Wanted: Defensive depth

I'm broke, I'm sunburned and I'm pissed off. How is it that in New England has only managed two points in their last three games, despite scoring six goals, facing two of the worst teams in the league, and having a two goal lead at some point in two of those games?

I'll tell you how, Jay fucking Heaps. When he's on, he's one of the best right backs in MLS, but as of late he's been nothing short of "MLS quality" and has cost us dearly. The defense in general has looked shaky since Michael Parkhurst left with Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman for the Gold Cup. Avery John was fine tonight, despite getting his first minutes of the season, but James Riley and Jay Heaps have got to sharpen up or it's going to be a long season.

I had a feeling Adam Cristman would show up big tonight, and he did, but his efforts were futile with Khano Smith stinking up the attack. In typical Steve Nicol fashion, we opted not to use any substitutes, though we were letting the game slip away. I can have no complaints about our offense today, excluding Khano Smith. We had three well taken goals, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

For defense on the other hand, I am very upset. Shalrie and Big Red played solid games, but it looked like James Riley wanted to play right back and Jay Heaps wanted to play right wing back, as there was this huge gaping hole where they should have been playing. Matt Reis really couldn't do much about either of the goals as by the time he was in a position to save, the attacker had already had enough time to settle and take a shot.

The Revolution lined up in an expected 3-5-2 formation with rookie Adam Cristman replacing Taylor Twellman up top and James Riley sliding in from the left to replace Parkhurst, with Avery John starting on the left. Wells Thompson filled Steve Ralston's shoes admirably.

GK: Matt Reis - 6
RB: Jay Heaps -5
CB: James Riley - 5
LB: Avery John - 6
DM: Shalrie Joseph - 7
DM: Jeff Larentowicz - 7
RM: Wells Thompson - 7
AM: Andy Dorman - 7
LM: Khano Smith - 5
CF: Pat Noonan - 7
CF: Adam Cristman - 8

The game started very well, within the first twenty four seconds we had already been in the box twice and managed two decent crosses. However, in the 8th minute Columbus took one shot, one goal, and had a lead. However, Adam Cristman responded only five minutes later with a well taken goal that was finger tipped by Columbus keeper Will Hesmer. Only four minutes after that Andy Dorman played a beautiful ball to Pat Noonan who calmly finished his first of the season. The play would go back and forth until the 37th minute when Pat Noonan played across the box for Adam Cristman and the rookie had his second of the game. New England fans however would suffer a hard blow as an unmarked Schelotto cut Columbus' deficit to one, sliding a ball past a diving Reis in the final seconds of stoppage time.

Half: New England 3 - 2 Columbus

The second half was littered with poor runs from Khano Smith and lazy defending from Jay Heaps. James Riley certainly looked improved this half, but was picking up most of Heaps slack and eventually Columbus took advantage, playing a ball up that right wing and Alejandro Moreno would get his second goal with Columbus, evening things up at three. New England could have easily lost this game due to horrible defending and if I'm Steve Nicol, I'd be looking at several defenders right now. Hell, he had four national teams to scout today.

Final: New England 3 - 3 Columbus

June 17th, 2007

Just a little update, I watched a recording of the game and Noonan's hand ball at the end was an atrocious call, another instance of the Revolution getting screwed over by officiating.