OPINION: The Tale of Two Teams

Revs Game Against Red Bulls Shows Two Sides

September 26, 2007

By Emlyn Lewis

We saw both sides of the Revolution in their 2-2 tie with the Red Bulls Saturday. First, the negative. The Revolution twice had the lead, and twice gave it up. They can't close out games, because they lack the discipline to possess the ball.

Despite playing two defensive midfielders, the Revolution only seem to know how to go forward. After taking the lead in the 70th minute, there was no one to bring on who could slow the game down. So they continued to play at New York's urgent pace, a pace that yielded, not surprisingly, a goal.

Oh, and Taylor Twellman went down injured at the end. The Revs are nothing without Twellman.

Taylor Twellman scored twice for the Revolution on Saturday..

Their attacking talent isn't matched by defensive experience. The Energy Drinks' second equalizer was scored by Juan Pablo Angel, easily springing the Revolution's offside trap just 25 yards out. It was a naive goal to give up. During the regular season this sort of goal is disappointing. At playoff time it's the end of the road. With both D.C. United and Chivas USA surging ahead of the Revs in the overall league table, the Supporters' Shield is now well and truly lost.

Finally, New York is barely a .500 team. Sure, the second half of their season has been better than the first, thanks mainly to the acquisition of Angel and the emergence of Jozy Altidore. But despite all that talent, New York isn't a great team. At their peak, the Revolution would wipe the field with a team like this, not let them back into the game twice. You have to ask yourself, if this team isn't peaking now, with the playoffs less than a month away, are they then valleying?

Now, the positive. They earned a point on the road in a hard-played game against a divisional rival completely stocked with attacking talent. These are the results you play for. You're disappointed not to get the three points, but better safe than sorry. You're already in the postseason tournament, why get worked up?

More importantly, this was always the Revolution's game to lose. They scored the first goal, and when pressed, they scored again. Taylor Twellman is rounding into his best form at exactly the right time. The brace he put past former Dutch international keeper Ronald Waterreus are just appetizers. A healthy Pat Noonan will contribute, too. The playoffs will be a Revolution goalfest.

You see, the Revolution are an October team. Their record in the final month of the season eclipses that of all their rivals. Just when they appear to be getting weaker, they will grow strong again. That they should have won this game says all that needs saying. The talent and effort were there. But for a momentary defensive brain lapse, they would have taken three points on the road at the height of the season.

This is the mania of the end of the season: the positive, the negative and the truth, which, as always, lies somewhere in between. The Revolution probably are out of the hunt for the Supporters' Shield. At this point, they're depending on D.C. and Chivas losing more than they are on winning games themselves. They have the defensive talent to win down the stretch, but they need to improve their concentration.

And it's also true that the Revs don't have a game changer sitting on the bench, a player who can dictate the pace of the game when the team has its nose in front, but they seem to get a lead often enough that holding that lead isn't always a matter of changing the pace of play. Sometimes it's just about scoring more goals and killing the other team's will to play.

To get a realistic picture, you also have to look at the rest of league. Is there a team better than the Revolution? D.C. can be just as vulnerable defensively as New England, and, as proven in last year's Eastern Conference Championship, sometimes it only takes a goal to put a good team out of the playoffs. Chivas USA are a strong defensive unit, but they sometimes struggle to score goals. So the Revolution are easily as good as any team in the league. They can win any game they play, at any stadium in the country.

On any given Sunday, as the saying goes.

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