Saturday, June 9, 2018

Revs Take a Point in Chicago on the Way to Manifest Destiny


First things first: this is New England's first game since the win over NYRB last week. No way did they lose in the Open Cup to Louisville, not a chance. So I won't even mention it further because that could not have happened in this timeline. In others, perhaps, but for sure not this one.

So, first game in a week, wow! Brad Friedel rolled with that same winning lineup from the Red Bull game, meaning a lot of attacking power with Bunbury, Rowe, Fagundez, Penilla and Nemeth. Now, had there been a game earlier this week in which the Revs lost to Louisville, Gabriel Somi hypothetically could have been withdrawn 2/3rds of the way into the game, which is weird since he was out for this game. But with Somi out and Tierney's season done, Claude Dielna was the only real left back on the roster, and even he isn't really a true left back.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, this all came into play midway through the first half when Toni Delamea knocked heads with Nemanja Nikolic and both were bloodied and making their ways to the sidelines. It seemed Brandon Bye would have to come in at right back and push Andrew Farrell to the middle. Toni came back but Nikolic did not. It's also worth noting that we have our newest strong boy on the team and on the internet.


Welcome to Weird Twitter, War Toni.

The Revs never converted on the 11 v 10 situation between Nikolic coming out and Alan Gordon finally getting the green light to sub in for him. Luckily they were looking just fine when both teams were at full strength. The high press seemed to really cause Chicago fits and the Revs were forcing turnovers pretty regularly. The closest they came in the first frame, however, was courtesy of Cristian Penilla with a pretty looking move and some silky footwork.

The closest Chicago came was from a tough angle effort at the edge of the box that was parried away by my man pots and pans Matt Turner.

My friends, the Church of Turner grows daily. Won't you join us?


Second half was more of the same. It was very back and forth for the most part, with both teams playing aggressive defense and getting physical when needed, and all when not needed. 

And then, of course, it all came crashing down.



Nemo whatttttt are you doing? Play to the whistle man, thats day 1 stuff! Instead its Schweinsteiger with a simple give and go for the goal. I am mad online for the defense exposing my largest son Matt to that. 

After that, things got a little chaotic. Bodies everywhere, no one knows what he calls are, someone was decapitated, whole big thing, we had a funeral for a bird.

The chances piled up for the Revsas the dn of the game drew closer, highlighted by Diego playing Penilla through in the box only for the Ecuadorian to rattle one off the near post. 

And then.

AND THEN.


THIS IS MARCH!!!!

The most Revs goal ever. So gritty. That goal is a microcosm for the DNA of this squad. Doesn't always go the route you thought it would take, needs a little help, doesn't give up and then will reward you when you least expect it. I thought we were going full edge here. All the buildup and nothing to come of it. 

The boys had some chances to actually put it away and are all 3 points, but in the end a 1-1 draw will be good enough given the situation. They just played a game in Louisville and now stay on the road for one more in a few days. 

Oh, shit, I mean---they didn't play a game in Louisville haha no way. Nope. That was something else they were on the road for. 

Nearly every game this season has been entertaining for one reason or another.  Some had goals, others had brilliant displays of individual skill. This one had pure chaos. Players were flying around and getting chippy, there was actual blood, weird goals, people yelling, probably some children crying, whistles and no one knowing what the calls were. Pure madness. And thats why its the Beautiful Game. If that doesn't make sense then you just don't get it no offense (which is how you can describe the start of this game am i right). 

Man of the Match
Turner had a shout for this, and Penilla was wildly close but he missed a bunch of chances. That goal was put in the net by Teal but it was scored by Diego. Tireless effort on that one. He had a few key passes to start breaks or get others good looks as well. Pulling all the strings in the midfield and I think he still has another level to reach this season.

Shoutout to our Big Time Fisher Boi.


On the road in a few days to wrap up the Western Expansion. Claude Dielna will miss that one with yellow card accumulation, so we get to see what Big Brain Brad comes up with to work around that one.

Revs 1-1 Chicago
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Monday, June 4, 2018

"Ye": A Dialogue


Kanye West has long been a polarizing figure, and he's certainly a the height of that right now with his Tweet Storms and takes on politics and race. That's not what we're gonna talk about, though. His latest album, Ye, is itself a polarizing project, with people seemingly firmly in one of two camps: "This is amazing, Kanye is a genius" or "This stinks out loud". And so, we will start a dialogue.


