We're Still Kicking...

Yes, a bit of a slow time, and if you're wondering why there's been no posts from me lately, it's because I voluntarily took a week off after the Chivas away game because if I had written a column then, it would have been something like.

"@U$)@ those @&*$)@ played *$_@$*_@ awful, they couldn't hit the @($*%*&@)% side off a *$)@&$@& barn. No one gave a *@)%@*& and they all played like )@$*&_@$*"

Don't worry, a week later, things are back to normal. Every year around this time, the Revs seem to slump. Hopefully, they'll break out soon.

Nice to see Stevie Nicol earn the right to coach the All Stars against the team from Glasgow, Ireland (**), Celtic FC.

The Summer of US Soccer is coming to an end, the US followed up their defeat of Mexico in the Gold Cup final by sending a D team to Copa America, and scored twice.. while allowing 8 goals and finishing last in their group.

Could be worse, I guess.. we could have our goalie sent off in the third minute of a knockout game, like Paraguay did against El Tri.. 6-0 and the scoreline coulda been worse.

If you haven't watched the U20 World Cup, I strongly suggest you do.. The "Young Yanks" followed up a scrappy 1-1 draw with South Korea by thrashing Poland 6-1 (with some of the prettiest goals you'll ever see), and then beating prohibitive favorites Brazil on national TV (the game was shown on ESPN), 2-1. Nice to see the Wunderkid, Freddy Adu, live up to the hype, with some of the most beautiful play I've ever seen. They play their round of 16 game midweek, back on ESPNU, either against Uruguay or Costa Rica..

Now, for Saturday's game. Twellman started the game on the bench due to jet lag, but he made all the difference in the 2nd half. Stevie must have torn a few strips from the team at halftime, they played like they had a set in the 2nd half that they didn't in the first.

(**) Yes, I know it's Glasgow, Scotland.. but I couldn't resist.. if you ever want to see a Celtic fan pissed, sing em a couple bars of "Where in Ireland is Glasgow". Then I recommend you duck.

All's Well with the World

Let's see.. a couple weeks ago.. we were panicking.

First it was the tie against RSL where we dominated.

Then it was the game against Columbus where we blew a 3-1 lead.

And things were about the same on the USMNT side. With a new coach, and perennial favorites Mexico looking to chop us down, were we going to lose our stranglehold on the ugliest trophy in the Beautiful game?

Well.. coming into this weekend, Maalox was being chugged by the gallon and Rolaids tablets were being eaten like Tic Tacs..

Then the Revs stepped up and dominated Toronto from whistle to whistle, and the Reds left Gilette for the 2nd straight time without a goal, losing 3-0 as Dorman (2) and Noonan laid a kickin in to our Northern neighbors..

And spurred on by the Greatest Gold Cup Goal EVER, the USA defeated Mexico 2-1 to lift the Gold Cup once more.

By the way, if you didn't see the Benny Feilhaber goal live.. watch it tonight (replay at 11 PM on FSC), or catch it on YouTube or something. it is definitely a must see goal. Complete and utter class.

edit: Thanks to the fine folks at BigSoccer, here's a YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETrlNYxjyM&NR=1

So.. crisis averted.. at least for now.

20 People Who Rocked The Fort

20 People Who Rocked The Fort: The Twenty Most Influential People In New England Revolution History

The Blue Blooded Journo blog is pleased to announce a contest to determine the twenty most influential people in New England Revolution franchise history.

Somewhat borrowing the name and spirit of a similar undertaking by Liverpool fans last year, this will be 100% fan determined. The voting will take place by email and the results will be released in a similar fashion as the Top 100 Red Sox Project. In other words, there will be a few articles every week featuring each of the people chosen starting with #20 until the entire list is revealed.

The rules are simple. Send in a list of your top ten followed by a list of up to ten people (in no particular order) who you feel deserve honorable mention. The scoring will be as follows:

1. 35 pts
2. 25 pts
3. 20 pts
4. 15 pts
5. 12 pts
6. 10 pts
7. 8 pts
8. 7 pts
9. 6 pts
10. 5 pts

Honorable Mentions: 1 pts


This will make the order or your top ten list extremely important, so choose wisely.

The list will obviously be player dominated. However, coaches, front office personnel, press/media types, etc... are all fair game if you feel they are responsible for making the franchise what it is today. Voting commences immediately and will end on Sunday, June 24.

All Revolution fans of all shapes, sizes, and experience are invited to participate. Also, if you are just a fan of MLS and feel you have enough of a grasp on Revolution history, by all means cast your vote. Please limit one vote per person.

If you want to add comments to your list, feel free to do so. There's a good chance those comments will be included in their profile if that person made the list.

Send your votes to BlueBloodedJourno@gmail.com

But wait, there's more! The person whose top ten most closely resembles the actual top 10 will receive a free t-shirt of their choosing from the soon to be reopened Blue Blooded Journo supporter t-shirt shop. Tie breakers will be determined by honorable mentions on the list. You don't need to send in your contact info with your list. I'll contact the winner when the results are tabulated.

So get your votes in. This is a great way to honor those who have given us, the fans, so much to cheer (and cry) about over the 11+ years of Revolution soccer.

