This Revolution Was Televised!
Thumbs up, indeed!
What. A. Match.
Today’s Eastern Conference Semifinal first leg match is the kind of football match I wish I could roll up like a newspaper and use to smack the noses all of the soccer-haters out who think a 2-1 match can’t possibly be exciting. This match had everything.
There was end-to-end action. There was bad blood in both directions. There were beautiful individual goals and beautiful team goals. There was a crowd worthy of the occasion. There were yellow cards galore (and probably should have been more). There were super stars on both sides.
Most importantly, however, the Revolution did absolutely everything that they needed to in this match. They won, they scored two away goals, they did not lose any players through injury or yellow card accumulation (for which Jermaine Jones should thank his lucky stars!) while New York lost top scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips, all of which perfectly set them up for next weekend’s second leg at home in Foxboro. In case you missed the match…
You can’t tell from the highlight package, but maybe the best part of this match was that the 1,200+ Revolution supporters who made the trip to this match (most on buses provided by the Revolution) were audible on television during the entire match, often drowning out the home support. More than that, before, during, and after the match the Revolution players acknowledged their supporters at every opportunity, letting them know they could hear them and how important that was to their efforts against the Red Bulls today.
I’m obviously WILDLY biased, but if you give supporters like that an in-town soccer-specific stadium we’ll show the folks in Seattle, Portland, and Kansas City just what the term “soccer culture” means.
