Some take aways:

Taking down the best MLS team in their own house is a great positive moving forward

Shalrie Joseph makes this team work. He is sitting the all star game out, which is too bad because he is one of the MLS’ best midfielders. However, this is good news for Revs fans as the team really needs him in good health and on the pitch

Matt Reis is the guy you want in net when the game is on the line. Amazing performance, especially at the end of the game

Mansali looked sharp and produced some good scoring ops. Look for him to factor in future goals.

Sunday’s win marked a departure from their past woes, as the Revolution dominated the second half showing impressive speed and precision from their front line. Although the Revs started slowly, the substitution of Shalrie Joseph in the second half changed the demeanor of the team. Almost immediately after entering the pitch, Joseph connected with Kheli Dube on an impressive try that was stopped by a fantastic save from Chivas arcero, Zach Thornton. Later, Joseph connected with Dube who finished and put the Revs up 1-0.

Read a full game review at Revolution Soccernet

New York took the early lead after Jay Heaps put the ball past Knighton for an own goal, as a result of a deflection by a Macoumba Kandji low cross. New England went on to dominate most of the second half before Shalrie Joseph put a ball over the top of the NY defense which Kenny Mansally was able to head into goal in the 90th minute, make it 1-1. The Red Bulls had a late goal ruled out as a result of offside. The Revs will play their home opener next Saturday April 4th against FC Dallas.

Postgame Quotes: (courtesy of Revolutionsoccer.net)

Steven Nicol:
On the outcome of the game:
“I guess when you equalize in the last minute of the game, you should be pleased but we were disappointed we didn’t get three points today.”

On securing four points in two road matches:
“Again, you’ve got to be pleased. Last week, we probably got more then we deserved but this week, we didn’t get what we deserved. I think we were the better side and had some great chances. The own goal was disappointing, but we played solidly on defense.”

On always getting a win or tie at Giants Stadium:
“I wouldn’t say it’s magic, but it shows that we have courage. To score in the last minute, you have to keep believing, keep pressing, and keep going.”

On the improvement of the attackers from last week:
“Yes, last week wasn’t very solid. This week, we wanted to start that way to try and open up a lead, but we couldn’t capitalize on the four good chances.”

On the performance of goalkeeper Brad Knighton:
“I think he has been with us for two years and all of the hard work and stuff paid off today. It was good that he didn’t give up any goals other then the own goal. It’s always good to get that first touch to get the juices flowing. He looked composed and deserves to be in there for awhile.”

Brad Knighton:
On his professional debut:
“I kind of had an inkling I might play. Reisi was icing his leg on the way down here and I really didn’t know what was wrong with his leg. He came in our room this morning around 11:00 and wished me luck.”

Kenny Mansally:
On scoring the tying goal and the pass from Sharlie Joseph:
“He had been doing that but I did my best to head it in and I did. Using my head gave me the advantage and it worked out and hopefully I get more before the season ends.”
Notes:

Lineups
New England Revolution (4-4-2): Brad Knighton (GK), Chris Tierney, Jay Heaps, Darrius Barnes, Kevin Alston, Wells Thompson, Shalrie Joseph , Jeff Larentowicz, Sainey Nyassi (Amaechi Igwe 46), Kenny Mansally, Kheli Dube

Substitutes Not Used: Zack Simmons (GK), Mike Videira, Rob Valentino, Argenis Fernandez, Pat Phelan

New York Red Bulls (4-4-2): Danny Cepero (GK), Danleigh Borman, Kevin Goldthwaite, Carlos Mendes, Jeremy Hall, Khano Smith (Dominic Oduro 77), Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Luke Sassano, Dane Richards, Macoumba Kandji, Juan Pablo Angel

Substitutes Not Used: Alec Dufty (GK), Mike Petke, Matthew Mbuta, Juan Pietravallo, Nick Zimmerman, John Wolyniec

Misconduct Summary:
NY – Luke Sassano (caution) 39
NY – Carlos Mendes (caution) 46+
NE – Wells Thompson (caution) 48
NY – Danleigh Borman (caution) 48
NE – Kheli Dube (caution) 82

Referee: Alex Prus
Attendance: 12,462

Final Thoughts Overall not a bad result for the Revs, they’re still missing several players through injury, and an away point is always positive.

The Revs beat the Bermudan National Team on 2/20/08 by a score of 2-0. Kenny Mansally netted his fourth goal in two games, while Ace Cristman banged in his second of the trip and picked up a handy assist. Trialists Javi Delgado (M) and Sam Brill (D) looked lively. Brill having saved a near definite goal with some last minute heroics.

Strangely, Khano Smith played the first half as a Revs left mid and the second half as a Bermudan striker! Who did he give his all to? The team signing his paycheck? Or his country?

We’ve also picked up Argenis Fernandez, a standout striker on the Costa Rican U-20 team, from Costa Rican club Santos de Guápiles (or is it Puntarenas?). Too bad, wrong Santos…

Rumor is Nicol and Co. are still working on signing central defender Gabriel Badilla from Saprissa. Badilla, 23, was part of Costa Rica’s 2006 World Cup team.

