Rapids Predictions & Saints Relegation Fight

I'm not sure why I should be happy with the Saints draw today. With only 3 games left after their trip to The Valley today, they don't have much time to left to secure a spot. A point is better than none. Nevertheless, this is a team that in 2008 has only won thrice in league play. Their inability to put a team away when they've got them on their heals is unnerving. With Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday at home sandwiching a road game to West Brom it won't be a walk in the park. WBA is looking to win it all. And at this point Sheffield United could be going all out on the last day of the season to squeak into the playoffs.

As for the Rapids, they'll be playing the New England Revolution in a few hours. I hope Bouna and the defense step up in this match. Some positives can be taken from the Rapids coming back from 2 goals down on the road to tie things up. But at the end of the day the Rapids let themselves down defensively. For a team that struggled so much to score goals the last couple of years, they can't afford to be sloppy at the back.

Like Nick over at We Want Rapidman, I'm going to refrain from making any predictions other than at least 3 times during the game I will have the urge to pop Paul Mariner in the nose. I don't know why I want to; I just do.

Predictions by others :
The Red Card
"Colorado Rapids @ New England Revolution Prediction: Revolution 2-0."

View From A Couch

Prediction: 2-1 win, New England is hurting, and played in KC in midweek. Short of going to San Jose, Toronto, or FSL, this may be the best chance the Rapids have this season to get 3 points on the road.

My Soapbox (Rogue Cavaliers; yes, yes, I know....)

Rapids at Revolution
Talk about an interesting match up, this one holds more promise for me that any other of the weekend (outside of the RSL vs. DC match). New England have looked very good in two of their 3 matches and horrible in the match against the Fire. The Rapids looked great against the Beckham boys, and played well in a loss at KC. I expect a 2-0 Revolution win, and a 3rd goal of the young season for Sainey Nyassi.

New England's Cheapness?

The New England Revolution are still using the old Colorado Rapids logo on their web site. The Revs are a team with a reputation for a being cheap. Are they really too cheap to spend a few bucks to change the Rapids logo on their site?

No Rocky Mountain High For Noonan

Looks like Pat Noon will soon be in......... Norway.

Youngest Players Ever

I noticed this at the tail end of an article on the New England Revolution not picking up an option on Pat Noonan's contract. Noonan is a free man. I don't recall seeing many teams sniffing around though. Have their been? What caught my eye was the age of these kids, the youngest to play for Mexican club teams. I can't imagine what it would be like to play as a pro at age 24 let alone 14. Boston Globe

Martin Galvan, 14, became the youngest player to perform for a Primera Division Mexican club when he played for Cruz Azul in the Interliga tournament last week. Pachuca's Victor Manon, who was 14 when he entered against Cruz Azul in the 2007 Apertura season, is the youngest to have played in a Primera Division game.

MLS Cup Final (Spolier!)

Well, the Houston Dynamo do it yet again. They didn't really do anything spectacular in this game. They took care of business and kept knocking at the door. Their reward for consistency was winning the game 2-1. Congrats to Houston for winning another title. The questions I'm left with : a) How did Khano Smith not get a red card for head butting Brian Mullan (at least I think it was Mullan; I was at the bar watching the game)? I try to avoid criticizing referees. Too often too much is made out of things they do. But here we are in the MLS Cup final, the title match of the season with what should be the best referee on the field. Head referee Prus was right there to see what happened and yet he only produced a yellow? Since when is a head butt a yellow? I'm all for stretching the rules especially in a title game but I fail to see why that should be done when violent conduct is involved. b) Will Paul Mariner or John Spencer find themselves coaching a new team next year? Just last week on From The Pitch Mariner said that he was ready to take the right head coaching job if it was there. Could New York now make a move for him since moving for the Fire's head coach Osorio doesn't appear to be going anywhere? And what about John Spencer? Yes, rumors are floating around that the Rapids are not about to give Fernando Clavijo the boot despite the team getting worse the last 2 years. Could it be that the Rapids and Dynamo were waiting until after the MLS Cup to make things official? c) Could Garber have asked for any better weather in DC in late November than they had today?

