium (built for an NFL team). Despite all that and more, the team has for me remained likeable in recent years largely because of its former captain, Shalrie Joseph. On an MLS field, Joseph looks like a man among boys, a pro among amateurs. I can’t stand whiners and egotists and guys who bitch at their teammates when things aren’t going their way. Joseph is an example of a pro athlete that eschews that in favor of quietly producing and leading by example.

Instead of Joseph’s stoic professionalism, the game against Kansas City was in my mind defined by the petulant attitude and largely ineffectual play of new Revolution striker Dimitry Imbongo. To his credit, Imbongo drew a number of fouls during the game, but to his discredit he had two great chances to score—in the 36^th minute off a pass from Benny Feilhaber and in the 49^th off a cross from Chris Tierney—and his finishes (especially the first) were notably poor. After the second miss—a close-range header that he put over the bar—he unaccountably wheeled around and began chewing out Fernando Cardenas, presumably for passing the ball to Tierney instead of directly to him (Imbongo). If that’s the kind of player coach Jay Heaps wants in favor of players like Joseph, then fans like me will simply stop watching the Revolution. If our sports allegiances do in part define who we are, I want no part of following players who engage in nonsensical and unprofessional tirades.

Speaking of Heaps, I didn’t much care for how he and the rest of New England management explained, or explained away, the Joseph trade. Here’s Heaps on the trade: “It's not a decision we took lightly. It's not a decision we came to on a whim. There was a lot of organizational thought process behind it.” And here’s Revs’ GM Michael Burns: “Trading Shalrie was a not a decision we made easily.” To which I feel like responding, “So you guys didn’t dream this up over a game of beer pong?” Seriously, how patronizing is it to the fans and to Joseph to say that the decision to trade the team’s highest-paid player took some consideration? Such statements are not only meaningless, they’re distastefully self-congratulatory. They imply that the trade was “hard” not on Joseph or the fans, but on Heaps and Burns themselves, the poor guys. Managers in any type of organization should make a point never to refer to layoffs or firings or trades as the result of “tough decisions.” Unless of course they’re firing themselves.

Revolution at Philadelphia Union, 7.29.12: Shalrie Joseph's Last Game for New England

The New England Revolution traded Shalrie Joseph to Chivas USA today for 23-year-old midfielder Blair Gavin, a draft pick in 2013, and an unspecified amount of allocation money. That seems not a lot for Chivas to give for an eight-time all-star with a sterling reputation. I’ve written in praise of Joseph many times, including a piece last December after New England re-signed him to a generous contract. I won’t repeat myself here except to say that I believe he has a lot of good soccer left in him and that, notwithstanding club and fan votes, Joseph was last year’s team MVP. (Admittedly, it was a bad team.)

Of course, team sports are as cutthroat as any other business. And company and employee loyalty in any area of our economy are increasingly rare. All of which is to say that I’m not surprised about the trade. At 34, Joseph is old for a pro athlete, and New England is rebuilding and stocking its roster with young players. Some fans and commentators are no doubt already saying Joseph’s time was up with the Revs and that his departure will benefit the club. But I think less of New England as an organization for getting rid of Joseph, and I’ll root for the team a little less heartily now that he’s gone. He was economical, composed, and strong when patrolling the midfield, the kind of player respected and liked by fans, coaches, and teammates alike. He was also versatile and could drop into the defense effectively, particularly important to a team so thin along the back line. I believe he had a couple of more solid years to give a team that, after a decade of stellar service and years wearing the captain's armband, most MLS fans thought of as his.

Joseph’s last game (presumably) in a Revolution uniform was not one that he’ll recall fondly, a 2-1 loss to the Union in Philadelphia. He didn’t start due to a coach’s decision, came on in the 60^th minute immediately after Philly scored off a penalty kick, missed a chip shot on a breakaway in the 79^th minute, and watched helplessly in the 90^th minute as Kevin Alston lost his mark, allowing Jack McInerney to head a Sheanon Williams cross down into the turf and past Matt Reis for the game-winner.

McInerney’s goal extended New England’s winless streak to four games and allowed Philadelphia to pull level with the Revolution in the standings (and Philadelphia has two games in hand). Moreover, New England is now just four points ahead of last-place Toronto, a team that began the season with nine straight defeats. Given last year, and the way this year is going, Joseph may actually be happy about the trade to Chivas. Thinking Revolution fans will wish him and his new team success, even as they miss watching him in a New England shirt.