A startling loss to D.C. United at home followed two weeks later by a phoned-it-in performance in Colorado has left the Revolution a mere six points ahead of their east-cost rivals, and it’s D.C. and New York who now have games in hand.

Additionally, Steve Ralston and Pat Noonan are both on the DL with flu-like symptoms and a pulled groin muscle, respectively, though may play on Saturday. Jay Heaps came out just before half-time with an injury at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. The bench is to be tested, it seems, and clouds are gathering around the Revs’ picnic.

The fates, however, seem to be watching out for the Revs this year. In spite of key squad members holding injuries, New England played one of their best games of the season against Kansas City on Sunday. Wells Thompson made up for Thursday’s disastrous performance, and Khano Smith played a fantastic game, his best moment leading to Taylor Twellman’s winning goal. Adam Cristman also proved why he’s being considered rookie of the year as Jimmy Conrad worked hard to keep up with the Revs’ rookie

As far as the race for the East goes, New England made The Wizards’ task a lot harder on Sunday, and New York and D.C. will use up one of their games in hand against each other this coming Wednesday. The Revs will then host New York on the 25th for their chance at separating the pretenders from the contenders this week. New England will need to defeat New York if they’re to go into their Labor Day weekend rest with any sense of well-being, though.

New England hasn’t had a season so filled with points since 2005, and are just three points shy of that pace. Though the ogre of injuries is marching towards them, the Revs look to be in position to make a solid run for the MLS Cup. Additionally, their run in the US Open Cup is their best in years. Could they get a treble this year? A double? Most Revs fans would settle for one of the three, but a few of them — if they’re anything like me — are daydreaming about the possibilities.

Pat Noonan socred the first goal after a build-up play by Jeff Larentowicz and Taylor Twellman. With phenomenal footwork and balance Noonan slipped a tricky left-footed shot past keeper Nick Rimando and brought the Revs ahead in the 39th minute. His second goal in as many games, Noonan seems to be finding his form again.

“I’m pretty much 100 percent,” he said.” I’m starting to feel in form and as long as we’re winning games, that’s all I care about.”

In the 67th minute, Andy Williams was sent off for a red-card tackle on Andy Dorman, who got up after spending a few minutes on the field. In spite of being down a man, however, RSL was able to earn a penalty kick in the 72nd minute when Kyle Beckerman went down on what looked like a desperate tackle by Jay Heaps. Carey Talley beat Matt Reis with a low strike, tying the game one all.

The lead wasn’t to hold, however. The Revs continued to dominate play after RSL’s game-tying goal. After a number of shots on goal and good build-ups over the next 10 minutes, a free kick hammered home by Larentowicz in the 82nd minute gave the Revs the lead. The well-driven shot through the wall caught Rimando off guard and was all they needed to clinch the 3 points.

“Steve [Ralston] said I could take it, simple as that,” Larentowicz said. “I grabbed the ball right when the foul happened and put it down the way I wanted it and Steve looked at me and said I could have it, so I hit it”.

In addition to the free kick goal, Larentowicz played a solid defensive-midfield game and earned himself the Honda Man of the Match honors. Also, the Fox Soccer Channel announcers pronounced his name correctly for the first time I can remember. All in all, it was a good night for Larentowicz.

RSL will come out of the loss with some positives, or at least they should. A largely drab first half was overshadowed by the passion the home team showed in the second. This team, more than any other, has been affected by staffing and player changes, right up to this weekend. Rather than play this last game with his teammates, Freddy Adu packed his bags for Benifica of Purtugal. Alecko Exkandarian stayed on the sidelines with an injury, and Jason Kreis continues to try and find the right balance for a winning combination.

In spite of that, however, the team played with passion and drive. Even when down a goal, they didn’t push for the draw, but the win.

Noonan’s goal was assisted by a downfield pass from Larentowicz and a great placement-header from Taylor Twellman. It seemed an even game in the final stats, with both teams pretty much even on shots, shots on goal, fouls suffered, and fouls committed.

Analysis
The Revs are playing a refreshing style of attacking football in an era when this is — more often than not — the exception rather than the rule. With a league-best road record of 5-2-2, the Revs are proving that going for draws away from home isn’t the only way to play. Despite that, their home performances have been weaker than they’d like, and fans will want to see the points racked up at Gillette if they are to feel satisfied that a draft-only team is the best way to a post-season victory.

In spite of no big-name deals, the Revs now sit alone at the top of the Eastern Conference. They are on a four-game no-loss streak. Noonan has scored two goals in as many games. The team is on pace to match or exceed their season points of 2005 and — counting games-in-hand — are in place to meet or exceed league-leader Houston’s points. Hard work seems to have given this always-the-bridesmaid team an edge, but is this really the year for the Revs?

A lot of pundits out there think so, and one can’t help but wonder if the dream can become reality. Some fans are doubtful, though, making the argument that the Revs lack in defensive midfield depth.

The players and staff, though, are a veteran team used to dealing with hardships and continue to play their style of football whether at home or away. They know what they need to do to win, and their rookies seem to get better with every game. These are all good signs. Though every hard tackle and mis-placed step causes fans to beg for no more long-term injuries, my belief is that the victories this season will not be remembered as Pyhrric, but rather as step after inevitable step towards that coveted piece of silverware.

