Cristman Cristman (Joseph) Cristman
By: Sabin | March 26th, 2007Before I start today’s post, I just want to wish my comrade-at-words, Jeff, good luck with his new assignment. He’s going to be taking over theoffside.com’s Columbus Crew blog. he tells it better in his own words here. Good luck, Jeff, and thanks for the fine writing for the Revolution. I’ll do my best to carry the Revs torch.
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!
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Tags: Adam Cristman, Match Profile, Michael Parkhurst, Pat Noonan, Player Profile, Shalrie Joseph, Team NewsSubscribe
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Thanks. Good luck with this space. I have no idea when I’m going to get set up with the Crew thing (Bob? kidding…I figure you’ve got a life and all), but look forward to digging in.
Turning to Cristman, I find the scoring against Olimpia more comforting than I have some of the other, previous tallies against Mexican third-division clubs; then again, we all know what DC United did to Olimpia just a couple weeks back. But, like you, I’m hopeful that we’ll have a pair of good starting forwards if Noonan continues to hobble.
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I was at the game yesterday - Revs fan living in New Orleans. I’ve emailed some pics I took to Jeff who gave me his email earlier. I’m not savvy enough to post them for links or whatever.
What you’ve written so far is pretty accurate. Here are my thoughts:
Shalrie, Dorman, and Larentowicz played great together in the middle, taking turns attacking and sitting in defense. They played with intensity and aggression and owned the middle of the field between the boxes.
Ralston on the right played a tremendous game, but Khano Smith has a lot of work to do on the left. Smith ended the game pressing forward (no idea why, as the Revs were up 3-1) and looked out of place.
Christman played a hell of a game. His touch was good considering the sloppy pitch. He was fast and powerful in the box and good in the air.
Willie Sims looked like the 4th striker that he is. His speed was completely negated by the quick Olympia defense.
Heaps played a surprisingly good game (I’m no fan). He almost had a tremendous header goal on a restart from the right channel that the keeper managed to get a hand on. Otherwise, he looked solid on defense, although a little slow.
Knighton was good in goal, stopping at least two pointblank shots. The goal was not his fault - Riley got lost after a cross found Pacini open on the right side. Came within a minute after the Revs’ third goal. Lazy defense after the game felt wrapped up.
All in all I was really impressed by the performance. Without Twellman, Noonan, Reis, Igwe, and Parkhurst, the Revs dominated a foreign championship side in what turned out to be an away game - almost 9,000 fans in all, probably 8,500 for Olympia; Spanish was the primary language of the announcements; the Revs were even on the scoreboard as the away team (and wore their whties).
Bottom line - this is a very good squad. If Shalrie can be counted on to be as professional as he was yesterday (not letting the contract issues distract him), then the Revs will surely challenge for the Cup!
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