Ives Article with some tactical Information: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/02/new-england-lin.html

Unfortunately, this isn’t the same Figo that won the World Player of the Year, this is a 35-year old former superstar. Considering Figo is one of the greatest players to ever lace up boots, and in his heyday, was arguably better than fellow right winger David Beckham – this is huge! But is Figo worth a DP slot? His guidance would be invaluable. Imagine Wells Thompson after a few seasons training with Figo? Or how much faster Nyassi would develop? The intangibles are there; now think of the regular service that Twellman would get? This is exciting! But would Figo be better for the Revs than say Dejan Petkovic? Who is also an older, flamboyant, attack-minded midfielder. He’d be cheaper for sure too. The question is: how much is a 35-year old guy worth? This isn’t a retirement league, and he isn’t Pele.

Aside from the actual playing that Figo would do, this is big for soccer in Massachusetts. It hearkens back to the days when the Fall River Marksman was one of the greatest soccer teams in the world (yes, the world!). The Portuguese and French-Canadian textile workers made Southern Massachusetts a hot bed of soccer much like the Germans did in St. Louis, MO and the Scots in Kearny, NJ.

Among the players Fall River had at its disposal were Billy Gonsalves and Bert Patenaude (who scored the first hat trick in World Cup history in 1930). The two are arguably the strongest strike force in US history winning the US Open Cup thrice, twice with Fall River and again with St. Lewis Breweries.

Their stadium still exists to this day, in N. Tiverton, RI. They built the stadium in RI because of Massachusetts’ blue light laws.

That’s what I think of when I think Figo, and Portuguese players in general, in the MLS. If any of you have an interest in the history of soccer in the US, I urge to check out Dave Litterer’s site at: http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/index.html.

Dorman is a fine attacking midfielder who never seemed to find the feet expected of him this season. Earlier this year, his agent was saying that a midfielder with his amount of goals should be paid more — to be sure, MLS salaries need some help — and Dorman himself has always thought about going back to England to play. Looks like that’s what he’ll be trying to do.

With James Riley now on his way to San Jose, and Dorman looking for a spot in an English league — my bet is in the Championship at some tier: he’s too good for non-league — where does that leave the Revs for next season?

Riley is a versatile defensive midfielder who served well enough in either role to keep us afloat when needed. Dorman’s late attacking runs were oft the topic of announcers, pundits, press and post-game coach reviews. Both have the potential to develop into amazing, stand-out players: Dorman perhaps more-so, as far as that goes.

My thoughts are that the Revs need to find another striker who’s good for 20+ goals per season. Whether that’s a fit Pat Noonan, a developed Adam Cristman, a combination of the two, or a new guy: we need goals. Losing Riley is a blow to our defensive depth, so health will continue to be a concern there. With Dorman on the way out — or so it seems — the midfield is missing some options, too.

In other words, we’re pretty much right where we were at the beginning of the 2007 season: a solid core group of people with some pieces that need to be fit in at some point.

I can’t wait to see how the off-season plays out as the transfer market opens up in Europe and reports come in prior to the winter warm-ups for MLS. What do you think?

Pat Noonan’s Goal against Houston

The first goal from Nicol in the top link looks almost exactly like Noonan’s goal from the Houston game this Sunday. More than anything, this gives me fuel for further support for Noonan in the face of what — it seems at times — is waning support from the majority of fans.

Noonan relies on his finesse more than the others in the strike trio (Taylor Twellman and Adam Cristman). There are three types of strikers, generally speaking: those who mostly rely on finesse, those who poach their goals, and those who rely on straight-forward attacks. We’re lucky that we have representatives of each: Noonan for the first, Twellman lurks in the goalie’s area wating for the perfect poach, and Cristman goes hard for the frontal assaults. All three styles are effective, and all three are useful in the right moments.

The trick that Nicol and Paul Mariner — and the strikers themselves — face is how to best take advantage of each primary attribute: when is it time to poach or finesse through the box or just slam the ball home. I’m looking forward to tonight’s game against Real Salt Lake to see how they fare against what’s being billed as a new RSL team.

More later.

The link above points to an article about Avery John — filling in for Michael Parkhurst for the next two weeks or so — not being able to play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup this year. Apparently, he and some team mates have been blacklisted from the Trinidad & Tobago team for expecting to be paid what they feel they’re owed for the World Cup 2006 performance.

