Sweet Revenge
By: Dan | March 30th, 2008
After a 3-0 drubbing over Houston, New England showed their depth and look lively. Can a season get off to a better start? A win over your arch rivals – with an injured star – and bunch of newbies!
New midfielder Mauricio Castro started in place of Khano Smith on the left flank, as Smith is away with the Bermudan Nat’l Team. The Honduran looked lively, no doubt about about that, but I don’t think he provided the same spark that Khano does. It’s because he’s A) not as fast B) not a giant, 6′3″ target. Once he settles in to the MLS, which is definitely a more physical league than the one he’s used to, he’ll be a-ok. The buildup to the second goal was probably the best he got. You think?
Those Gambians, one game and I’m already sold. These guys are telepathic. Nyassi to Mansally, get used to hearing it because it’s going to be said often in the future (hopefully a few times a game). Nyassi did a nice little deke job around the Dynamo defenders to cross the ball to his compatriot Mansally, who dually delivered with a well placed shot, which in turn caused the rebound that Steve Ralston slotted home in the 15th minute.
The second goal was a product of one of Jeff Larentowicz’s semi-crazy shots. (I’m saying semi-crazy because it almost went in, a far cry from his usual field goal-esque punt job.) The resulting rebound was netted by Twellman stand-in Ace Cristman (who looked pretty good out there) with a handy header.
For the final goal, in stoppage time, Nyassi did his best Cristiano Ronaldo step-over and banged the ball in from the 6 yard box after throughly baffling the Houston defender.
All in all, a fantastic start to the season. Especially since Twellman and Smith weren’t playing, and Nyassi, Mansally, and Castro are all fairly new to the system. If this is a sign of things to come, I’m happy. Oh, Steve Nicol, why did I secretly doubt you?
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Comments
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Great game on Saturday, although it was FREEZING. I thought Nyassi looked like the real deal.
Plus, I appreciated the Italy-esqe atmosphere in the Fort. Someone even let off a smoke bomb, which agitated the otherwise comatose Foxboro Stadium security guards…
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Ted, the crowd at the Fort needs someone to light a fire under them. I’m on the Nyassi bandwagon if you couldn’t tell…
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Give it time, Dan. Steve Nicol will throttle the life out of the Gambians come playoff time.
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That’s blasphemy, Jeff!
Yeah Dan, we all had some doubt in Nicol. It wasn’t that we don’t like him as a coach, it’s just that some sort of combination of him and the front office didn’t appear to have gone the extra mile in their offseason acquisitions.
The jury is still out on the newcomers, though. Castro actually impressed me more than most people are giving him credit.
BTW, that bloggers MFLS table got scuttled. We’re in a side MFLS division. Go to “Nutmegged” (a Houston blog, I have them linked on Blue Blooded Journo) and contact them if you want to get in on it.
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I like Castro A LOT! He controlled the ball and played tough defense (defense isn’t in Smith’s vocab). As for offense, Smith is only lethal when he can win the long foot race. If he can’t win the foot race we have a tendancy to abandon the left side all together. If Castro plays like that again, I think Smith has his work cut out. Basically, Smith and Thompson are going to have to round out their games if they want some time on the pitch (in my humble opinion).
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I totally agree about Khano, Although Smith is a speedster, I don’t like his decision making especially when it comes to crossing or when is the right time to break through the Penalty area, unlike from what I saw from Castro. Even though he is still young I see a lot of potential. His decision making and his tenacity to stay on his man was beautiful. We need someone who is willing to run from end to end.
As far as Nyassi & Mansally, they are true star potential in my book.
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Backseat, if Castro wins the left mid spot on a full time basis, Khano could play as a target striker next to Twellman. I can see some beautiful goals coming from a partnership with size, speed (Khano), and tenacity and skill (Twellman).
Peter, the decision making in the MLS is probably (in my opinion) what’s holding Americans back more than anything else. If Khano can continually make boneheaded plays/runs and still be effective (if not downright good) what does that say about our league?
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A 3-4-3 option seems like a real possibility with this roster. What’s nice about our current players is that we have 4 midfielders that can play offense and defense (with Castro, jeff, Shalri, and Nyassi). If Ralston is out for a couple of weeks this might work b/c we didn’t get a good look at Hood last week. I could be wrong but I think that I read some where that Kyano played up front during the preseason… maybe the revolution blog… Franchino is another intersting variable, but I expect it’s going to take time for him to get back into things. I suspect we’ll see him at the end of a game when he’s healthy to test the waters.
As for Smith, I don’t want to kick a dead horse, but he lost some serious character points at the end of the season for me. I know Twellman feasts on that left foot of his but I have reservations about the guy and what he brings to the team’s chemistry. There was a lot of bad attitude on the field and some really questionable fouls that he could have been called for (that high football-like takcle should have been a red card). I still think the Shalrie and jeff were avoiding the left flank all season last year if it didn’t look like Khano could break away down the line.
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See revolution blog – twellman may be out for a while.
bummer.Posted from
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I’m pretty sure Khano’s natural position is actually upfront.
And thanks for the info on the Twellman injury, backseat.
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