Despite some serious interest from the Houston Dynamo, the New England Revolution has decided to pass on trade offers and will instead keep midfielder Benny Feilhaber.
The Revs acquired Feilhaber via the Allocation Process on Tuesday after Chivas USA and Philadelphia passed. By keeping Feilhaber, the Revs could now boast one of the top central midfields in MLS with Feilhaber and Shalrie Joseph.
New England can sorely use Feilhaber's creativity in an attack that has mustered just five goals in six matches this season.
What do you think of New England's decision? Glad to see the Revs keeping him? Still surprised Chivas USA and Philadelphia passed?
Share your thoughts below.
The Houston paper is reporting that the Revs wanted Brad Davis and Geoff Cameron… No way Houston pulls that trigger!
Aha good one 🙂
the factors just arent there for taking soccer into the big time in the bay area. the bay area has one of the highest viewerships of world cup, so there are fans. the mass of bay area soccer fans are too internationally-minded to take a MLS team serious. however, if suddenly the quakes were to make the semis of MLS playoffs, and conmebol were to announce that all four were in the following years libertadores, then I’d say move closer to SF, sign 2 or 3 big names, and market to SF big time…and schedule major friendlies w/euro teams…all at once. That would transform a perceived team for the suburbs and youth groups into a team reliant on inner city/european-minded supporter’s groups (where the numbers are). you’ll easily break 20k per game. any new venue will have to have closenss to regional mass transit…its not there w/Lew’s proposed stadium. hell, caltrain is actually cutting back night time schedules.
Benny could do better in Houston
Yeah never understood why they didn’t hire him? He went to the gulp…..Union?!
yeah, right where they are will support the team, if the team is worth supporting.
Get him Lex!
If he ends up like Twellman and scores 103 goals in MLS I think everyone will be happy.
Benny should hope to “end up like Twellman”.
#cut #n #paste #from #twitter
#does #it #really #matter?
Chivas needs more than 1 player, which would have been tough had they spent their entire wad on Benny…
This made me chuckle, then be pissed about the stadium situation. Revs need a venue like Red Bull Arena….PERIOD!
Fair enough. But in an effort to create a better atmosphere this year, the Revs mgmt have opened the other side of the lower bowl to now have fans on both sides….why they didn’t do that from the beginning is beyond me. Not sure how much of an effect it’s had yet.
AS far as the a problem with WHERE the stadium is: Foxboro is just so off the beaten path, it’s a trek to get there. If a soccer venue was in Boston, they’d have a better crowd (via location, public transportation, more culture diversity in the city) and they’d get plenty of game day walk ups as well.
But that being said, I see where you were making your point from. As Coach Belicheck says, “It is what it its.”
Kraft, sell to Fenway Sports Group! Maybe they can put some serious effort into building the Revs up.
poooooo
call me crazy, but i’d like to see Fenway Sports Group buy the Revs. Red Sox, Liverpool and the Revs. Get some kind of partnership even with Liverpool.
Throw me in Ryan’s camp not understanding what Philly did or why no explanation exists. Okugo and Torres are good, fine I agree with that. Gabe Farfan is a DF/MD, and has played more in defense. Keon Daniel has been a bright spot this year in my opinion, but is a wing player. Carroll/Migz/Mapp can DIAF as far as I’m concerned. Pfeffer/Richter/Mike Farfan can provide depth, because they’re either too young or too inexperienced to contribute. Meanwhile, LeToux/Ruiz haven’t been tearing it up mostly because of the horrid service from midfield. I didn’t get to catch the Sounders match, but it was played in a downpour so I almost don’t care what happened because conditions were miserable. Bring in Benny (I know it’s too late now) and play a 4-3-3 w/ Okugo/Feilhaber/old player dejour (probably Carroll) and LeToux/Ruiz/Mwanga up front. Why Mwanga has to ride pine for 60 minutes when we have to trot out the midfield we do baffles me
+1
San Jose is a bigger city than San Francisco…just sayin’
yeah, i agree. and it’s nothing against the fans that DO show up. it’s all about the fact that there are less than 10,000 of them on a regular basis. nicol is great though, so that’s a positive. but i still feel bad he’s getting forced to play in NE. oh well.