Well, the blacklisting happened because he and some other players tried to start a players’ union there, and that didn’t go so well.

Near the bottom of the article, there’s a note about a midfielder — as if the Revs need any more — named Cristian Santamaria from Honduras trying out for the team. I googled him a bit, and came up with a little bit about him.

He’s played long enough to be mentioned in an article dated to 1998, but other than that I can’t get much info about him. It also looks like he was on the Honduran CONCACAF team in 2003, as well as the 2002 Honduran World Cup qualification team. There’s also an article from August, 2006 (HERE) that ties him to both Limean and Platense, though I can’t find any direct links other than the article. What he does, how he plays, and other quasi-important stats aren’t available to me — with my limited spanish, anyhow — at the moment. Know anything about this guy? Drop a comment below and help us out.

I do need to expand a bit on the midfielder comment above, though. I think the Revs would be better off with a striker who doesn’t fall over. Adam Cristman is young, sure, but he seems to me a bit too easy to knock off his stride. Maybe as he gets more field time with Pat Noonan over the next couple of weeks, we’ll see something a bit extra from him, but I’ve yet to be sold.

What the Revs certainly don’t need is another 30-something attacking midfielder looking for a retirement cushion.

More on the way …

Arsene Oka, a regular player with the Revolution Reserves, hails from the Ivory Coast where soccer is at least 10 times more important than it is here. Given that, one can understand his point in the write-up above about not being used to the lack of fans. Apparently, though, he seems to be getting used to it and is learning to not let it upset his game too much. With two of the three goals scored for the reserves side this past weekend, he’s showing he’s got a capability.

Coach Steve Nicol, though, isn’t ready to bring him onto the first team roster. As a midfielder especially, he’s going to have a tough job breaking into the pack, and according to Nicol will have to start showing a consistency.

The Revs seem to have a glut of solid midfield players, which with their favored 3-5-2 is just fine. With Steve Ralston heading out to the US Men’s Team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup play, especially, they’ll need the resources they have.

Will Oka figure in to the mid-summer midfield? Not unless he can start showing a steady progress.

At first glance, this guy looks crazy; like he doesn’t belong on the field at all. Ball dropping off of his feet, body swaying this way and that, off rhythm kind of run. Then it hits you. He’s never really out of control. Take a look at this scene.

Thompson is on the far side of the area with the ball at his feet. A Fire defender’s in front of him, blocking his way in. Thompson leans widely to the left without moving the ball. and watches as the Fire player leans with him. Again Thompson leans. Again his opponent matches his move. Thompson takes off to his right with the ball, passes into the area. The Fire player gets burned. That’s the kind of thing I love!

This crazy, testing-the-other-team kind of play. It’s a bit silly and goofy, and needs to be backed up with some honest hard work, but I hope he never drops his M.O.

Back in the beginning of this blog, our friend Jeff chatted with the assistant coach over at Wake Forest and he had this to say about Thompson:

Wells is a player that you can’t really compare to too many others. His game is based around his workrate and his grit. He plays with a chip on his shoulder and if he looses the ball he will work to get it back as if the defender just said something bad about his mother. Wells’s greatest assets are a result of this attitude. He loves to take players on the dribble he is willing to defend and “fight” for a game, and he has the ability to create some special moments and special goals.

That is a great description of what we saw on Saturday. I hope Nicol leaves this guy in for the long haul, because we’re going to see great things from him.

Here’s what some other sites are saying about Thompson today:
MLS Wells Thompson Write-up
Wells Thompson A-Z

From today’s Boston Herald:

While [Pat] Noonan looks set to go Saturday, standout starting central defender Michael Parkhurst is still recovering from a freak left shoulder separation he suffered while swimming in the ocean off Cancun, Mexico, three weeks ago. But Nicol said Parkhurst does not need surgery, and is only a few weeks from returning.

That’s good news, especially if Twellman ends up starting forward. He and Noonan have been working very well together. The other paper in town (Boston Globe) mentions the following information for Saturday’s season opener against the Chicago Fire:

• - Khano Smith is questionable due to a hamstring injury.
• - Michael Parkhurst could be ready to play (Shoulder).
• - Daniel Hernandez (groin) didn’t practice.
• - Shalrie Joseph (calf) could be ready to play this weekend.

I’m curious who would play central midfield without Joseph there, if he does indeed need to sit out, and Smith is usually a sub, but his speed is always a good thing on the field — if last season is any indicator.