Commies Won - Freedom Of Expression Nil

Nobody comes to Blue Blooded Journo for politics, and I mean nobody. In fact, a lot less soccer fans would stop by and a lot more wackos with their high horses on soapboxes would if I ever began spouting off my brand of politico. That's something I do my best to avoid. However, I'm making an exception this time after reading about what occurred at the friendly between RSL and the Chinese national team last night in Salt Lake City.

According to a first hand account on the Fire John Ellinger site, several RSL fans and Tibetan ex-pats were told to put away their ROC (Taiwan) and Tibetan flags. This was followed by someone who appeared to be a PRC political officer demanding the flags be removed and a Tienanmen Square protest banner be taken down. The game was actually stopped in the 60th minute with the Chinese team threatening to walk off the field. One fan was booted from the stadium and several people were asked to relinquish their flags to security even after they stopped waiving them.



I'm usually hard on RSL management, but I can't blame them for not seeing this coming. In my opinion, they were just reacting to a situation in which they were blindsided. If they did nothing, the Chinese team may have walked off the field and it could have created an international incident. However, this does raise some issues in regards to freedom of expression.

In this country, you have the right to speak your mind, but you don't have the right to be heard. In other words, you can't interrupt a funeral of a fallen soldier to yell "I'm happy he's dead" if you are a hippie and you can't walk on stage at a comedy club and preach the Bible just because you feel the audience needs saving. However, you do have the right to non-intrusively voice your political opinions, which is what occurred last night. In China, you absolutely can not speak out against the government. Even if it's in a social setting, voicing your opposition will result in you getting "taken away" by the police.

So why does China get a free pass on the world stage? Besides the normal grievances by Amnesty International, little is said about these basic human rights violations. The reason is that, although it still has an authoritative political regime, China has moved to a strong free market manufacturing-based economy. The world's largest economies rely on cheap goods from their country. In return, China does the right thing and reinvests it's surplus cash in foreign government bonds, thus stabilizing the world's currencies. If they hadn't done this, there would have been crippling inflation in China and erratic fluctuations in world markets. China has also allowed foreign corporations to take up shop in their country and participate in their growth. In other words, China has been a a good economic partner to the world and there is a symbiotic relationship which world leaders don't want to break up.

Politics and soccer are no strangers. Opposing fans will often use such issues to dig into their opponents. Mostly, it's done just to get a reaction and throw them off their game. Supporters, for the most part, do not have political agendas. They just hate their opponents on gameday. The most vivid example of this for American soccer fans would be the 2005 World Cup qualifier in Mexico. Their fans were very vicious with their "9/11" and "Osama" chants. There was enough animosity to fill three dump trucks, but that was all about riling up our players as opposed to advancing a political agenda.

However, there have been rivalries down the years which have had deep political roots. Rangers-Celtic, Barcelona-Real Madrid, and River Plate-Boca Juniors are some of the more famous ones. Opposing fans have had conflicting views on important issues and these rivalries have reached a boiling point resulting in bloodshed. To Americans, this is a foreign concept. The only thing like even remotely close to it in American sports would be the Canadiens-Maple Leafs rivalry a few decades back and that has mellowed out over the years.

Getting back to last night, protests have been an important part of American culture since the 60's. We in this country take pride in the fact we can voice our opinion as a group when we feel it is necessary. We also know the rules and often work within the system to ensure our voices are heard, yet no one will have their own civil liberties violated in the process. What went on last night wasn't large enough in scale to cause a disturbance. RSL has every right to remove anything they feel is offensive. However, a simple flag isn't offensive unless it's a symbol of hate. I guess the Chinese officials were taken aback by the fact they weren't allowed to take those fans into custody, which is surely what would have happened in their homeland. Sorry guys, that's not how we do things here.

Take this opportunity to educate yourself on the history of Taiwan and Tibet, as well as human rights violations in China. The 2008 Olympics are in Beijing and the world will be talking about these things soon enough. Just be sure they aren't trying to pull the wool over our eyes when they do.

Twellman Sets Up Dempsey - They Couldn't Do That Here?

Last night, the US national team won their Gold Cup opener by defeating Guatemala 1-0. The lone goal came from a Clint Dempsey tap in which was set up by a Taylor Twellman pass:



This begs the question: why couldn't they do that enough here? Dempsey featured as a forward with the Revolution in his fair share of outings with the team. He was mostly used as a midfielder, but saw extensive time at forward in 2004 and 2006 due to injuries. The results were comme se comme sa with the Revs attack usually looking inept. This was especially true last season with Deuce and TnT pairing up top with Pat Noonan spending so much time on the DL.

It's good to see Twellman delivering a nice set up like that. Let's hope that's the start of a trend, not just an aberration.

In other former Revs news, Pepe Cancela scored a goal from the spot in Colorado's 2-1 loss in Houston last night. This game ran opposite the US game and also featured Dwayne DeRosario calling part of the game from a sports bar via his cell phone. DeRo was in Miami with the Canadian national team and couldn't make the game for his club. I hope this shines the spotlight even more on MLS's reluctance to schedule a few weeks break every June to allow for international competitions.