Photo by USA Today Sports Images
By DAN KARELL
The New England Revolution are suddenly playing like a team destined for a run to the MLS Cup final.
With Jermaine Jones making his first two starts since joining the club, the Revolution recorded two massive wins in MLS Week 26, defeating Sporting Kansas City last Wednesday, 3-1, and the Chicago Fire last Sunday, 2-1, to move into third place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The results, which included big performances from Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez, and Jones, earned the Revolution SBI MLS Team of the Week honors.
The Revolution beat out the Philadelphia Union and Real Salt Lake for this week’s honors.
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What did you think of the Revolution’s performance? Which team stood out to you in MLS Week 26?
Share your thoughts below.
Maybe this is it…. LA wins with DP’s Donovan, Keane and Gonzales against weak competition and in one case, 10 men. The Revs win 3 straight with one DP and he only really started to contribute against Chicago, and basically a no name team. WHich is the bigger accomplishment?
La should win, with their payroll, not winning cannot be tolerated. And you think they should also get team of the week awards? Kinda like dressing the NY Yankees for the Little League World Series.
You’re not really paying attention to the Galaxy, are you? Keane’s been out of the team for a few games, Zardes is scoring tons of goals, and LA’s defense has been plagued by injuries all season. LA’s midfield is really responsible for its success. None of those guys are DPs.
But we all like narratives, so I don’t fault you.
To be specific, I’m referring to Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas in the midfield.
How does the Galaxy not even get a mention? They put in about as dominating of a performance as I’ve seen in this league.
They dominated the two worst teams in the league. Basically they had training sessions with spectators.
Yeah, but a mention…the Galaxy have to be favored to win it all.
Adrian, you’re right, of course. On the other hand, the Galaxy had two shutouts and a goal difference of 9 over those two games. Has any other team put up similar numbers any week this year? Or is LA the only club in the league that plays weak teams — depriving all others of a chance ever to dominate to such an unusual extent? Acknowledging your point, I still think Brian’s right — was the performance not even worth a mention?
A red card in the first minutes to a team that was already on the slide. No question LA dominated that game, but it really only would’ve been particularly noteworthy if they hadn’t considering the circumstances, I think.
That said (and I say this as a Revs fan) the Revs have also been winning games against troubled teams. Again: good performances, no question, and certainly an improvement over that eight-game slump (it’s that improvement that I think makes the difference over LA), but the questions will be answered when they have to play against teams in top form (teams like the Galaxy or DC).
I agree, Toronto didn’t show up, KC was missing Dwyer and Feilhaber, Chicago had no Magee. I think the 3 game stretch coming up of Columbus away, SKC away, then Columbus at home will show what the Revs are made of.
I think LA won SBI team of the week last week. They haven’t wavered since then, but as others mentioned, they beat some lackluster teams. LA is still the team to beat in the West, along with Seattle. If they keep dominating games the way they have, I don’t see any team challenging them for the Cup.
I thought Jones really outplayed Michael Bradley during the World Cup, and was surprised that MLS was able to get him. He’s tough, he’s strong, he runs the game. A good team needs a hard man like that — if ManU had Jermaine Jones they wouldn’t be in trouble. The only problem is he’s 32, and that’s not really a problem. The most important signing of the season.
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