Free Ride For Revs Fans

The New England Revolution are offering their fans a free round-trip bus ride to go the MLS Cup final this Sunday at RFK in DC. It's a nice gesture and will save some folks money. More interesting to me though was seeing that the Revs site, one they maintain on their own, is still using ColdFusion. Woo-hooo!

State Of The MLS :: 1996

This is woeful. - Frank Stapleton, then New England Revolution head coach commenting on the players at the first MLS combine in 1996.

Not Dangerous Play? Really?

I was indifferent as to who was going to win Thursday night's semi-final (yes folks, it's a semi-final game) with the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution. I'm not asking this because I was upset the Fire didn't win. I simply do not understand how Taylor Twellman can nearly kick a Chicago player in the face and it's not considered dangerous play. Has anyone seen a good rules of the game explanation for this?

Revs Could've Had Schelotto

That's what Soccer By Ives is saying. I don't doubt Schelotto's claims that he spoke with the Revs. And I don't disagree with the part of Ives statement that Nicol decided against Schelotto. But to say that Nicol didn't want a "skillful and dangerous left-sided player" because he decided against Nicol is a stretch.

There may be other reasons that Nicol chose to not further pursue signing Guillermo Barros Schelotto. It may be that New England didn't see how they'd be able to sign him without using their designated player slot. Nicol may have had other players he was pursuing that he felt were better when it came to using that. Or it may have been that gutt feeling that as skillful as Schelotto is he wasn't going to make enough of a difference with the team.

Even with Schelotto Columbus has struggled to score goals. Worse, they have only one win in 11 games. New England on the other hand have only lost twice and have 5 wins. I have a hard time faulting Nicol for passing on Schelotto when he hasn't been a difference maker at Columbus and the Rev's have performed just fine without him.

At Last, Soccer Has That Hometown Feel

Props to Mark Kiszla for his column in the Denver Post today. As someone who grew up in a time when the mainstream media ripped on the soccer if they even bothered to mention it all, it's been wonderful to see the changes over the last few years. More and more it's being covered in a positive light and at that by sports journalists who aren't devoted to the game. That is, those who cover sports in general are playing attention to the beautiful game.

When Will The Revs Learn?
For those who didn't catch the game, the Revolution and Kansas City had a shootout of sorts at Gillette Stadium. The game ended 4-3 in KC's favor. New England went out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to goals by Ralston and Twellman. Twellman had nothing in the 23rd minute except a little space to take a shot and he scores his 7th of the year. But within a minute or two KC turns around and scores.

The play starts with a long, stray pass by Shalerie Joseph out of New England's back. KC's Harrington get's the ball about 60 yards from goal. He plays it to center mid who plays it to Victorine on the left, who plays it to Zavagnin in the center. Michael Parkhurst disappears somewhere up the field (busy writing a thank you card to Bradley for his US call-up?) and neither Joseph nor Riley pick up Arnoud coming straight through the middle to put away the goal. 2-1 NE but it's not over.

Not even a minute after the first goal, KC scores their second. For some reason Riley has a poor clearance that goes to KC's right back Jack Jewsbury who puts it right back in the mix. Eddie Johnson, in appropriately marked by Jay Heaps (no offense to Heaps; he just doesn't have the skills to mark EJ).

Both goals were perfect examples of how important possession can be. Neither was an instance where the defender gave up the ball in an obviously dangerous position. But they were stray passes that KC was able to quickly take advantage of. Worse, with the New England team being essentially the same to have just lost to Houston in the MLS Cup one has to wonder if they've learned nothing about concentrating on the game after scoring a goal. It wasn't as quick as the in the MLS Cup final but they should not have let KC turn around and score so soon after going up 2-0. Had they done a better job of that they would've walked away with points at home.