It is probably time to reign in the optimism in New England. I am having a blast watching this Revolution team’s 2012 season unfold. I grew up around New England sports fans, though, and I learned more about vitriol for all teams from New York than I did about good luck streaks. This is a short piece of writing about a team on the cusp of playoff position points, near halfway through the season, with plenty of time left, a five game non-losing streak, with only two ties, and more recent shutouts than before, but that bit wasn’t saying much. This is not about a trophy contending team, not yet.
Here comes Toronto FC! While Revs fans (especially from 2011) can relate to their current struggles, TFC isn’t a team we should have to wait until the last gasp to tie. Our squad is clearly better than TFC, but only three weeks ago that’s exactly what we did. Over on the NBC sports soccer blog, Steve Davis has called TFC, “difficult to beat.” I can’t tell you with any confidence who will start in goal or in central midfield this week against Toronto FC. Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans, and if we aren’t careful, Terry Dunfield will snatch these precious three points from our house if we don’t rip this game out of their hands decisively.
Sure, along with most people who watch MLS, I’m confident that New England will score. I also have no idea who will score the goals. That uncertainty is exciting. Until recently, that particular sweet excitement was balanced by a too frequent, sour uncertainty from our defense. This last stretch of five games has featured Chicago – let’s talk about uncertainty in front of goal, Columbus – who park a big yellow bus but don’t really do much else, Toronto – no one’s model of club success, Seattle – during one of their worst stretches of play in MLS, and that New York squad that visited without six of their starters.
Our Revs have made enough improvements to legitimately knock on the door to the MLS Cup Playoffs door and get noticed by other clubs, media, and fans around the league. We have been working on that all season long. Toronto’s coaching change has them scrapping for respect and results and continuing to beat up other Canadian teams. New England soccer fans, even casual sports fans (though in New England are there any ‘casual’ sports fans?) will see this Toronto teams record and reputation and label this game a ‘must win.’ This week our Revs are on the other side of the underdog debate.
This has “trap game” written all over it. Unlike in baseball or basketball where the league schedule is congested and back-to-back games are common, in MLS, games are not supposed to sneak up on anyone. Preparation is essential and I am confident in Jay Heaps and the rest of the coaches. I hope the players are ready to dominate this TFC team from the opening whistle and for all 90+ minutes. I fear that TFC carries around enough self-belief right now to stick around and try to return the last minute, game changing goal that we gave them just three weeks ago. So, to escape this trap we’ll need to not only score first, but score several and then put our cleats right on their figurative throats and hold them out of this game. Last week’s win felt pretty good precisely because it didn’t require any last minute heroics. If I had to choose between an exciting game or a decisive victory, this week I’ll take decisive victory. Let’s leave dramatic ties to other teams on the outside of the playoff picture. Let’s reign in the optimism and realize that our Revs are likely to leave a few more games this season disappointed. But let’s save all that reasonable tempering of expectations until after we crush this Toronto FC game.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
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