I fall in the middle of the two sides. I'm looking like Larry David when he can't decide between his Jewish friends and the Palestinian goddess and her chicken.


I'm not a massive Kanye stan. I really like his music when it's good. I don't go back and listen to College Dropout once a month like other people do. I find he has usually has at least 3 songs I'll keep in heavy rotation per album. For me, Kanye West music has always been about the production and less about the lyrics and actual rapping from Kanye. I care more about how his voice sounds on a beat than I do about what he's saying. Like on "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1", I think his voice fits on the track and don't really care that his lyrics consist of, for example, "I just fucked this model, and she just bleached her asshole. If I get bleach on my t-shirt, imma feel like an asshole." Not the best lyrics ever (they're hilarious, so I have to give Kanye that) but the way he says the lyrics just fit on the track. I feel the same way about Future. His voice just feels right on trap beats regardless of the content of the lyrics. Rap has very much shifted toward the importance falling more on production than lyrics.

Ye has fantastic production. It's Kanye's bread and butter. Add in production credits from my guy Francis and the Lights and the beats are MONEY.

*very Stephen A Smith voice*
HOWEVA


Kanye just does some weird shit on this album that make me scratch my head. 

Right off the bat, "I Thought About Killing You" hits with an interesting beat, but Kanye just talking over it was weird. It gets infinitely better at the end when the beat changes and he starts flowing a bit. Francis has a writing credit on this one, so that style makes sense. The end of it ions enough to make up for the first 2/3 of thew song, though. 

"Yikes" turns it up with a good beat and a nice hook. This has been one of the more mentioned tracks I've seen on social media, with the majority opinion being that its actually good. 


"All Mine" has a fairly basic instrumental, utilizing drums and some backing vocals and melodies. But the high-pitched and fast-paced hook just felt off. Francis has production credit on this track, again making sense given the simplicity of the beat.

"Wouldn't Leave" was just a miss for me. I'm not a fan of the beat or the flow or the lyrics. Just a dud.

I like the hook on "No Mistakes", and it works well with he beat. It switches up during Kanye's verse and gets worse as a result. Pretty "meh" song in this reporters view.

The intro for "Ghost Town" reminds me a lot of The Life of Pablo. Kid Cudi sounds good, 070 Shake sounds great and the production is fantastic from West, Mike Dean, Benny Blanco and Francis and the Lights. Kind of like "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1" or "Waves", my two favorite tracks off TLOP, Kanye's actual rapping is the least enjoyable part of the song. The sampled intro, like Pt. 1, is great. The other artists, like Waves or Pt. 1, really outshine West.

"Violent Crimes" again shows off 070 Shake with a great hook. It's a slow and melodic beat. Much like, "Ghost Town" I get some TLOP vibes from it. It's also the only track that Kanye entirely produced and wrote on his own.

Overall, it's a good album. Not too good, but a solid "Yeah, its good". You have songs like "Ghost Town", "Violent Crimes" and "Yikes" that give off a real Pablo vibe, and since I really enjoyed that album I in turn really like those songs. Everything else is honestly forgettable.

At the end of the day, Kanye West is a master producer and it shows in his body of work. As long as you doing expect too much lyrically or in regards to flow, you might like this album. The only times I found myself physically making weird faces and wondering what was happening were the moments when Kanye's voice just didn't fit on the beat. As long as he can fit his voice to an instrumental and he stays a production genius, he'll be fine.

My overall score is 3.6 Balls. Not as good as TLOP but the three songs I already mentioned are real goddamn nice. Those three will get added to playlists, and the others will be forgotten about.

This has been "Ye": A Dialogue.





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Saturday, June 2, 2018

Revs Cancel The Bulls Parade



We back folks,,,

New York Red Bulls visiting the Fortress, with just 3 points elevating them above the Revs in the standings, but with 2 games in hand at this point.

With the Tierney news I expected Gabriel Somi to take up the left back spot, but the Revs tweeted out a fairly different lineup than I expected. Turner in net as usual, and a backline of Dielna-Delamea-Anibaba-Farrell. And then they went attacker heavy, with Nemeth and Bunbury both starting, Kelyn Rowe back in the XI, Diego in the middle and Penilla and Caicedo keeping their spots. I assumed that since Nemeth was starting he would be up top, but he was playing on the right wing from the jump, which was a bit odd to me. Teal has the experience out wide but Brad clearly trusts his work rate on the high press.

