Peter Banalik - Metamorphosis

[edtheguy]

December 1, 2014

Well, maybe a completely clean break is the best way to start over. Less than two years after the divorce, with both kids away in college, and my parents traveling their retirement years away, it makes perfect sense to drop everything, move, and completely change careers… right?

It’s not like there’s any choice now, done is done.

Yeah, I’m just a little nervous.

Now, as I sit in my new condo, in my old sweats, drinking a glass of Merlot, listening to loud 80’s rock music, and reading the Boston Magazine article where the author uses my hiring to prove that the Kraft’s are the worst owners in MLS (the author is actually making the same point for the second time in two years), I am wondering how this ever made any sense to me.

Mike Burns, the Rev’s General Manager and former captain, made a convincing argument that my successes with both my son and my daughter's youth teams - which included making it to national championships and producing college scholarship level athletes - combined with my management acumen from my ‘day job’ made me the perfect replacement for Jay Heaps when he moved to greener pastures this offseason. Jay’s departure caught everyone off guard - even though it wasn’t all that surprising that he would be in demand after a fantastic finish to last season that saw the Rev’s make it all the way to the MLS cup final before losing. And now I’m supposed to guide the team to even greater heights. No pressure.

The move seemed to make sense to me on a personal note as well, I didn’t realize how much negativity I’d had in my life until I was able to sell everything say my goodbyes and walk away. It was like walking out of a fog into the light again. Until today that is, when I was reminded that the cult of professional sports in America isn’t the most positive culture in the world. What was I thinking? I’m smarter than this...

Yes, It had made perfect sense to both of us at the time, but as I sit here and read the Boston Magazine article I begin to wonder if we know what we are doing at all. I should have remembered that even though Mike is very confident and persuasive, at the end of the day he was essentially hiring an amateur manager for a team in the country’s highest league which was of course met with extreme skepticism.

But even if this isn’t the best career decision, a clean break and a fresh start is still a good thing right? Right??

Oh well, there’s nothing to do now but get started. And keep a journal for posterity- or the firing squad.

[edtheguy]

December 8, 2014

Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop.

Even though I can’t officially start work until January due to contractual obligations I figured I should probably do something productive. I can’t spend an entire month watching Netflix and playing on Steam. The fact that those have been my primary activities does go a long ways toward explaining my current and foreseeable relationship status though…..

So today, looking to improve my habits I went to the local Stop n Shop and got some Sam Adams and other essentials and when I returned home I settled in to review the Rev’s previous season while I cooked some chili - which was probably some sort of empty nest thing - chili was always my son’s favourite meal. Since I did not have access to any of the team’s resources until I officially started, I resorted to the internet as I sipped some Winter Brew while waiting for the beef to cook.

Obviously the squad wasn’t bad for MLS as shown by their success last season, and was probably well balanced for the tactics Jay used. With that in mind I opened my second Sam Adams and started mining the depths of the internet for match videos and analysis as the onions and peppers sauteed.

It looked like a pretty flexible 4-2-3-1 that they ran last year, many of the online ‘experts’ said it was a narrow formation - for whatever that is worth - I had my own opinions. As I watched some game videos while putting the beef, beans, peppers and my special chili seasonings all into the pot to slow cook I was already seeing ways that I could make a similar tactic work. In my first official meeting with Mike I would have to see if his vision for the club included the same type of squad composition, since he was retaining player acquisition responsibilities.

I had several pages of notes by the time the chili was seasoned to my liking, there certainly looked like there was some quality to work with, my mind was already flying through possibilities as I grabbed my fourth Brew and sat down in front of the flatscreen to watch some NCIS and enjoy my chili. I actually wanted to read some more of the latest Rothfuss novel, but that would take my full attention, and since I did some of my best thinking in the background I settled in for some mind numbing television as tactical ideas and team evaluations danced in my head.

Chili, beer and team video is at least a little better than pizza, beer and video games.

And working on a plan is a good way to distract me from the panic I’d been feeling. I love a good challenge - give me a complex puzzle to solve and I’m in seventh heaven…. but the waiting and worrying is killing me.

[edtheguy]

December 15, 2014

This week I did a little better at staying productive, but I still find myself drawn to my old vices too often. I have always told the kids not to hide from their weakness, but to know them well so they can be managed while you try to make the most of your strengths.

Taking my own advice, this week to use my love of both solitude and research as a strength I watched more video of last season, this time looking for player strengths and weaknesses. Jones and Nguyen certainly stood out, but each had their own issues as well. Shuttleworth looked solid in goal, but I’m not convinced by the team’s defenders or strikers, you never know who might surprise once this season starts though.

I also had an opportunity to manage one of my weaknesses on Friday as I forced myself to attend a neighborhood ‘block party’ around the fire pit in the condo complex’s central common area. I don’t know whether it was my newfound self awareness or just a matter of being in the right place at the right time for a change, but I actually made some nice contacts despite everyone else there being well to do couples - two things that don’t engender much comfort for me.

I think my discomfort comes from the fact that I have never been either poor or rich, just firmly middle class all of my life and that, coupled with my complete disinterest in my own appearance has always left me uncomfortable around those who are ‘upwardly mobile’, as they say. I have also never been particularly comfortable around couples, even when I was married - probably too much emotional commitment for me.

But whatever the reasons, on Friday I met some very nice people that I actually felt comfortable around, one couple in particular seemed to really take a liking to me, Bradley and Helen Ashton. Bradley is a friendly and charismatic banker and his wife Helen runs their house and raises their kids. They were both outgoing and friendly and we had a genuinely pleasant discussion throughout the night. Maybe there’s hope for some personal growth after all.

On the plus side my ‘Riverton’ town in Cities Skylines is also coming along nicely.

I need this job to start already, I’m going crazy (ok, crazier...) here.

[edtheguy]

December 29, 2014

It’s a shame there’s no more monday night NFL games this season, all I have the energy to do right now is veg in front of the tube. I’ll have to settle for some History Channel in the background as I write this.

I have to admit it was nice not having any work to do over Christmas. Both kids came to visit for a week around the holiday which was a special treat. They actually showed up a few days before Christmas along with my parents and distracted me from making my journal entry last week. We were too busy doing things like going to the gaudy patriot place shopping bonanza, taking a trip into Boston to see Boston Ballet perform the Nutcracker, and catching the Pat’s season ending loss to the bills (the game was a dead rubber - the Pat’s had already clinched homefield for the playoffs).

We also tried out some local restaurants that I would never go to alone. The Lafayette House for example, was a nice restaurant in an old colonial house near the stadium was that was very nicely decorated for the holidays. All in all, It was a very busy but pleasant Christmas together as a family and it gave me an excuse to cook our traditional candied bourbon ham Christmas dinner.