Josh, put the crack pipe down… BF is a better acquisition than EJ or FA
As another Union fan, I am a little disappointed. The Union attacking force is sputtering a bit and I think someone of Benny’s creativity and drive could have really made a huge contribution. Of well, I guess we’ll have to wonder what could have been. Either way I wish Benny and the Revs the best.
1 – Most teams wish they had a coach as good as Nicol.
2 – It’s not easy to replace a championship-level roster – Parkhurst, Dorman, Dempsey, Twellman, Ralston, Heaps. It makes you appreciate the chemistry and the talent of those teams, how good they were for a while.
3 – Most of the haters don’t realize how hard it is to get anything built around Boston. I’m not letting Kraft and company off the hook but I think it will get done eventually. But someone made a good point – Foxboro is not Boston, it’s halfway between there and Providence. Look how long it took to get RBA done; look at the continuing difficulty in DC.
4 – I used to live there but now I’m a Bills season ticket holder. So I get to root for two teams that almost but didn’t win it all. At least the Revs have a SuperLiga title and an Open Cup title – consolation yes, but it’s something.
5 – I find it hilarious that pioneering teams, fans, and owners, who took on the risk and the losses when it wasn’t cool yet, are getting slagged on by newbies (from teams who learned the lessons that the original teams got through the hard way).
6 – Tough to argue that (on the field at least) the Revs lack ambition when they went out this season and got Dabo, Domi, Lakic, and Feilhaber, and drafted McCarthy and Soares. We don’t know yet if it’ll all work, but that looks to me like they’re at least trying to improve the talent on the field. Twellman scored almost a goal a game in his career – you don’t find replacements that easily, or affordable enough for an MLS team.
NH_MLS – they already had Jay Heaps on there as color commentator.
Yes, I do not get why Philly passed. I have only seen a couple of their games and it seems to me that they mostly defend and hit long balls out, bypassing the midifield. Maybe that’s it, Novak has determined that his bunker down and counter approach does not need someone who can actually pass the ball. I guess the win over the RedBull was all the proof needed that his tactics work. When Carlos Ruiz is the forward and is spending most of his time 15 or 20 yards inside his defending half, you know it was the coach’s tactics.
I can sorta forgive him for last season when he did not have time to build, but he should have at least tried to get something more creative working.
I don’t think Ryan’s intention was to knock the Rev’s fans…It’s just that there aren’t many fans
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I find even watching the Revs on tv to be painfully boring. They need a new play-by-play announcer who isn’t so monotone. Plus, they should have hired their own former player Taylor Twellman as the color commentator.
I would definitely make most or all of the changes that people have called for regarding the Revolution. I would love it if the team had the branding of a club like Arsenal. Cannon logo ala the Revolutionary War, red kits, etc. Jersey sponsor would be nice. SSS would be great, as long as they can use Gillette for USMNT games, MLS Cups, and bigger Revolution match draws. And bring in my boy del Piero….hell yes! Well, maybe 2-3 years ago.
I have made the 45 minute trek from RI for nearly every match since 1996. The Revs have been so awful to watch from an aesthetic standpoint these past two years. It’s rebuilding. They’ll get better, and I am really excited about Feilhaber joining the team.
Embarrassment of the league, I think not. Like the original six in the NHL, the Revs are part of the foundation of the league. And until they get back to being perennial MLS Cup contendors, I’ll somehow manage to keep on living my life.
Based on the vehemently negative comments towards the club however, I don’t think others will survive as easily.
Though people may be beamoaning the Revs as his new team, I think his going to the New England franchise is probably the best move for the league as a whole. He has a chance to ignite interest in a sports-rabid area, and who knows…maybe the buzz he will create over this season could be what puts the franchise over the top in getting a soccer specific stadium? Let’s look at the long term here people. At the very least, now generic MLS or USMNT fans now have a reason to watch the Revs. That’s a great improvement for the franchise and for the league already.
hahahaha
An SF team and identity in a revamped Kezar with some solid marketing and partnering with USF could hit on all cylinders.
