& a blog

hilarious ne revolution team photo i got from the ‘fan download’ section so i think its fair use. 

ne revolution 1 - atlante 0

it was a game i could’ve gone to. a game i wanted to go to. but fate had other plans, and so i peered through the snow and color distortion on the spanish channel to watch another soccer game american media won’t broadcast. 

and what a game it was. shalrie joseph, the new england revolution’s gifted goal scorer put away the game’s only score with an absolute lunge of a header. the goal came be found somewhere in the twisted chaos of the mls’ web domain. 

the victory propels the revolution past mexican foes atlante into the superliga final against houston (dynamo). and what is the superliga you might ask? the superliga is north america’s attempt to get a champion’s league-like competition going. it is currently a small tournament (8 total teams) half of which are mls and half are mexican primera division squads. the revolution qualified by being the league runner up last year.

in the group round, the revolution were undefeated, suffering just one tie to chivas usa. if they win, they will take on a purse estimated at around $350,000. but that’s not going to be easy because they face houston, the veritable boston celtics of the mls who are currently in a three year dynasty. the second place team to all those victories? the revolution. 

as someone said somewhere, the revolution are quickly becoming the mls’ buffalo bills (also known as always close, but never there). 

i do the revs pull it off this year. especially after surviving the disgusting play of atlante, who ended up suffering three red cards including a card to the goalkeeper after the game. the goalie assaulted a revolution player while some players were shaking hands. 

most of the second half was this barbaric, as the mexicans lost focus and became violent, really beating up on joseph and suffering two ejections as a result.

from the mls write-up (Kyle McCarthy): 

As he went to strike the free kick, the whistle blew after Rey appeared to strike Joseph in the stomach. Out came the red card for Rey as the two teams congregated on the edge of the penalty area.

Atlante continued to press, but all hope faded for the Mexicans once Zamora slid through the back of Joseph in stoppage time to earn his second booking and another ejection.

After the final whistle, the contest degenerated into ugly scenes as both benches emptied onto the field and the protagonists flew into an angry swarm at midfield. Once again, referee Carlos Batres of Guatemala brandished his red card, showing it to Vilar, Munoz Mustafa and Luis Venegas for Atlante and New England’s Jay Heaps, meaning he will miss the final.

the mexican side’s play was offensive, and to be perfectly frank, i was shocked by the revolution’s sense of poise and restraint. cheers to shalrie joseph not flipping a shit and lashing out. ditto for the rest of the team. and while the mexicans may contend they were treated unfairly (and i know this was alleged, because they were interviewed on the spanish channel, they were absolutely out of line. 

the good news is, the revolution move on, and will face the dynamo at home next week. having missed this game, i feel missing next week’s would be crime. so i won’t. besides, its fairly cheap to see the revs play ($19) and the parking is free. plus, you can usually get tickets at the game up until game time. which is why i had to watch this game on the spanish channel.