Both of the kids are doing well, Kate and a group of her classmates look like they will be taking over the indy performing arts scene in NYC after graduation and David - the once misfit outsider and underachiever - is really spreading his wings, and he seems to have a very solid group of friends as well. So with both offspring flourishing it makes for a content dad. It’s a little sad that neither one plays football (or ‘soccer’ as it’s known here) anymore, but they both felt more than a little uncomfortable in the jock culture and I can’t begrudge them that.

Kate and David found it exciting that their antisocial dad had actually met some of his neighbours and we all went to a holiday party at the Ashton’s. All of the social activity did put a dent in my TV and reading time and I’m feeling a little worn out right now.

Speaking of the Ashton’s holiday party, I think Helen is going to be a problem. After the block party two weeks ago she was aggressively friendly and since we both had our days free there was a lot of time for us to spend together. For a middle aged mother of two she’s not at all unattractive, with medium length blond hair, a pretty look that is mature without looking used up and a ‘real’ body that manages to be slim without looking like she’s either anorexic or spends hours at the gym. Of course she’s married to Bradley and I really should have drawn the line, well somewhere, but I have to admit that all of the attention was nice. Very nice. I’m not used to anyone of the opposite sex taking an interest in me - it’s been a very long time.

This made the holiday party just a little uncomfortable, but it passed without any major drama much to my relief. I wouldn’t be so worried except she is also crazy. Completely nuts. So yeah, I am just a little worried. This is clearly another ‘relationship’ that is doomed for failure, as all my other ones have been. Not that there have been that many, I only dated two girls before meeting my ex. And those ended…. well, let’s just say I’ve yet to have a very good experience when it comes to romance. Actually, Helen is my first ‘affair’ of any kind, and it’s definitely not a good idea.

[mark wilson27]

Welcome to FMS edtheguy, liking the opening few posts here. Well written and will be looking forward to seeing more

[jdoyle9293]

What a start - you've romped up the expectations here, especially naming it after one of my favourite works of fiction.

[edtheguy]

Thank you both! I am glad you are enjoying it so far.

Mark Wilson27 - I have been lurking for a little over a year and thoroughly enjoyed the works of the wonderfully talented writers here, and if I can contribute to any one else's enjoyment in return I would be honored.

jdoyle9293 - Yeah, I almost changed the title for fear that I would set expectations just a little too high….. It just seemed so appropriate to the background/story ideas that I came up with for Peter that I stuck with it. I am certain this work will not have the same impact on society - but hopefully for Peter he can find a slightly happier ending… we will see, a lot depends on where my co-writer (FM16) takes us.

January 12, 2015

I can start work Thursday, the 15th, which works for me. Hopefully most of the staff will already have their assignments for the week and it will me a chance to get my feet wet before having to meet and greet everyone so I can kind of ease into the flow of things.

I’m actually looking forward to starting work now, so at least the apprehension is gone. Of course it does occur to me that as head coach of the club there is likely to be a significant amount of social interaction required. That should be interesting. The good news is that once I get to know people it isn’t a problem, still the first few weeks are gonna be a challenge - know your weaknesses.

In any case it will be nice to finally get going. Next week’s journal entry ought to be a novel - my to-do list for week one is extensive. There is always much to do on a new job.

It will also give me an excuse to get away from Helen, I can honestly tell her I’m too busy, so far she’s ignored all my attempts at subtlety.

[neilhoskins77]

Welcome Ed. Great start, looking forward to seeing how you get on with the Revolution. The MLS is a tough League to start in, and it sounds like the fans will have high expectations after last season. Good luck.

[edtheguy]

Thanks neil, I thought there would be high expectations as I wrote the prologue before FM16 came out, but we’ll see how that turned out as the story progresses… as far as MLS goes, you aren’t kidding. I ran a short, less than completely fun save with the Houston Dynamo in FM 15 - so maybe Peter isn’t the only one who likes a challenge….

January 19, 2015

So much for it being slow at the office on the 15th. The teams impressively professional HR Director Joyce Crane greeted me before I even made it to my office and no sooner had I finished her barrage of paperwork and information than I found myself in a meeting with the chairman after which I was whisked off to meet my staff.

The day was so well organised that I didn’t even have time to feel uncomfortable meeting about a gazillion new people. I was even introduced to Bill Belichick when we ran into him as I was being shown around Gillette Stadium, despite his reputation as a stand-offish curmudgeon he still took the time to welcome me to the Kraft Sports group. After speaking with him, I have a feeling we might have a few personality ‘quirks’ in common - that could be good or bad for me. Or, more likely, both.

Rather than rewrite everything that happened during the weekend I am just attaching my to do list and the resulting notes for ‘week one’ on the job (which ought to make for some interesting reading) and going off to make some shrimp lo-mein for dinner. I think I’ll find something to watch on netflix, ESPN just continues to jump back and forth between super bowl previews and their LeBron James love affair. I can’t help but notice there’s no big MLS preview coverage anywhere to be found…..

Week of 1/12/15 Summary-

Board Meeting - The Club President Brian Bilello welcomed me to the team and urged me to ignore the press’ criticism of my hiring. He officially confirmed my surprisingly generous contract and gave me an in depth history of the club. Mr. Bilello asked if there was any particular direction I wanted to take the team in, but I told him that I was glad to have the freedom to manage without any specific philosophies. Afterwards he scheduled a press conference for me to meet the media and my assistant manager Tom Soehn was brought into the room to go over our duties and the chain of command. We scheduled a staff meeting and an intra-squad friendly to get things started. The term ‘intra-squad’ is misleading though, it’s really just against a practice team of local amateurs since MLS doesn’t seem to have full reserve squads.

The board also informed me they expected top half finishes in the MLS and the MLS Supporters Shield - and didn’t consider the US Cup important, which seems unambitious after last year, but I won’t complain - it might give me time to work out the kinks before too much pressure starts building.

Staff meeting - My personal assistant, a very professional, young, 30ish woman with glasses and very black hair who was introduced to me as Ms. Hamilton, gave me a long and headache inducing summary of the bizarre MLS roster rules to read. I guess there is a plus side to Mike retaining the player acquisition role, if it means I don’t have to understand all of this gibberish. I can only imagine the embarassing mistakes that I could make as I tried to figure out what all of this nonsense really meant.

Tom also gave me a comprehensive team report that showed Jermaine Jones was our best player if used in the DM position, I can work with that, it’s always good to have a second tactic that provides some coverage in front of the D-line. It does look like the players would fit best into a 4231, which I had been thinking about since seeing the video of Jay’s games.

