The past two weeks have demonstrated a few things. While my busy fall schedule preempted much writing, the New England Revolution were busy, too. Hosting New York, traveling to Houston, and first downplaying then admitting there were actual negotiations with public officials for soccer specific stadium sites. What is next for our Revs?
Two weeks ago NYRB came to New England and almost stole 3 points with a stoppage time goal from Lindpere. After a physical match saw both teams hanging on, hanging on, and then scrambling to avoid surrender before the final whistle. Darius Barnes rose up to put away a beautiful cross from Ruan Guy. That tie was not as harmful to NYRB’s post season ambitions as a loss would have been but it still dropped them back in the standings.
Our Revs traveled to Houston hoping to reprise their role as spoiler and perhaps become the first team to score a win in BBVA Stadium. Another physical match played through intermittent downpours ended 2-0 complete with orange fireworks. While New England lead the shots on goal category for the majority of the match Housron kept possession. Despite generating shots with frequency the Revs also had to hold off a Houston attack that pushed much higher into our defensive end, even if they did not take as many shots. Bobby Shuttlesworth, in another audition game, had several great saves but could not stop the late game onslaught.
As a New England native transplanted to Austin, Texas this was the only Revs game I saw in person this year and my wife’s first ever. She left the game unimpressed with Juan Toja. I agreed that after a few challenges early in his shift- he came on to start the second half for Clyde Simms – Toja seemed to underreact or overreact to every subsequent tackle. Some of the fight in our Revs seemed to seep out of them at times. Injuries and absences meant the Revs fielded a makeshift lineup, but we still saw Benny Feilhaber, Jerry Bengston, and Toja. We also saw the Revs fall short of scoring any goals.
It was great to meet, Revs President, Brian Bilello who came up to the last row of orange seats. We will definitely try to get him on the podcast at some point. The Revs visit to explore and question Houston Dynamo about their stadium great sign. All the talk is great publicity. When these stories stay in the news, not regularly coming up while fans are asked to renew season tickets but throughout the year, that will further sign of serious progress. Shovels in the ground will be a tremendous news for club.
Today New England travels to Philladelphia to take on the Union. The young Philly team looks to score goals and build towards a better 2013 – aren’t we all? McInerney and Adu, either of the Farfans, and Sheanon Williams are just a few of the names who could make plays for the Union. Soumare and Danny Cruz are out while Freddy Adu is listed as questionable. For New England, our injury report includes many probable starters: Sene, Nguyen, Tierney, and McCarthy are all out and Clyde Simms is listed as questionable. Ryan Guy’s return from international duty with Guam means he will return to the starting lineup.
Whether he plays in central midfield or is paired with Jerry Bengston at forward his energy will be welcome. I also expect to see Toja and Feilhaber trying to make plays for our Revs, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them start the game on the bench (let’s leave aside questions of agreeing or disagreeing with this for the end of the season). A bigger question than where our offense will come from without Nguyen helping from somewhere will be how to address McCarthy’s absence on defense. Barnes, Soares and Alston are the only defenders who are healthy so either we’ll see a midfielder in the role of a winger or a three man back line in yet another experimental line up. Given the injuries I expect to learn more about individual players – and likely how much we miss some of the injured – than I expect the Revs to string together lots of successful plays. Jay Heaps says he always wants to win, so lets see how we set up when we aim to win in Philadelphia.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
