Category: Uncategorized

The last thing that the Rapids need after that huge injury spat and a string of mediocre results including seven draws and a loss in their last 10 games is a controversy at any positions on the pitch. Unfortunately, coach Gary Smith seems to have decided that he has no idea who he wants to play at left back, with three players – two of which have subpar quality – getting starts recently.

TeamOps security came upon The Fort – the name of the supporters area at Gillette Stadium which houses a couple of supporters groups including the Midnight Riders and The Rebellion – and decided to 'crack down on profanity' by asking for the removal of the capo of the group after the popular 'You Suck, Asshole!' chant was performed. As the night continued, arrests took place and the already deadened atmosphere with the tiny crowd was completely squelched. Take a look here at The Drug Is Football and here on tBM for a more in-depth explanation of the events. Really petty and pathetic by the Revs front office.

It all reminds me of the Rapids supporters and the problems between them and the Rapids FO that we saw for so many years, efforts that squelched our real supporters groups and killed any attempts at atmosphere we ever may have had at Invesco Field up until last year when the Terraces were finally put in. Although there was never anything as straight up sickening as this, bans from the stadium and even an arrest or two took place between security and the supporters at DSGP on occasion. To this day, things like streamers, smoke bombs and a lot of other things are banned and anything to be used in the terraces has to be 'checked in' so as to avoid any conflicts.

The Revolution seem to be one of the final teams if not the final team in MLS that's stuck in the 90's when soccer in the US was a baby sport for babies and MLS was nothing more than a place to take the youth soccer team after getting ice cream. No 'European' style support at most of the stadiums, and in the places that there was that sort of thing it was usually to cavernous to hear them anyway!

Well, times have changed.

I have never been to a single major league sporting event in my life where I didn't hear a single profanity, except for a few 90's Rapids games perhaps where there weren't enough people there to HEAR the profanities. I've been to NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA… pretty much every type of sporting event possible even down to college ball in America, and there has been so-called profane language at every single one, loudly often. If you're foolish enough to take your 5 year old child to a sporting event in 2011 – this ain't 1950 anymore, folks – then you damn well better expect a little profanity to come at the kid.

If Revs supporters are anything like any other supporters I've ever heard, YSA is probably one of the more mild chants that they oft perform! And if a fan from another country heard about this, there's a good chance that the reaction would be something like 'They got a bunch of people thrown out and banned from the stadium for saying 'asshole'? Are you kidding?" We as a country just need to catch up to the rest of the world, and slowly but surely we are except for incidents like this. The support is there in Boston, we've seen loads of people show up to games at times in the past. What they need is a front office who realizes that this is not a baseball team, and the real fans of the team don't want a baseball atmosphere.

Good luck to Revs fans at getting your stadium back into the hands of the people. Every supporters group in MLS is right alongside, rooting for you.

TeamOps security came upon The Fort – the name of the supporters area at Gillette Stadium which houses a couple of supporters groups including the Midnight Riders and The Rebellion – and decided to 'crack down on profanity' by asking for the removal of the capo of the group after the popular 'You Suck, Asshole!' chant was performed. As the night continued, arrests took place and the already deadened atmosphere with the tiny crowd was completely squelched. Take a look here at The Drug Is Football and here on tBM for a more in-depth explanation of the events. Really petty and pathetic by the Revs front office.

It all reminds me of the Rapids supporters and the problems between them and the Rapids FO that we saw for so many years, efforts that squelched our real supporters groups and killed any attempts at atmosphere we ever may have had at Invesco Field up until last year when the Terraces were finally put in. Although there was never anything as straight up sickening as this, bans from the stadium and even an arrest or two took place between security and the supporters at DSGP on occasion. To this day, things like streamers, smoke bombs and a lot of other things are banned and anything to be used in the terraces has to be 'checked in' so as to avoid any conflicts.

The Revolution seem to be one of the final teams if not the final team in MLS that's stuck in the 90's when soccer in the US was a baby sport for babies and MLS was nothing more than a place to take the youth soccer team after getting ice cream. No 'European' style support at most of the stadiums, and in the places that there was that sort of thing it was usually to cavernous to hear them anyway!

Well, times have changed.

I have never been to a single major league sporting event in my life where I didn't hear a single profanity, except for a few 90's Rapids games perhaps where there weren't enough people there to HEAR the profanities. I've been to NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA… pretty much every type of sporting event possible even down to college ball in America, and there has been so-called profane language at every single one, loudly often. If you're foolish enough to take your 5 year old child to a sporting event in 2011 – this ain't 1950 anymore, folks – then you damn well better expect a little profanity to come at the kid.