The staff is fairly small and didn't have much to say. We set up Charlie Davis and Jermaine Jones as penalty takers and the staff suggested a couple of formations that we probably won’t be using - the 4222DM narrow and 41311 DM narrow. Why would we run narrow formations when some of our best players are natural out wide?

Team Meeting - The players were very welcoming, which was a relief, but I am concerned that the only player dissatisfied with the top half goal was Jermaine Jones, who thought it was too ambitious. Didn’t he just play in the MLS cup final a few months ago? Ummm…. and he’s my ‘best player’.... worrisome.

Evaluate Staff - It is a very small staff - there’s Tom, who has good basic coaching skills but not the player evaluating or technical coaching abilities that I would like. Our Head of Youth Development Bryan Scales, who is good with kids... but that's about all. Remi Roy, our goalkeeping coach with good general goalkeeping knowledge but little technical knowledge, and Nick Downing our fitness coach who doesn’t seem the type to motivate the players. Despite my criticisms, according to the metrics the staff is about average for MLS, so I guess it could be worse. The board will allow three more coaches and in my opinion they are badly needed, but that is something else that Mike is in charge of so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Assign Staff Responsibilities - One of the few things I got to actually do this week, since it’s the Mike Burns show here at New England. Assigning the coach's duties was a big task, let’s see, I assigned Remi to the goalies, Nick to fitness, and Tom and I to everything else. That’s all there is to see here, let’s move on.

Press Conference - For someone as uncomfortable in social settings as I am I was surprised at how easy the press conference was. I endorsed the Chairman and the board’s expectations, said I was ready to get to work on my reputation and told them I wanted players to feel valued as people as well as players, which I know will be one of my personal growth challenges (I didn’t tell that part to the press, obviously) as my people skills are not as strong as my analytical ones.

Evaluate Squad - Well theres Jones, Shuttleworth, and Nguyen. Strikers Fagundez and Agudelo also come highly recommended by the staff, and midfielders Rowe and Neumann look like good wide players. The best surprise for me are Farrell and Goncalves, who look like solid wingbacks which give me a lot of tactical options. The one bizarre thing about the squad is there are no natural central defenders, which means Goncalves and Farrell are my best players there as well. Hopefully super Mike will do something about that. A solid defensive line is the foundation that wins are built on.

Academy Evaluation - Apparently we have no group report on the academy, so I had to go over each individual's report, it looks like there are some good candidates at Goalkeeper and wide midfielder/ winger, not much on defense and no useful midfielders there right now.

Tactical Planning -

(Thursday) I think we can use a combination of a 4-1-2-3 DM Wide with a second tactic that’s just a basic 4-2-3-1, it’s just hard at the moment to find four defenders I have faith in. Mike mentioned that there were some philosophies he wanted the team to follow and we are meeting tomorrow to talk about it. It’ll be good to start actually working on the tactics.

(Friday) A freaking 3-5-2? Our new ‘organizational philosophy’ is the 3-5-2??? We are going to have to play a goram 3-5-2? Is he serious? I could at least handle a 5-3-2, but when I told Mike I’ve never had a three at the back work without wingbacks he just said he had faith in me and knew I’d figure it out.

We don’t even have one natural center back!

If I knew it was going to be Mike’s way or the highway I never would have come here.

(Saturday) Calm down Peter. I will have to get used to the way things are done here, there’s not much I can do about it now. I don’t have control over things that I would like to, but I’ll just have to adapt. I didn’t ask the right questions in the interview process and now I have to make the best of it. I have to take this as a chance for growth, I can’t fall into the trap of being angry and feeling sorry for myself, I know how that turns out. I love a challenge, right? So now my one and only challenge now is to design a functional 3-5-2.

Oh god. Now I’m starting to wonder if there’s more to Jay leaving than I thought.

[tenthreeleader]

So today, looking to improve my habits I went to the local Stop n Shop and got some Sam Adams and other essentials

Now this is a manager of superior intelligence!

Oh, and good luck with your story

[jdoyle9293]

Hit the nail on the mundanity and repetitive nature of most jobs being translated into a football manager in pre-season. I like the small pieces of ignorance surrounding football tactics dotted around the story as well. Keep it up.

[edtheguy]

Thank you gentlemen!

tenthreeleader - at least if this football manager thing doesn’t work out you can still count on Peter having a well stocked fridge!

jdoyle9293 - I think there may be more than small pieces of ignorance here for both Peter and the author….

[edtheguy]

Authors Note: We are now past the carefully crafted prologue and first day of gameplay so the story is now largely in the hands of the game code and match engine.

I play fairly quickly, about a year every week or two and record the events in stream of consciousness as I go. Peter's story will span the FM16 ‘year’ and will likely come to a close within a month or two of 17’s release - which is how I play each year. This is why I’ve gone for the journal style narrative, it is the easiest way to edit my notes for publishing, and I needed to be sure I could follow through on what I started.

This will result in less detailed ‘journals’ from Peter while we are ‘in season’ (which only makes sense, as he no longer has any free time while attempting to manage an organization as complex as a football team). I hope the transition still results in an enjoyable read.

Enough ‘Behind the Curtain’ stuff - Back to the Show;

January 2015 Notes.

1/16/15 After only one day of training we have our first friendly, which is the one that Tom scheduled vs NE Reserves. If I could take this match seriously there was a lot to be encouraged about as we were patient, controlled the ball, generated several good chances and got goals from Fagundez and Bunbury. But since it was a friendly against a team of non contract players (or as they are called in the office ‘grey players’) I can’t take it seriously, and there was just as much to be concerned about - as we had too many long shots, only scored two goals and Jermaine Jones was uninterested and ill disciplined the whole game. I think we need to generate more movement from the midfield on attack, but I’m hesitant to sacrifice any defensive stability yet.

New England Revolution vs New England Revolution Reserves

2-0

22 Shots 11

11 On Target 1

6 Fouls 11

1 Yellow Cards 1

60% Possession 40%

Goals: Fagundez (57), Bunbury (83)

After that friendly, I spent the whole weekend at work trying to get accustomed to how things work at a professional club, and after two days of texts with apocalyptic protesting there’s been radio silence from Helen. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

1/24/15 at Atlanta Silverbacks, our first ‘real’ friendly. This was the first chance to see how the 3-5-2 performed against an ‘outside’ team.

It didn’t perform too well, there was nowhere near enough offense, but at least the defense looked fair. Loss 0-1.

New England Revolution at Atlanta Silverbacks

0-1

9 Shots 7

3 On Target 2

10 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 0

63% Possession 37%

Goals: Chavez (65)

It was quite the experience though, travelling with the team and seeing everything that goes into putting a professional match together. The friendlies are going to be as important to me as they are to the players when it comes to getting a professional routine down.