For minutes at a time, the Revs looked out-of-synch with their passing rhythm and forward movement. They also dropped back instead of applying their usual pressure for stretches of the game, and I got up off of the couch after full time thinking that with any team other than the Red Bulls we would have lost this one.

There were, of course, moments of brilliance like the sequence that led to Andy Dorman’s goal in the first half. Steve Ralston dribbled the ball from the Revs’ back field about thirty yards through a pack or Red Bull shirts and laid of a pass across the backwards diagonal to Shalrie Joseph who immediately angled the ball upfield into the path of Dorman who struck the ball with his right foot to the far post for goal tying him with Taylor Twellman for goals this season. Clinical, clean, and a great moment.

Suprisingly, though, it was one of only a handful of Joseph’s forward passes that went right.

From a defensive stand-point, the Revs did a solid job of isolating Juan Pablo Angel and Claudio Reyna with the result that both players had relatively little time on the ball. The two times Angel did get the ball in front of goal, however, led to shots on, so kudos to his quality. Frustration mounted for most of the game, however, and he was red-carded in the 91st minute for a flying elbow against Joseph’s head.

I don’t know if the Revs play to the level of their opponents, or if they just tend to have off nights, but whichever it is, I have to hope that this coming weekend’s home stand against Houston Dynamo shows the Revs in a little more positive light.

At any rate, the Revs sit — albeit precariously — at the top of the Eastern Conference, on pace with league-leading FC Dallas for points. Their bench has depth, and they haven’t lost any of their scrappiness or tenacity. Plus, this is the second week that Dorman’s name made it to the headline.

Revs Points so Far

The New England Revolution dropped a goal in the first five minutes to a well-placed Suarez header, but built their game up to eventually bring it level with an Andy Dorman volley in the second half.

In a game that “felt like a loss”, the Revs showed some of their old spark after the 15th minute and controlled the flow of play for the bulk of the remainder of the game. Wells Thompson continued breaking the rules with his desire to dribble and weave forward, but in truth the game didn’t pick up until Khano Smith came in for Avery John in the second half.

With Smith in, Michael Parkhurst — who started in a DM position — was able to take up his spot in central defense, and Smith hung out on the left. Within his first 10 minutes, Smith was dropping crosses into Chivas’ box and the Revs were on the attack.

With full credit, I have to commend Preston Burpo on a phenomenal game. He had — last I checked — 8 saves against the Revs for the evening, three of which were off of quality headers from Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan. Once Parkhurst moved to the back line, Matt Reis had very little to contend with.

In the final minutes of the game, a terrific header from Twellman floated a ball across the box to Dorman who struck at it and found himself being struck by Jay Heaps, who also figured he should take a shot on goal. I’m not sure what Heaps was doing attacking goal if he’s slated for the RB position, but that would be the last real chance the Revs had to win the game, and they left Gillette tonight wondering where it went wrong.

The Eastern Conference is an extremely close race, with the Revs now tied for first place with 23 points next to DC United. Kansas City plays LA Galaxy tonight, and a win from KC will move the Revs back to second place.

In order to have a chance at either of the cup competitions next year (Revs are currently fourth place in overall points in the entire league), or a real shot at the MLS Cup this season, the Revs are going to have to play every game like they played the last 60 minutes of tonight’s. With only three losses so far, the Revs have a solid chance to turn themselves out of the current slump and take a shot at winning it all.

They take on the Rochester Raging Rhinos on Tuesday in the 3rd round of the US Open Cup and then take on the Red Bulls at home on July 14th.

More on Twellman’s performance at Copa America, and why I think he’s good for the US Men’s Team coming up later.

Personally, I was hoping for an all-Mass third round, but it wasn’t to be. The Pioneers looked pretty solid for a division 3 team, however, with two really stand-out players. What bummed me out, though, was the level of fouling that happened. And it wasn’t just from the Pioneers.

Granted, they seemed to start it with weird charges and trips and fists, but the Rhinos seemed to feel right at home throwing it back, too.

I’m waiting on some quotes from the Pioneers on the game and the Revs about facing Rochester. I’ll drop them in here when they arrive. As far as the Rhinos, you can read their side of the story here.

In the meantime, enjoy the full US Open Cup bracket, or get a breakdown of the scores by game.

From a statistics standpoint, the Revs and Rhinos are close with Revs leading slightly 1-0-2 in all meetings, the last meeting seeing the Revs win 4-3 in extra time. The Revs should easily win this one, though, as long as they don’t resort to the kind of charing, bullying football the Rhinos seemed to employ yesterday. In their defense, though, perhaps they played to their opponents level?

Conversationally speaking, I’m going to drop a plug here for the webcasting services provided by USL Live. We watched the game while munching on curry last night, and it was great. The image was really good, sound quality was great, and it was just darned convenient to be watching/listening while working on our computers. I did learn, though, that I need more RAM if I’m going to be doing that more often. I know that some other games had audio streams available, too, through TeamLine which seemed fairly solid, as well.

More on the Revs versus Rhinos as the quotes come in.