If Revs supporters are anything like any other supporters I've ever heard, YSA is probably one of the more mild chants that they oft perform! And if a fan from another country heard about this, there's a good chance that the reaction would be something like 'They got a bunch of people thrown out and banned from the stadium for saying 'asshole'? Are you kidding?" We as a country just need to catch up to the rest of the world, and slowly but surely we are except for incidents like this. The support is there in Boston, we've seen loads of people show up to games at times in the past. What they need is a front office who realizes that this is not a baseball team, and the real fans of the team don't want a baseball atmosphere.

Good luck to Revs fans at getting your stadium back into the hands of the people. Every supporters group in MLS is right alongside, rooting for you.

It's the same old story. People will be pleased with the United States simply because they managed to get a win out of nowhere in a situation that would have fans of good national teams like Spain, Germany or even Mexico saying 'Is that really all you're giving us?'

It took until the early goings of the second half to get something going, as Jermaine Jones launched a shot through  several defenders in the 49th minute. The ball deflected off of one of them and into the back of the net for the first United States goal of the match. Jones made a classy salute to his dad – a military man – as a father's day tribute upon putting the ball in for his first ever national team goal. Landon Donovan came in for the ineffective Bedoya after the goal had been scored.

Clint Dempsey scored against the reeling Reggae Boyz in the 80th minute with a class finish all alone in front of goal, killing any lingering hopes of a Reggae Boyz comeback and allowing USMNT fans to catch their breath after Jamaica started to put together a couple of late breaks still with ten men out. Not a great performance by the States, but good enough to beat a ten man Jamaica team.

The US will face the winner of the Panama-El Salvador match in Houston. Hopefully we see the full strength line-up out there and the two injuries we saw today weren't all that serious. If the game is against Panama, the USA will have to do everything in their power in order to keep from losing their second match to the Red Tide in as many tries.

Smith blamed the lack of creativity and the referees for the loss in his postgame comments, but his line-up was just not what Rapids fans expected to see when they filled up DSGP today.

For the next 20 minutes or so – basically the entire rest of the half – Colorado looked terrible and lackadaisical to say the very least. This culminated in the second goal, a brilliant shot off of Juninho's foot from 25 yards out that no keeper in the world would have stopped. The ball came from Burchell as he was once again unmarked by Danny Earls, who also failed to press back and keep Juninho from having the wide open shot. Thankfully for the Rapids, there was very little stoppage time and the half came to a quick and painful end for them.

Caleb Folan made a tackle on Juninho in the 74th minute, getting the ball but also nicking Juninho's ankle. He went down fast and hard, immediately grabbing various parts of his leg and screaming for the medical staff as a gang of Galaxy players surrounded him and did the same. The referee amidst all of the chaos gave a completely undeserved red card to Folan, leaving them down to 10 men for the rest of the game and killing any real chance that Colorado had at a comeback. Juninho, disgracefully, came back into the game minutes later. LA scored the dagger a little while after that, putting the rotted cherry on top of a night where pretty much nothing went right. That Murphy guy from Murphy's law must be an LA fan!

MAN OF THE MATCH: Omar Cummings. The Rapids against a fast defense for LA needed speed and finesse, and Cummings provided both of those before getting the initial chance on the only goal for them. He needs to start early and often from now on.

GOAT OF THE MATCH: Danny Earls. There is no reason that this man should be starting or even sitting on the bench for a half-decent MLS team.

GAME THREAD

As usual, here's something for you to read while waiting for Game Time!

Gold Cup preview: USA ready to rally vs. raucous Jamaica | MLSsoccer.com

CONCACAF Gold Cup: US – Jamaica Preview | – A couple of game previews I found for the Jamaica match that the USA will be playing today. Go Yanks!

John Spencer suspended and fined by Major League Soccer | OregonLive.com – Portland head coach – and former Rapids star – John Spencer was fined and banned for a scathing review of the referees during the Rapids match that has continued all week long since.

YouTube – ‪Alaska Air John Spencer Commercial‬‏ – Speaking of Spencer, this is a fantastic commercial and I'm glad that Alaska Airlines is making such great work out of their partnership with the Timbers.

As usual, here's something for you to read while waiting for Game Time!

Gold Cup preview: USA ready to rally vs. raucous Jamaica | MLSsoccer.com

CONCACAF Gold Cup: US – Jamaica Preview | – A couple of game previews I found for the Jamaica match that the USA will be playing today. Go Yanks!

John Spencer suspended and fined by Major League Soccer | OregonLive.com – Portland head coach – and former Rapids star – John Spencer was fined and banned for a scathing review of the referees during the Rapids match that has continued all week long since.

YouTube – ‪Alaska Air John Spencer Commercial‬‏ – Speaking of Spencer, this is a fantastic commercial and I'm glad that Alaska Airlines is making such great work out of their partnership with the Timbers.