I still don’t know how this GM/Manager thing is going to work between me and Mike, but when I got back to the office I had a contract issue and some trade offers on my desk, so I responded and cc’d Mike.

I offered Farrell a contract extension and he agreed - we are so thin on D it was a no-brainer.

There were several trade offers for an international player slot, which we have extras of so I negotiated Colorado’s offer to 1 years slot and 15k for a 1st round pick in the superdraft and rejected the other offers that were much worse.

I saw in the news I was looking for a CD, yeah, I would if i could… actually Burns did make an offer for defender Francis Dickoh, but I don’t know enough about the player to have an opinion.

I didn’t hear from Mike about my contract and trade activity, so I guess it was ok. I do think my PA Ms. Hamilton runs interference for me on a lot of things though so all I know for sure is that he wasn’t officially displeased.

1/26/15 New York Cosmos, friendly. We ‘held’ the Cosmos to draw - a team we should beat easily. I tried a 5-2-1-2WB attacking formation for end of the game and we a blew lead, but looked much better in the flow of play. After the game Mike chewed me out for ‘going against team policy’ I told him that I felt I had to try something, we were being thoroughly outplayed by an inferior team, again. I was instructed to stick to the team philosophy. Awesome. It’s good to be the boss. I assume. It’s not like I’d really know.

New England Revolution at New York Cosmos

1-1

4 Shots 15

2 On Target 8

10 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Jones (pen 19) Restrepo (70)

After that unimpressive performance, I got together with the coaches and changed our tactic to be more aggressive. We told our three defenders to play the ball more, and put both wide midfielders and one of the center mids on more attacking duties. We also set a higher defensive line and told them to play the offsides.

The meeting ran late and Ms. Hamilton - Jayden - did a fine job of supplying us with the right reports at the right time and making sure the married coaches stayed in touch with their families. She also made sure that we all remembered to eat. I’ve never had a personal assistant before, it definitely makes life easier for all of us. At the end of the night I made sure I told her I appreciated everything she did, which seemed to make her happy. She has a very pretty smile, the role of emotional motivator does not come naturally for me, but it can be rewarding when you take the time to do it.

1/29/15 vs Charleston, friendly, our few travelling fans booed us off the field and Jones was sent off for two yellows. Loss. Score irrelevant.

New England Revolution at Charleston Battery

1-2

5 Shots 15

2 On Target 5

13 Fouls 14

2 Yellow Cards 0

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Martinez (3) Tierney (8) Portillo (15)

Well our late night meeting definitely made things worse, back to the drawing board.

1/31/15 Ottawa Fury, friendly, even after moving the players back to their less terrible roles Ottawa still dominated the match, I had told the players to be more selective in taking shots after the first friendly, I told them to forget that now. We aren’t generating anything. Loss. Score irrelevant.

New England Revolution at Ottawa Fury

1-3

5 Shots 11

2 On Target 4

3 Fouls 10

1 Yellow Cards 2

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Fagundez (21) Bellamy (26) Heinemann (64,81)

I had wanted to personally oversee the players individual training, but there is just too much to do, so by the end of the month I gave up and let Tom set up the players training programs.

At least off the field we’re ironing out the kinks in our travel and match day routines, so there’s that. Hopefully we can start seeing some progress on the field soon.

[jdoyle9293]

Not the greatest of pre-seasons but that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Have to admit, I did laugh way too much at the grey players joke. Good work all round.

[edtheguy]

Thank you, it is a good thing preseason often has little to do with performance once the real games start. Unfortunately for Peter, the pre season misery isn’t over yet.

February

I started the month by offering Lee Nguyen a one year contract extension, he agreed.

Kate and David were both very supportive, in their own ways, when I talked to them on the phone. Kate asked me if I had thought it would be easy when I took the job and when I said no she asked me what the problem was. The kid is tough, but smart. She also asked if I was still ‘hanging out’ with the Ashtons. Ummm - no. I told her that I didn’t have time for a social life right now, which is true.

I resisted the urge to tamper more with tactic before the next friendly against the New York Cosmos, we need to see how it plays with some familiarity before we can tell what works or doesn’t work.

At least the Kraft sports group’s flagship team knows what they’re doing, as the Pat’s won their big game on the 1st. When I made some comment to that effect as I congratulated Bill on his latest championship he told me that everyone has to start somewhere, he also mentioned that he didn’t have the best of times at his first job in charge in Cleveland.

We officially signed Francis Dickoh from Midtjylland, he looks useful, but no better than the converted wingbacks we are currently using as central defenders.

Charlie Davies is rumored to be going to Zaglebie Lubin, he’s our fourth striker on the depth chart, so we could probably survive.

For the backroom staff Mike hired Hong Myung Bo as a coach, Hong is a former international player who knows Mike from their playing days, which impressed the press. His coaching skills aren’t terribly impressive but he has a professional demeanor and is determined. I assigned him to shooting which lets me concentrate on tactics, improving the training levels in both areas. In my customary meet the new coach lunch we talked shop and he said he prefers a 4-3-2-1. Don’t we all buddy.

February 3 at Indy eleven, friendly, Indy also demolished us 4-2, but the flow of play seemed closer and we actually had some scoring chances.

New England Revolution at Indy Eleven

2-4

11 Shots 22

6 On Target 10

9 Fouls 10

0 Yellow Cards 2

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Davies (23) Rugg (26,61) Smart (30) Brown (45) Bunbury (56)

After the Indy game we had another late night coaches meeting to ‘fix’ the tactics. I went back to Mike’s “Organizational DNA” list and we applied the bare minimum elements required, hoping that keeping it simple would make it easier for the players.

It’s a good thing Jayden is divorced and has family that lives locally which she can use for free daycare, we would be a mess if she actually had a life and wasn’t here to take care of all of us at all hours of the night. I think she’s spoken to my kids more than I have this month.

I haven’t spent much time at my condo either, it’s easier to stay here - safer too, with Helen lurking around - and there’s plenty to do at the office since we have such a wonderful tactical plan to implement.

On the 6th Mike made an offer for 23 year old Brazilian DM/CM Duylio and the youngster agreed to terms. He looks comparable to our current starters at midfield. There are also rumors that we will make a bid for AMC Rodrigo Lopez who looks like a good player.

We missed out on signing a scout, which would have been nice, since we currently have none, but Diego Gutierrez signed with Toronto.

We did make some other additions to the staff however, Mike hired Ian Feuer as a reserves assistant coach, and since our reserve squad is more theoretical than real he has plenty of time to work with the senior squad. He’s decent at tactics, which lets me move to ball control. I learned at lunch he prefers a 4-3-3. Right now I’d take a 4-3-3.

