OPINION: New Season Starts for Revs

Red Bulls First Test on Playoff Road

October 16, 2007

by Emlyn Lewis

Forget about the thunderous shot Guillermo Barros Schelotto put past Matt Reis to beat the Revolution in their final home game of the season Saturday night.

Forget that he beat Reis to the near post from outside the area, and forget that the Revolution ever had any shot at signing the Argentine legend (the story that Schelotto was ever close to coming to New England has been way oversold).

None of that matters now.

Michael Parkhurst

Michael Parkhurst will have to lock up NY's Juan Pablo Angel.

The Revolution have one regular season match remaining, away to Toronto, but they've finished second in the Eastern Conference, so their first round playoff match up is set. They'll face the New York Energy Drinks October 27 and November 3.

Three reasons why the Revolution will make it to the Eastern Conference Championship game again:

1) The Revs are the better road team. They went 6-5-3 on their travels this year, while New York could only muster three wins from 14 away matches. Of course, the first round playoffs are a total goals contest, but there again, the Revolution scored more goals per game in the regular season than the Energy Drinks did, and if you win both matches, there's pretty much a 100 percent chance you scored more goals.

2) New York's main scoring threat, Juan Pablo Angel, was offside 41 times in 23 games. He plays close to the edge, all the time, and doesn't read defenses very well, depending instead on lethal finishing skills. The Revolution will have Michael Parkhurst to defend him, and no one in MLS reads the game better than Parkhurst, who has only committed five fouls all year. For a central defender, that's super-human. No one is better equipped to cancel Angel out than Parkhurst.

3) New York scores through Angel and Jozy Altidore. Together they have 27 of the Energy Drinks' 46 total goals. Clint Mathis has six more. That's over 70 percent of the team's attacking output from three players. For the Revolution, Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan have just 22 of NE's 49 total goals, well below half, and the remainder of the goals have come from all over the park, which is to say, devising a strategy to neutralize New England's balanced attack is far more difficult than marking New York's two strikers out of a match.

Despite all that, three things to watch out for when facing New York:

1) Jozy Altidore. The Revolution don't play a possession-style game. They attack. Playing that way results, often, in giveaways in their own half. Altidore is fast enough and unpredictable enough to punish such mistakes with breathtaking goals.

2) Flank Speed. The Revolution don't have anyone as fast as Dane Richards, who came on in the second half of the season and established himself as a real threat going forward. His crosses improved, and his understanding with Angel, Altidore and Francis Doe grew.

3) Fake Grass. Unlike most teams in the league, the Energy Drinks are used to playing on fake grass. They won't be phased at all by the speed of play on the Foxboro pitch, and that small advantage won't tell quite like it does with other teams.

Predictions: Game 1 – Revs, 3 NY, 2. Game 2 – NY, 1 Revs 1.

Emlyn Lewis can be reached at emlynlewis@comcast.net.