Not how to draw it up...

So a lot of people seemed upset at the performance in Boston this weekend, and I'll agree, it was one of the uglier 0-0 draws youll see, but I'd disagree with the notion that it was a throw back to the early years of the league. Back then you'd see a 5-4 defensive meltdown performance. This game, I feel, was the result of two teams without big offensive weapons (Zusi and Bengstrom) trying to not make mistakes. Cold, windy conditions and a small, plastic field didn't help thing. New England basically came out in a 4-5-1 that became a 4-6-0 when Barret came out.

All that said though, I'm always of the opinion that a road point in MLS is fine, and it's only Week 4. SKC has played 3 out of 4 matches on the road and earned 4 points. If they can keep up that pace and find their home form I think things will be just fine this season.

Now then, ratings.

New England with the slight advantage ratings wise, and I think the stats would reflect that. SKC has many fewer passes than New England, and that's concerning, but holding a team to 0 shots on goal is a great accomplishment none the less. Collin and Opara tied for Man of the Match. Let's give it to Opara. I thought Collin had the better game, but always fun to credit the new guy.

New England is Revolting

Well, another good news, bad news type of game. Our defense remains really really really good. Our offense remains really really flat. Predictable. I guess the opposite of clinical would be unclinical, so unclinical in the final third. Really just sort of blah stuff, even though the chances are there.

I sort of feel like New England came out in almost a 4-6-0 and didn't put on any strikers until over an hour in, so in that sense I think their game plan worked. Keep it clogged in the middle, force us wide, and hope new legs can run at a tired defense.

I know a lot of people were upset at home much the Revs players were cramping up and going down, but really, in that heat and that kind of match, some cramping would be expected. I'm sure some of it was gamesmanship, but nothing was too outrageous for me. The ref did have three crazy non-calls on what looked to be a horrible application of the advantage rule, but all in all I thought the ref and linesmen had good games as well. No one to blame for that result except our attackers, and maybe Vermes, who kept his starting 11 so unchanged during the first eight games I think a lot of people thought he was crazy. Now that he's switching things up a lot, maybe he was on to something. I'd like to see Cesar starting more, as well as switching between CJ and Teal.

But, anyways, first, some game photos. It was really damn hot so I took a little while to walk around the stadium and snap some photos of our lovely little home. I also moved from the north stand to to east cauldron to the south stand throughout the game to get some new vantage points and, as much as I love the Cauldron, I may want to get "good" seats next year. I really enjoyed venturing out amongst the "normal" folks.

I've noticed that my photography seems to have gotten wose since I got a digital camera, but I really don't wanna drop a grand+ on a new digital SLR, so if any one know's a good camera in the $200-$200 range, let me know. Otherwise, I'm seriously thinking about going back to film...

Anyway, on to the ratings. A pretty big three way tie this week among SKC and New England. Reis, Collin, and Harrington share the honors, all coming up big defnesively, but you know what? I'm gonna give it to Mikey. He filled in on the back line really well and did a good job coming forward. For the most part his service was really good and I honestly felt like he could have been even more involved had Collin not overlooked him a few times. I think the ratings also show Kansas City had a slightly better game, which I felt was the case. Tough to not get three points at home against New England.

New England
Matt Reis	6.3
AJ Soares	5.8
Chris Tierney	6.0
Kevin Alston	5.5
Darrius Barnes	4.0
Lee Nguyen	5.0
Shalrie Jopseh	5.0
Benny Feilhauber	4.7
Kelyn Rowe	4.2
Stephen McCarthy	5.0
Fernando Cardenas	4.2
Ryan Guy	4.7
Saer Sene	4.2
Blake Brettschneider	4.2
Team Average	4.9
Sporting Kansas City
Jimmy Nielsen	6.0
Aurelien Collin	6.3
Seth Sinovic	5.8
Lawrence Olum	4.2
Matt Besler	5.8
Michael Harrington	6.3
Michael Thomas	4.2
Graham Zusi	5.3
Jacob Peterson	4.5
Paolo Nagamura	4.7
Bobby Convey	4.7
Kei Kamara	4.5
CJ Sapong	4.5
Soony Saad	4.2
Team Average	5.1

So take a bow, Mr. Harrington, I think it's excellent to have a guy like you coming off the bench when needed. A starter anywhere else in the league in my book.

Harder than it looks

Not a bad week with predictions last week. 8 out of 12, with only one exact wrong. Seasonally we're sitting on 56/119, for 47.1%. I think the best MLS expert is 55/119, so hey, beating the "best", right!? Well, no. Home teams are still winning 51.3% of the time, so at this point, it's still best to just pick the home team to win.

Speaking of which, what's the pick for this week? Just one game, so it better not be wrong...

New England beats Chicago by 2 goals.

There, I said it.