And the next day, continuing to fill out our staff, Mike hired Martin Nash as coach. Martin is a decent attacking coach which lets Tom focus on the D. After these assignments, fitness and GK are our weakest areas. Definite improvement. We discussed his preferred 4-5-1 over lunch.

Jermaine Jones injured Farrell with an aggressive tackle in training today. Jermaine was negative in the team meeting, has been disinterested and ill-disciplined in the friendlies and now this. Why is he here again?

The staff signings continued hot and heavy as Mike hired Kelly Brasil as head scout. He’s slightly better than average at judging ability and potential. Over lunch we discussed a 4-3-3. Good times. Taking the scouts to lunch is purely ceremonial, since I can’t hire/fire or set assignments for them, but whatever.

This was followed by the signing of Judah Cooks as a coach. Lunch with Judah was spent analyzing the 3-5-2, ugh. But he’s better at defensive coaching than Tom, which lets Tom focus on strength and Nick on aerobic, improving all three areas. We now have one of the best coaching staffs in MLS.

If I don’t get the tactics figured out it won’t matter though....

After another late night meeting we changed the strikers to a Target Man/Poacher combination up front and both wide men to Wingers. I’ve never had great success with a Target Man before, so it only makes sense to combine it with a 3-5-2 which I am also yet to have success with.

February 14- Lost to Pittsburgh Riverhounds, after a poor start we told the players to make their passes into space and had control of game for last quarter. So that’s something, right?

New England Revolution at Pittsburgh Riverhounds

0-1

11 Shots 10

4 On Target 4

7 Fouls 11

0 Yellow Cards 2

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Moloto (9)

After the game I adopted a Belichickian approach to news conferences, randomly choosing between not answering and sarcastic replies. It doesn’t accomplish much but it did make me feel a little better.

February 21 - In our next friendly we drew against Wilmington Hammerheads, Woodbury had a howler, just a terrible game all through which included giving away a penalty, but the rest of team played better. Still not good enough, but maybe something to work with.

New England Revolution at Wilmington Hammerheads

2-2

15 Shots 11

9 On Target 4

5 Fouls 19

0 Yellow Cards 2

46% Possession 54%

Goals: Agudelo (10, 90+2) Bone (pen 48) Lawal (75)

After the game we got a notice from MLS to submit our roster. We didn’t have enough salary room to register everyone, so I moved all our allocation funds to salary so we could register 25 players. We only have 25, so choosing which players to register was tough.

We also had to send someone to ‘observe’ the waiver draft, as well as Mike to, you know, draft. I sent Tom Soehn in my place, sometimes it’s good to be in charge. At least I’m in charge of something.

On the 24th the backroom staff continued to fill out as Mike signed Jeff Lee as scout. Jeff is only slightly below average in scouting. Over lunch I got to talk about the 3-5-2, which I haven’t done enough of lately.

At our now weekly late night emergency tactic session I decided to try a scary, illogical midfield of two ball winners and a roaming playmaker for the last friendly, everything I have ever been taught tells me that can’t work. But, since we aren’t doing anything with logical midfields we might as well try something crazy, right? Changed two of the CD’s back to defender from ball player.

With our first real game coming up and only one more friendly it was time to choose the team captain for the season. I decided to keep Goncalves as captain and appointed Tierney as vice. Goncalves hasn’t been good or bad in the preseason, which is better than some, and Tierney has been downright impressive playing wide midfielder which is a secondary position for him, as he is a natural wingback. With all the quality wingbacks on the roster it would be kind of cool if we could use a tactic that had- well…. wingbacks….

Our last friendly was a week later at the Rochester Rhinos. Nope, that midfield won’t work (I clearly am not getting enough sleep if I’m trying something that foolish - it actually worked just like the design, with the three CM’s running all over the place and leaving the middle of the field wide open). These players aren’t working either, changed to three plain jane central mids and subbed out all 11 in the second half. After that we almost came back from a 2-0 deficit. Loss. 1-2.

New England Revolution at Rochester Rhinos

1-2

10 Shots 10

3 On Target 4

6 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 1

40% Possession 60%

Goals: Dixon (27) Nukic (58) Fagundez (88)

At this rate we’ll be as good as a third tier team in a few more months.

Or they will at least, I’m likely to be working as a janitor at one of the kids schools in a few months if things keep going like this.

This isn’t going very well.

[edtheguy]

March

Our opening game against Seattle ought to be fun, especially since we didn’t manage to win a single pre season friendly (except the one against our ‘reserves’). In preparation we had an even later night meeting and decided to go with two deep playmakers and a defensive CM in the middle. We also put two of the defenders on stopper and one on cover.

Mike signed Jake DeClute as scout, his player judging looks slightly above average. Another lunch spoiled talking about the goram 3-5-2.

3/8/15 at Seattle, Well 0-2 vs Seattle could have been worse. Dickoh and Rowe were awful, I mean really awful. Our tactic is still nowhere near good enough.

New England Revolution (0-0-0) at Seattle Sounders (0-0-0)

0-2

6 Shots 17

2 On Target 4

8 Fouls 13

1 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Pappa (24) Alonso (38)

I am now going to take advice from an old acquaintance who spoke on tactics at the UEFA coaching convention that I had the privilege of attending last year. He was a big proponent of tactics that he called ‘defensive arts’. One of his examples used three at the back, I think we can modify it for use here. Might as well, we’ve tried everything else.

Speaking of the convention, as a national youth coach that excelled at schoolwork I was able to take advantage of several programs designed to encourage the development of the sport here in the USA, as a result I actually held the highest coaching badges before ever being professionally employed. For all the good that’s done me so far….

We held another late night meeting to go over the changes that I proposed which resulted in a defensive and fluid 3-5-2 tactic. Our goalie will have standard duties with added instructions to roll it to the central defenders and slow things down. The middle defender will have a cover duty and the others will act as stoppers. Each wide midfielder will be a defensive midfielder. The three central midfielders will be one deep playmaker one roaming playmaker and a central mid on support. Up front we’ll have a deep lying forward and a poacher. The Deep lying forward will have to do more closing down than the rest of the team and we will hassle the opponent's d-line a little so they are more likely to go long. Overall though the team will be cautious and won’t press. We will be careful on the ball and hard to break down on D.

That’s how it sounds in theory anyway. We’ll see….

Jayden informed me that I was going to see Kate’s spring performance on our next off day, and that she had already cleared my schedule. I was in no position to argue- it wouldn’t do any good anyway. I really appreciate how nice it is to be only a three hour drive from Kate’s school which makes this possible. Sometimes life works out.

3/15/15 at NYCFC. We started poorly, but came back to control the game after falling behind. Despite giving up the game's first goal we actually didn’t give up a single quality scoring chance the whole game. Fagundez and Duliyo scored. Win. 2-1.

