Revolution Preseason: The Battle for Bermuda

By: Jeff | February 14th, 2007

One would barely know it from reading MLSnet.com’s preseason schedule round-up, but the first part of the New England Revolution’s preseason warm-up involves (what could very loosely be called) a three-team tournament in Bermuda over the next week, involving the Bermudan National Team, the Los Angeles Galaxy, and the Revolution. As reported in Bermuda’s Royal Gazette, each team will play the other two between Tuesday, February 20, and Friday, February 23. Assuming one team does better than the others, I figure that makes it possible to declare one a winner. Right?

The Revs’ participation begins on Tuesday versus Bermuda; they get the Galaxy on Thursday, who will then turn around to play Bermuda the following day. That set-up can only help the Revs’ chances.

The Galaxy is, of course, a well-known quantity to MLS fans. The same can’t be said for Bermuda’s national team, which is, effectively, set to join the United States Soccer (USL) Division 2 as the Bermuda Hogges (that’s a local spelling for “hogs” by the way). Here’s how this arrangement works:

The players will all be Bermudians who qualify to play for the Bermuda National team and the roster will be finalised by the end of March, with training commencing at the beginning of March.

Strange as that sounds, it’s justified given the circumstances: the total population of Bermuda comes to all of 65,000, as modest a pool for players as one will ever see. While there is an official Hogges website, there’s not yet a roster attached to it and the USL Division 2 standings don’t yet have a listing for them…guess that’s what that stuff about the roster being finalized by the end of March really means.

Once the Revs and the Galaxy announce their travel rosters, there will be more to work with for predicting those teams’ chances in the Battle of Bermuda. But beyond knowing they’ll play third-division soccer this 2007, it’s hard to know what to expect from Bermuda. I see they kicked the holy crap out of Montserrat in the preliminary qualifying for the 2006 World Cup; then again, 20-0 on aggregate looks less impressive against a national team tied for 199th in FIFA’s world rankings. Still, I’ll try to preview this tournament I just established if and when the information fleshes out. If nothing else, I’ll declare a winner in this space.

Assuming the Revolution builds on their three-year tradition of traveling to Bermuda for the preseason, some enterprising soul ought to design a trophy or a plate - why not rock this Bundesliga style? - to award to the winner. Who knows? The Revs might finally win some silverware that way; as noted above, this year’s scheduling arrangement can only help.