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.

My thoughts? The fact that Andy Dorman appears there shows what has been apparent all season: there is a lack of faith from the Revs as to whether Dorman can come back and be the danger he once was. Joe Franchino has always been a stalwart member of the Revs, but his season-long injury and fitness are surely a concern. My biggest shock was seeing Avery John’s name there as an available player. While sometimes inconsistent, I think he showed in the playoffs his willingness to make huge plays.

The whole list of available players can be seen here, at the Revolution website. San Jose has a lot of players to pick from, and I have some ideas who I would pick for my 10, but a good analysis has already started over here.

For our point of view, does the above list strike you as odd in any way? Anyone left out? Someone who shouldn’t be there?

“Pat [Noonan]’s not injured,” Nichol [sic] said. ”He’s fit. He’s lacking a bit of sharpness.” Huh. I should think that a hernia surgery (LINK) counts as an injury. Note, also, Pat Noonan’s inclusion as a notable example of sports injury. It could be, of course, that Nicol is just explaining the reason Noonan’s being left out of Saturday’s game. One can always hope, eh?

And how’s Michael Parkhurst doing? ”It’s a case of getting some confidence where he can put his shoulder into it,” the coach said. The article does say that Parkhurst won’t need surgery, so that’s good.

And lastly, we learn a bit about how the Revs have been doing in their hunt for a way to spend their Clint Dempsey allocation money.

The Revolution still have the right to add someone under the ”designated player” that allowed the Los Angeles Galaxy to go beyond the league salary cap to sign David Beckham. Nichol said the team has looked around, but hasn’t found the right guy.

”The one major stumbling block is the expectation of the money that’s available,” Nichol [sic] said, alluding to the deal that will pay Beckham a base salary of $5.5 million a year. ”Obviously, Beckham’s getting top dollar. That kind of money isn’t available to everybody.”

I like that bit. It indicates that the Krafts are being fiscally responsible (of course they are, it is New England, here), but that the team’s aware of their need/desire to find a player. I would urge the Revs, though, to not spend a dime of their money on any player older than 31.

Here’s why: the MLS is not a “play your golden years of soccer here” league. At least, it shouldn’t be. The league should be scouting for the new talent. The raw magic that so few of the current players possess. If MLS did that. If they sought out a way to improve the quality of the game first, and the number of fans second, maybe Dempsey would’ve stayed, and maybe there would be more choices in the draft who weren’t whisked away to Bundesliga, Denmark, Belgium, or English Championship sides.

At any rate, no matter what I think of the league, or what the league does, it’s nice to see the Revs holding back — even if it is over money. Maybe they should spend a little of that on Shalrie Joseph, though.

PS: For those of you with iCal or similar, I compiled a .ics of the Revs’ schedule this season. It’s in ET (GMT-5), but it should be easy to convert. Get the calendar here.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

“First-round draft choices Wells Thompson and Amaeche Igwe have been among the most effective players. Three more draft choices (Bryan Byrne, Adam Cristman, and Ryan Solle) will arrive for practice at the Dana Farber Fieldhouse in Foxborough today. Cristman scored two goals in two games for the US Under-23 national team in games in Japan last week…Former Japan national team midfielders Takashi Hirano and Takuya Yamada and Peruvian striker Jorge Ramirez are not expected to accompany the Revolution to training camp in Cancun next month.”

To do the math so far, that’s two rookie draftees dubbed “the most effective” and three trialists seemingly found wanting; from a strictly “Revolution” perspective, I’d say it’s most accurate to say the jury remains out on Byrne, Cristman, and Solle. Returning to those trialists, the question of what Revs coach Steve Nicol thinks about them remains. Here’s the quote that immediately follows the sentence excerpted above:

“‘It wasn’t any surprise when I say they lack a wee bit of experience,’ Nicol said of the newcomers. ‘But as far as ability is concerned, they show a lot of it, and it is a matter of getting them experience on the field.’”

OK…so, they’re not going to Cancun, but it’s still a matter of getting them on the field? It’s probably nothing more complicated than a quote from Nicol referring to the draftees getting slipped into the article in an awkward spot. But the question is, why aren’t these players going to Cancun? Are their trials over? Are any of the three going to be signed and it’s only visa/passport issues keeping them out of Mexico? Naturally, I can’t answer that right now or I would.

Whatever happens with the trialists, I’ve got something of a sinking feeling that the coaching/front office decision to “stand pat” on the current roster means we’ll learn plenty about the rookie draftees – not excluding their limitations – as the 2007 season progresses. And that gets back to the gloom my colleague cited at the end of his post.

Not knowing anything of the player, I somewhat naturally resorted to Google. That took me to a site that looked pretty useful, Playerhistory.com. And, if I was willing to throw down $29 for a subscription, it might very well have proved useful; but I didn’t so it wasn’t. The entry does show Jorge Ramirez’s stats with his last club, Olympiakos Nicosia, which is in red-hot Cypriot League. The stats there aren’t all that impressive – 2 games played, zero goals – and that’s damn near the only data one can see on Playerhistory.com without a subscription.

From there, desperation pointed me to the item Soccer New England linked to – I didn’t want to borrow all their content – an interview posted on a site called Futbolperuano.com. Anyone out there speak Spanish? Great! I don’t. But what I did find was a really killer site that provides “gisted” translations for FREE!! My word. I love technology.

As much fun as I’m having with the investigative tools of the Wide World of the Web, the goal of that was to discover what kind of a player the Revs are looking at and Soccer New England’s post is as good as it gets for this. To editorialize from their content, Revs fans can only hope Ramirez can provide either cover or genuine quality at forward; outside a solid 2001, Ramirez hasn’t posted stellar numbers. The current roster shows us a little thin there; there’s Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan, to be sure, but the former plays best as a poacher and the latter is often injured. No disrespect intended to Willie Sims, whom, it has been reported (once anyway), Revs’ coach Steve Nicol expects good things from this season, but a little variety and some more professional experience, would help this team plenty.