New England Revolution (0-0-1) at NYCFC (0-0-1)i

2-1

16 Shots 10

5 On Target 5

9 Fouls 9

0 Yellow Cards 1

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Poku (35) Fagundez (38) Duylio (71)

That was unexpected. And everyone was in a much better mood after the game.

Kate’s show was impressive as always and we went out for a late snack after, it was a very good evening, especially after my first win as the Rev’s head coach. It was a little odd to be there by myself though, after the divorce I always had David as a co-pilot for the road trips to her shows until he went off to college a little over a year ago. Now I have to get used to this new reality that I am in.

3/21 vs Montreal. The same lineup at home with our new defensive tactic resulted in a comprehensive 4-0 victory, Juan Agudelo with a hat trick and a bruised thigh, Jermaine Jones with the other goal. Jermaine looks like a completely different player now, was he just not taking the friendlies seriously?

New England Revolution (1-0-1) vs Montreal Impact (1-0-0)

4-0

18 Shots 3

10 On Target 1

5 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 1

68% Possession 32%

Goals: Agudelo (10,21,24) Jones (69)

Mike is gloating, he came to my office after the game and he was all smiles. Defensive, cautious 3-5-2 and we have two wins from two. Damn. I am concerned about what to do when it doesn’t work though.

Mike extended Goncalves through next year. Seems like a good idea, it is good to have at least three defenders in a 3-5-2.

3/28 v San Jose - Agudelo actually passed his fitness test for a max of 30 mins. Will put him on the sub list. But Fagundes is too tired to start so we have to go with Davies and Bunbury up top, no other changes. We didn’t give up a single scoring chance of any kind but had a Goncalves own goal. On the other hand, we did have 60% possession hit one post and saw two spectacular saves by SJ keeper.1-1 draw.

New England Revolution (2-0-1) vs San Jose (2-0-0)

1-1

6 Shots 8

2 On Target 0

12 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 0

60% Possession 40%

Goals: Bunbury (8) Goncalves og (17)

At least there is a little hope now.

[edtheguy]

April

I reviewed our team training schedule, but for the match training we still can’t work on anything but match tactics, we’ve made too many changes over the last few months and don’t have enough familiarity to do anything else. General training will stay on tactical until June as planned.

Mike signed Jones to an extension, which I have really mixed feelings about.

4/4 at Colorado who are winless but favored. Pre Match I had to answer questions about my relationship with Mike and I said it was good. Fagundez and Agudelo are back in lineup, no other changes. After a lot of nothing happening we finished the game with 75% possession and no shots on goal. Both strikers were awful and subbed at 60 mins... 0-0 draw.

New England Revolution (2-1-1) vs Colorado Rapids (0-0-3)

0-0

5 Shots 5

0 On Target 2

8 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 0

75% Possession 25%

Goals:--

Had dinner with Mike and his wife on our off day, told him that the 3-5-2 was finally coming along well. We talked about his vision for the team and I admitted I could see where he was coming from a little better now. He’s really just doing what he thinks is best for the team and I do owe him for giving me the opportunity to be here. His wife took an active part in the conversation and I found out she knows her stuff as well. Michelle isn’t the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen, but she does have one of the best personalities. She was intelligent, insightful and charismatic. It was a nice evening and I only felt mildly third-wheelish.

4/11 vs Columbus, despite a midweek game v Chicago coming up I picked an unchanged lineup for Columbus, we will go for all 3 pts today and see how fitness levels are on Wednesday. We had 63% possession, more chances than Columbus, and more awful performances from both strikers as well as Bunbury who came on as a sub. Oh, and Jones missed a PK. Loss. 0-1.

New England Revolution (2-2-1) vs Columbus Crew (1-1-2)

0-1

18 Shots 13

7 On Target 7

10 Fouls 16

0 Yellow Cards 0

63% Possession 37%

Goals: Finley (43)

4/15 vs Chicago. A midweek game and stale play last couple of matches means now is as good a time as any for some tweaks. So I let Tom select the lineup - and he chose the same lineup I would have just swapping strikers roles and Jones/ Caldwell's positions in the central midfield. 1-0 win, we didn’t control the flow of play as much as we have been, but we never really faced a threat.

New England Revolution (2-2-2) vs Chicago Fire (2-1-2)

1-0

17 Shots 18

6 On Target 4

9 Fouls 14

1 Yellow Cards 3

59% Possession 41%

Goals: Fagundez (53)

4/19 at Philadelphia, started strong but blew a 1-0 lead and held on to a draw. Play was again more even than in our earlier matches, which is concerning. The tactic really seems to rely on us controlling the game.

New England Revolution (3-2-2) vs Philadelphia Union (3-1-3)

1-1

14 Shots 11

9 On Target 7

6 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 1

62% Possession 38%

Goals: Fagundez (4) Aristeguieta (48)

Agudelo and Fagudez each have 3 goals, Defensive Wingers Tierney and Nguyen have been our best players overall. Goncalves is not making enough tackles, less than half the other defenders, we might want to think about someone else there, but who?

.

4/25 vs. Real Salt Lake. I swapped strikers back making Fagundez the DLF and Agudelo the poacher, and both scored early on nice assists from Jones. 0 CCC’s against. win. 2-1

New England Revolution (3-3-2) vs Real Salt Lake (2-2-2)

2-1

19 Shots 12

7 On Target 3

9 Fouls 6

2 Yellow Cards 0

63% Possession 37%

Goals: Fagundez (3) Agudelo (29) Jaime (62)

With the games coming fast and furious now there really isn’t much to report but practice, game, repeat. When I unwind before bed I still rotate between netflix, games, and books, just now it’s usually in a hotel or at my office. It's hard to believe it's been four months already. There is so much to manage in an organization like this that time is flying by.

[edtheguy]

May

According to the metrics we now have the best scouting staff in MLS and the coaching staff is best in league at Defense Mental Technical and Tactical coaching. And we’re winning some games. All of Mike's hiring seems to be working.

5/2 vs. NY Red Bull, Agudelo scored at 47 minutes. Nguyen suffered a bruised thigh and will be out a few weeks. Win, 1-0

New England Revolution (4-3-2) vs New York Red Bull (3-2-2)

1-0

11 Shots 6

3 On Target 0

5 Fouls 25

0 Yellow Cards 0

58% Possession 42%

Goals: Agudelo (47)

We are top of table, but Orlando City has two games in hand, and we play them next.

For the Orlando game I'm going to put Dickoh and Duliya in and take out Woodberry and Caldwell as the young prospect Herivaux will get his 2nd start in a row in the midfield.