I haven’t seen the Fire play yet, though, so I’m not entirely sure what the Revs are up against this season. Sounds like we’ll find out more as the week progresses.

This season is sounding like it’s going to be a good one, even if things in Revs-land could be interpreted as not-so-rosy. I’m excited about the SuperLiga, excited about the continued discussions of an SSS for the Revs, and generally optimistic about soccer in this country as a whole.

If the local media and other various reports are to be relied upon, it seems that our own Adam Cristman is making a big hit with the Revs. My hopes for the season are improving, for sure. Let’s see what Coach Nicol had to say about his fourth-round draft pick:

“He just wants to score,” Revolution coach Steve Nicol said of Cristman. “He is a wee bit like Taylor. It’s all about desire. He has that little bit extra when it is between him and the defender. He also has a good football brain and puts himself in a position where he has a chance to score.”

It all sounds good to me. Though, hopefully the piece of Cristman that is a “wee bit” like Twellman isn’t the bit that likes to caught offside, eh? Although, I would rather have a pair of strikers itching to be behind the defense than waiting for the midfielders to make a move before getting into position. I know there has to be a balance, but the sign of a good forward is that, well, they play forward.

At any rate, from all accounts it sounds as though the Revs fielded a solid 3-5-2 (a favorite of Coach Nicol’s, and one of the Revs’ historically best formations), even without Michael Parkhurst (shoulder) and Pat Noonan (hernia). More importantly, it seems they fielded themselves with a once-thought-of-as-disgruntled Shalrie Joseph. Though, he has always maintained that he will continue to work hard while with the Revs.

He, along with Jeff Larentowicz seem to have done a fine job in Midfield, Joseph coming up with one of the balls forward to Cristman. Not to mention, Matt Reis missed the game due to the flu, and James Riley filled in for Parkhurst as DC. I know it’s just a pre-season, less-than-stellar-calibre game, but I’m starting to get my hopes up.

There are plenty of writeups about the weekend match: here and here to name just two.

If any readers out there have pictures, video, or comments on this match, feel free to forward or post them here.

Catch you next time, but until then, I leave you with a couple of shots of the weekend game from a reader in New Orleans.

Thanks for the images, Sean!

As we head into the second day of the Shalrie Joseph salary freak-out, some new details have come to light. The most significant of these appear in an Andrew Hush article for Soccer New England as it gets to the bonus equation that Joseph’s agent, Ron Waxman, alleges scuttled the deal (and this is Waxman talking here):

“Under my bonus package, Shalrie can make roughly another $55,000 in bonuses. To make that, he would have to start in 75% of games, be an all-star, be either the team MVP or the team defensive MVP, be selected all-league and he would have to start in ten games which the team wins. If he did all that, he would make $55,000 in bonuses. Who would look at that and say ‘wow, this guy really robbed us’.”

As I see it, Waxman is right and he’s wrong – though I didn’t quite get the “wrong” side of this till I read a point posted by REV-OKe on a BigSoccer message board:

“i have to say, the bounses that waxman wants, from the hush article seem to not really be incentives. shalrie has done all those things. the idea around incentives, is that he does some thing above and beyond. waxman is just padding his base with already achieved objectives. he’s getting the raise BECAUSE he is an allstar, plays in 75% of the games, the team wins 10 games etc. How a bout a bonus if he scores some goals. leads in assists. something he doesnt currently do, that will help the team.”

Decent point, actually (and it came out of this thread). Where am I? I think those “bonuses” – even if they’re not bonuses – are fair enough. It’s saying, pay me to do my job and, if I continue to perform to high expectations, pay me a bit more. The bonus system REV-OKe promotes does something a bit perverse: it asks a player who has peformed well for the team in a given role to take on a different role, to do different things that could very well render him less effective in that primary role. That’s not to say REV-OKe is formally proposing those specific goals – I assume he’s just using them by way of example; I’m merely arguing that crafting an incentive package for a d-mid can be a tricky business. How do you quantify the role of a player whose chief contributions are simultaneously highly visible, but also intangible?

In a related article, the Boston Globe’s Frank Dell’Appa makes a fair case as to why Joseph might be stuck playing with the Revs – yeah, that’ll work out swell.

For the record, it’s one of those lovely, “damned-if-you-don’t, damned-if-you-do” equations: play with a gimpy shoulder and risk its explosion; go for the surgery and miss the start of the season.

Yeah, it’s gonna be a swell year….