The key for the Revs was shutting down Bradley Wright-Phillips. And in true Revs fashion, BWP scored 7 minutes into the game.

A pure man's goal. BWP just rises and puts pace on the header from pretty far out to beat Turner. He's just so good and has been for a long time now. The Revs ddi a decent job keeping him quiet the rest of the game and he didn't have many true scoring chances, his best coming off a self volley towards the end of the match and even that was from outside the box at a tough angle and with bodies around him.

And so the question was, "Can the Revs respond?" Buddy,, did they ever.


What a goddamn PISS MISSILE just before the half. What an answer! Nemeth flicks it to a streaking Diego inside the box and the new dad with a heater off the right foot to the back of the net.

Now, leading up to Diegos first goal as a father, as well as afterwards, the Revs were holding the ball pretty deep into Red Bull territory. Nemeth was being given a lot of space to operate on the right wing and had a few runs that ended in him being brought down in the box but no penalties called. On the other side, Penilla was clearly a focal point of the attack going at the New York left side. He was being given little room to work with but the Revs found some success in getting him some room to work with by switching the field of play and putting long balls over the defense and onto his foot. He's obviously dangerous with the ball but that last sequence just wasn't there most of the time.

I like to call the Revs attack "The Edge" because its a lot of buildup and promising teasing only to be left with no finish.

And guess what? With The Edge comes a lot of emotion when you finally put one home.


It all starts with Luis Caicedo. The DM pushes up the field and wins the ball back on the end line. He whips it back towards the field of play and it falls to Penilla. Penilla, with the defense now scrambling to get back into position, uses his speed to push past his marker and uses he separation to put a nice low cross in front of the net for Teal to finish off. That goal was like an Italian chef kissing his fingers.


The scoreline would hold as the Revs weathered a late comeback attempt to take all 3 points at home.

I thought Dielna was solid at LB. His defense was never really the question for me, it was the attacking. His crossing was not very good, which was a bit odd given his relative competence in his debut as a free kick and corner kick taker tonight. He nearly put a free kick home from a difficult angle on the near side of the goal, but the power shot was pushed away by Ryan Meara. I do expect Somi to assume regular LB duties but Dielna was more than serviceable in that position.

I also thought Nemo had a nice game. He prefers to play in a more central attacking role, but his work on the right wing was very good and his take ons were instrumental in getting looks at goal and set pieces all night.

And for a final game thought: Aurelien Collin has a highly punchable face.



Man of the Match

So important to the attack today and had the game-winning assist.


The lads go on the road for a little Manifest Destiny campaign. At Louisville for the US Open Cup on Tuesday, then at Chicago in a week, and then at at San Jose 4 days after that. Put on your walking shoes and pack your cures for cholera, we're heading West.

REVS 2-1 Red Bulls. Cue the music!





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Chris Tierney Done For The Year With A Torn ACL


Heartbreaking news out of Foxboro yesterday. Chris Tierney's year is done following a non-contact injury just before the half against Atlanta Wednesday. When he went down, we all knew in the back of our minds what had happened, but actually seeing the confirmation is a gut punch. Tierney is 32 and has spent his entire 11-year professional career with New England. The local kid from Wellesley has made 246 appearances for the Revs, sitting behind only Matt Reis and Shalrie Joseph on the all-time appearances list, and is by far their longest tenured player.

There were rumors that Chris was contemplating retirement before the season, and this injury has started that talk back up. He's clearly lost a step and is on the back end of his playing career, but this injury being what does him in would hurt a lot. Personally, I think Tierney wants to go out on his own terms, not because of an injury, so I think we'll see him again next season, even if just for one match to say goodbye.

It's a tough blow not just for Tierney and the emotions of fans, but to the team as well. He and Gabriel Somi were the only true left backs on the roster, and with Somi being inconsistent the rotation has been thrown for a loop. With the transfer window opening soon I fully expect someone to be brought in on loan to back up Somi. I also see Friedel bringing in another LB in the winter to fully prepare for Tierney's exit in the near future.

Heartbreaking news for Tierney, and I hope this isn't it for him. He's a fighter and you know he'll work his ass off to get back to full health ASAP. Just tough to see.
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