5/8/15 at Orlando City, we came back to win after falling behind on goal that was a result of poor play by Rowe (in for Nguyen) and Dickoh who was caught out of position. Which meant that two of my lineup changes combined to allow the game's first goal. Afterwards Mike told me that they shouldn’t let me make decisions on my own. He was joking. I think. Win 2-1.

New England Revolution (5-3-2) at Orlando City SC (5-3-1)

2-1

7 Shots 17

6 On Target 5

6 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 0

62% Possession 38%

Goals: Shea(13) Fagundez (41) Tierney (59)

Kelyn Rowe, Jeremy Hall and Kevin Austin all asked to be moved due to lack of playing time. Based on what I just saw from rotating Rowe in I wasn’t about to promise any of them playing time and none of them were in the mood to be reasonable, so I told them I expected them to be professionals and do their job and they all went on the transfer list.

I negotiated several trade offers for Rowe and Mike accepted a 1st rd pick from NYRB. No offers for the others. When I told them we tried to move them but couldn’t find any takers Alston understood, Hall went to press to complain. That is not professional.

Mike extended Nguyen through 2018, adding two years onto the extension I had signed him to. I agreed to leave the contracts to him from now on. I asked him since he was doing such a good job with the contracts if he wanted to deal with the players that were unhappy with their playing time too, and he said that was definitely part of my job.

With a midweek match against 1st place and unbeaten Sporting KC sandwiched between 17th place Toronto and 20th place DCU we will rotate out Goncalves, Tierney, and Jones for the Toronto game, giving a chance to Hall and Barnes as well as Herivaux.

5/16/15 vs Toronto FC. Complete collapse, managed to lose 2-3 from 2-0 up and Herivaux got sent off with 2 yellow cards. Through 12 games this is only the second time we’ve allowed more than 1 goal.

New England Revolution (6-3-2) vs Toronto FC (2-2-4)

2-3

13 Shots 17

6 On Target 8

10 Fouls 19

2 Yellow Cards 1

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Agudelo (6,16) Gomez (44,90+1) Giovinco (57)

Rumors are Mike is looking at Seattle's Erik Friberg who looks like a very interesting player to me.

5/20 at Sporting KC. Our game against MLS only unbeaten team went about as badly as could have been feared. We were thoroughly outplayed but hung on until the 84th minute before losing 1-2. After the game Mike had a chat with Chris Tierney who wants to leave to play overseas.

New England Revolution (6-3-3) vs Sporting Kansas City (8-3-0)

1-2

5 Shots 21

2 On Target 8

12 Fouls 24

1 Yellow Cards 2

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Felhaber (pen 7) Tierney (9) Anor (79)

5/23/15 vs DCU everyone was mostly recovered from our midweek game. We only had to start Bunbury and Hall, instead of Fagundez and Caldwell. We won 2-1, but it wasn’t easy and we gave away a pen for 2nd game in a row - Woodbury last time Farrell this, but United missed the PK. We had 2-0 lead late and found ourselves under pressure, but held on.

New England Revolution (6-3-4) vs DC United (1-2-8)

2-1

9 Shots 8

4 On Target 6

11 Fouls 23

1 Yellow Cards 5

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Tierney (42) Agudelo (58) Espindola (78)

Kate’s commencement was on the day of the DCU game, so Jayden cleared my schedule for the day after the game and I went to see Kate to celebrate with her and her beau, Andrew. They make a very nice couple and are both in performing arts so their post college paths look compatible. For now they are off to the theater district of NYC, where they both have work lined up as well as grad classes at local colleges.

When I returned to work Jeremy Hall and Zachary Herivaux came to see me and complained about team talk after the DC game. After barely beating the team 20th in the Shield standings I had told the team they ‘got away with one’ and would need to be better against good opposition. When they were done complaining I told them that wasn’t even an aggressive talk, merely assertive and they were even more upset. When the press inevitably asked about it I told them it wasn’t their purview.

Zachary is our best prospect, the coaches feel he could be as good as Jermaine, but he’s been complaining about training all season and now this. As for Jeremy Hall, this is his second incident this month. It was just over two weeks ago he went to the press to complain about his playing time. He is lucky I am not in charge of player moves, he would be on the next available train to siberia.

During another late night at the office as I was dealing with this, Jayden refused to leave until I got some ‘real food’ to eat. I finally agreed to go to The Lafayette House for dinner with her as long as she would go home after. I have to admit we had a lovely time, if only she wasn’t twelve years younger than me, my employee, and entirely out of my league. Oh well. It was a bit of an ego boost to watch all the other guys in the restaurant checking her out the whole time we were there though….

5/31/15 vs Los Angeles. I Completed the entire pre match press conference without answering one single question. Agudelo scored the first four goals of the game. Lee Nguyen, in his first start since returning from injury, had a brilliant assist on the first goal and then left with another injury. Win. 4-1

New England Revolution (7-3-4) vs Los Angeles Galaxy (4-6-4)

4-1

20 Shots 12

10 On Target 5

6 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 1

63% Possession 37%

Goals: Agudelo (7,39,41,51) Gordon (75)

Nguyen’s injury diagnosis is bad - torn knee ligaments, out two months. Isn’t it ironic that Rowe and Hall who couldn’t be bothered to wait for playing time earlier would be getting it now…. It is also unfortunate that Kevin Alston is already out for the year with an injury. Hopefully Steve Neumann is up to the task. If not then Fagundez would have to be pulled off the DLC position to play out wide and Bunbury put in up top.

We are 8-3-4, first in the conference, but between injuries and unhappy players I haven't much time to enjoy it right now.

[jdoyle9293]

The win-loss ratio isn't too great but as long as you're in the top half of the conference then you're doing a good job. Great work in the writing, also.

[edtheguy]

Thank you, I think it is safe to say that an experienced manager with full control would definitely hope to be doing better. Unfortunately for Peter, neither of those things are the case for him...

June

Scott Caldwell turned down a contract extension which is concerning, as after Jermaine he is by far our best midfielder.

Juan Agudelo's fine form was rewarded as he was called up for the US international team.

On the 5th I received word that the board offered me a new contract. At the last board meeting I was told I was untouchable, but this was still a surprise. I Negotiated their 400k offer up to 425k and signed a one year extension. When Jayden called to tell me all the appropriate papers were in Mrs. Crane’s capable hands she also told me we would have to celebrate when the team got home from our game in Portland.

6/6/15 at Portland, normal lineup, except with Neumann playing for the re-injured Nguyen. Thoroughly outplayed, Shuttleworth made two top drawer saves and I finally had to move Jones out wide, bing in Bunbury for Fagundez and move Neumann to the middle. Fresh off the bench Bunbury scored and stole us the three points. 1-0.