Heck even taking it in a different direction and building the same proposed stadium in Pleasanton would probably do better than SJ.
That said, I’d agree the visual of watching a game on TV at Buck Shaw is better than NE. Without question.
even if Quakes were to sign a big european name (like the stature of Henry) and a big Mexican name (like bofo or dos santos), in order to get the masses and masses of eurosnobs in SF (and, trust me, they’re are masses of them in the city) and the mexicans from Oakland, the team will still struggle to get even 17k in San Fran. Why? The quakes have spent too much time in the suburbs to be taken seriously. It would take a long time to rectify itself, and the team would need to seriously cultivate both groups that can deliver fans by the thousands- eurosnobs from SF, and mexicans from E.Bay
I had a dream last night that a US National Team member got sucked into a black hole……oh wait.
Seattle is a football-first stadium, as well. Crap?
If the Revs fill up their stadium, still crap?
Kit + DP + SSS… actually sounds like a great start! nah but fo real, fo real i agree that the revs did dominate for a bit. but as good as they were they’re just not an enjoyable club to watch. even when demps was there (my fav usmnt player) they weren’t cool. they’re like the san antonio spurs of mls HAH. so yea, maybe a DP + SSS would help this club out a lil. as nasty as DC United have been during their existence, can you imagine if they had they’re own stadium!? (and i’m a UNION fan) and hate on DP’s if you want, but Becks comin over really did get that ball rolling. even if he has only been here for half his contract haha.
quit your lying, you know damn well that the quakes attendance numbers were already near that 10k at buck shaw when they were a prior quakes team playing at Spartan. The fizz long ago went out of the bottle in terms of san jose excitement for a MLS franchise. Quakes will always be small potatoes unless they replace, not the venue, but the owner.
Yes, Boston would. NE Revolution is, for all intents and purposes, not in Boston. Were they to be, there’d be no problem.
“you are playing on fake grass with football lines”
I’m not playing anywhere. The Revs are. Fixes to make, for sure, but not fixes which improve the quality of the team on the field. Signing Benny helps do that.
Is there anywhere in New England that would actually support a soccer team? Hartford maybe? Providence? I know I’m grasping at straws but they don’t have a stadium tying them down and the team and fans deserve better than being treated like a minor-league baseball team. At least they can take comfort in the fact that they’re not Chivas USA.
Twellman’s career-ending head injury had nothing to do with what team he played for, so I’m not really worried about that.
hopefully feilhaber can create some excitement in NE and raise those attendance numbers, maybe not nasty excitement like vancouver but at least some saving-grace numbers. no doubt, chivas will replace NE in that 7-8k slot. Supposedly they have a “big move” in the summer. It will be too late by then. Feilhaber def makes me want to see NE v NY
Frankly, I think one of the best possible developments for MLS would be a soccer specific stadium in or adjacent to downtown Boston. I’d bet it would rival what we saw in Portland.
But come on – does anyone not HATE watching games in empty, characterless concrete bowls? Fifteen years ago, ownership supporting a team under any conditions was what was necessary for the growth of the league. For that, they have my gratitude. Today, playing in that stadium hurts the growth of MLS in Boston.
As for the Quakes…I’m not so sure that the league wouldn’t be better off with a stadium in San Francisco. (That will get me beaten up at the next Quakes game.) That said, the atmosphere at Buck Shaw is generally a positive and the new stadium will build on that. All that aside, however many shortcomings you find with San Jose…Revs games STILL look like marbles in a bathtub.
I’ve never understood the obsession with the kit sponsor, as if not selling an ad is somehow a mark of shame. I do wish they’d take the awful lettering off the front of the jerz but I’d be more than happy with just the badge and an adidas logo like SKC, Crew, Rapids etc.
I worry that the SSS will never come, but that’s the real silver bullet. I make the trek to Foxboro but I know so many more would go if they didn’t have to drive 45 minutes or so.
“end up like Twellman”? He’ll be forced to retire because he’s on the Revs as opposed to any other team?
You forgot to mention you are playing on fake grass with football lines…..another reason NE’s situation sucks.