Bermudian Spoils: On Commemoration

By: Jeff | February 23rd, 2007

I’ll begin by acknowledging I made a hash of properly hyping this event. As admitted elsewhere, I was deep into my preview for the game when I realized I had my dates screwed up and that the preseason tilt between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the New England Revolution was already underway.

Before getting to the actual matter at hand, it seems appropriate to comment on the game - insofar as it is possible to do so without so much as having heard, never mind seen, anything first hand. In my capacity as a second- (if not third-) hand source, here are match reports from Soccer New England and the Revs’ official site. Curiously, the only place to list the players who took part was the Galaxy’s official site; even if they boned some of the Revs’ names (”Francisco Franchino? Is that Joe’s stylist brother?), they at least posted the info, so count that 1-0 in LA’s favor and let the record show the game itself ended 2-1. Based on that roster, here’s one (mildly over-excited) thought: I say we sign Jorge Ramirez, who sounds like a solid enough contributor and we could certainly use the cover. Also, a look at LA’s line-up suggests they took this game seriously enough that Revs fans should breathe in a little whiff of optimism about some of the new guys we picked up, especially those in the Superdraft; it sounds like they did fairly well.

That’s the game - or as much as I’m likely to dig up on it from where I’m sitting, but, if you’ll bear with me, I have a second purpose in writing this as well.

As mentioned earlier (way down at the bottom), I’d love for these preseason Bermuda training trips to become an annual tradition. As such, I’ve composed a letter that I’d like to forward to the New England Revolution organization. A second part of that effort involves the design and construction of a cheesy trophy; it will look silly, possibly ugly, but “heart” will also be one of the key pieces to the design. I’ll attach my letter below and now, because there’s no handy-dandy “Contact Us” link on the official Revs’ site, I only need to know where to send it:

To Whom It May Concern:

With the New England Revolution’s tradition of a preseason trip to Bermuda now in its third year, it occurred to me that the time is now ripe to make this arrangement more meaningful, special even. The inclusion of the Los Angeles Galaxy in this year’s preseason exercises prompted me to dub the event, The Battle for Bermuda. If you’ve got the time, I elaborate on my reasons (in between a lot of other thoughts) in an item posted on a blog titled The Offside.

It’s my hope that this tradition will not only continue, but that it will become official. The establishment of a professional Bermudian team provides a wonderful opportunity in the form of a handy opponent and, each year, another MLS team could be invited to join the Revolution in an annual preseason tournament. It’s less important that this be called the Battle for Bermuda than that it simply takes place and takes root in the Revolution’s annual calendar.

It also seems fitting that the winner of this tournament receives a token to commemorate the occasion and this year should be no different - especially with the Revolution’s perfect record making them this year’s winners. I intend to work on this token shortly. It won’t be anything fancy (seriously): just a plate wrapped in aluminum foil, which will subsequently be appropriately decorated and somehow shellacked to make it hold together. This is undeniably tongue-in-cheek, but that seems fitting given this is preseason.

So, my question is, to what address would I send this trophy once it is complete? I will gladly leave it in your possession once it is complete, so that it may be passed to the winning team in future seasons.

Thanks for your time.