New England Revolution (8-3-4) vs Portland Timbers (3-7-4)

1-0

14 Shots 16

3 On Target 7

15 Fouls 19

0 Yellow Cards 1

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Bunbury (75)

When we got home I found out I wasn’t the only one to be rewarded with a new contract. Shuttleworth and Fagundez each signed 2 year extensions. In the press conference announcing the signings Shuttleworth mentioned he was happy to get the chance to continue to play with great players, and Fagundez cited his admiration for... me…..wow.

Fagundez was also called up by Uruguay, that probably won’t make him like me any less.

Before I’d even gotten through all of this news Darius Barnes came to my office asking for playing time, I told him he’d get a shot. After the row with Kelyn (Rowe….) that resulted in him leaving town I can’t risk ticking off more players and having a smaller roster than we already do, but it’s not just that - there is actually some hope that Darrius can be a useful player and Goncalves, Farrell and Woodbury can’t play every game. So, since he needs to be played anyway everyone can get what they want.

And then there was Jayden. She was very serious about celebrating, and oh boy did we. We went to a few nighttime establishments and met some of Jaydens friends, who seemed impressed to meet a professional sports coach, and finally ended up - at my condo.

As we walked up to the door to my condo we ran straight into Helen, who seemed to have used some sort of feral instinct to pop up at that exact moment.

There was a short standoff where they looked each other up and down before Helen introduced herself. I tried to jump in and introduce my companion, but Jayden cut me off and introduced herself as my ‘friend’- with a special emphasis on the word that wasn’t lost on me. Before I knew what was going on Helen was called back to her condo by a man standing in their doorway and Jayden and I went into mine, where we stayed until morning.

This is probably a very very bad thing. But the night wasn’t bad at all. I can’t say I’ve ever celebrated that well before.

It wasn’t until later that I realized the man I had seen in Helen’s doorway wasn’t her husband.

This is why I don’t socialize more, people are confusing.

6/17 vs Columbus (US Cup) I selected a nearly fully rotated squad, the players need the playing time and I need to know who I can trust. We controlled play and stayed even in chances but Dickoh had two glaring mistakes. Goncalves, who wasn’t rotated out, scored an own goal trying to cover one of the mistakes. Loss 0-2.

New England Revolution vs Columbus Crew - US Cup

0-2

11 Shots 10

5 On Target 4

10 Fouls 12

1 Yellow Cards 1

58% Possession 42%

Goals: Tchani (19) Goncalves og (56)

That was a short cup run.

After the game I dropped Dickoh and Hall to reserves, and when Dickoh came to complain I told him his performances hadn’t been anywhere near good enough for the first team (according to the statisticians his average rating for the season was 6.05) and he went away unhappy. Jeremy had no reaction - but for a change he didn’t go to the press.

6/21/15 at DCU, We controlled the game but had no cutting edge. Draw 0-0

New England Revolution (9-3-4) vs DC United (3-4-10)

0-0

15 Shots 7

7 On Target 0

7 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 2

56% Possession 44%

Goals: --

After the game we found out that Jones and Tierney were injured, Tierney for a month, our bench is starting to look rather thin. I hope Mike has a plan… and I had to bring Jeremy Hall back from the reserves.

6/24/15 at Columbus. Awful. Dismal. Soulless. I can’t write about it. Loss 0-3.

New England Revolution (9-4-4) vs Columbus Crew (7-3-5)

0-3

9 Shots 22

5 On Target 7

8 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 1

43% Possession 57%

Goals:Finley (40) Kamara (65,84)

We’ll see if the players bounce back against Vancouver on the 27th, if not I’ll let Tom pick the lineup for the following game against Dallas, sometimes a fresh set of eyes can make a big difference.

6/27/15 vs Vancouver. Total domination. 10 scoring chances and only one late goal. Agudelo. 3 points. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution (9-4-5) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (6-3-8)

1-0

20 Shots 12

4 On Target 3

6 Fouls 12

2 Yellow Cards 3

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Agudelo (65)

We still sit at the top of the conference, but basically everyone except DC United and NYCFC are nipping at our heels with fewer games played. At least late nights at the office are a lot better right now.

[Cheesey1975]

what a great story so far and a relationship in the offering possibly

[edtheguy]

Thank you Cheesey, I'm glad you're enjoying it! As far as relationships go, it certainly appears that Peter has less of an idea what he's doing there than he does on the pitch...

July

At the monthly Board meeting I learned my job status was untouchable. The board cited our fantastic performance in MLS, but were disappointed with the Columbus game.

Yea, weren’t we all.

Still, ‘Untouchable’ does have a nice ring to it.

Hall is now complaining that we aren’t trying hard enough to sell him, so I sent the offer out to all clubs again. He’s even playing now that Tierney is injured and he is still holding a grudge. Well I would have sent him off to siberia earlier in the year so I guess I can’t criticize too much. There were no offers. Oh well, I tried.

Caldwell turned down another contract offer from Mike.

Jermaine is back to full training and fit so Zachary will sit next game vs FC Dallas. After good performances vs. Vancouver, Hall and Neumann will stay at wide positions. Dallas plays a 4-2-4DM, it will be interesting to see how our tactic holds up against all those attacking players.

7/4/15 at FC Dallas. The tactic held up well, but not our players. Kennedy made two great saves for Dallas, Shuttleworth couldn't make two good stops for us, one of them after a glaring error by Neumann, and I had to pull Agudelo in the 80th minute for awfulness. 0-2.

New England Revolution (10-4-5) at FC Dallas (4-4-9)

0-2

8 Shots 8

4 On Target 3

5 Fouls 17

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals:Gaucho (23) Teixeira (64)

After the game I spoke aggressively about their lack of performance and this time no one complained. Maybe if they had listened after the DCU game we wouldn’t be here, hmmm?

The transfer window opens the 8th, we could definitely use some depth and there are roster spots open, so hopefully Mike goes to work.

When we got back to Foxboro Mike and I went to dinner to talk about about options when it just isn’t working. I asked his preferred formation for more offense; he said 3-5-2, for tighter defense; he said 3-5-2….ok, I get the hint. I guess I need to look at different mentalities and roles. Now that I think of it he’s sounding a little like a certain instructor did at the conference. Time to dig out my notes.

We’re growing here right?

7/11/15 at NYRB Pre match presser centered on facing Kelyn Rowe, I declined to comment. He would be useful for us now with both starting wide midfielders out. Don’t let Mike hear me say that. Jones will play out wide and Neumann in CM/S role and Darrius Barnes will be in for Woodbury. The Jones/Neumann switch paid immediate dividends as Jones provided beautiful service to Agudelo after receiving a pass from Neumann for an early goal. We scored again after Hall left with an injury and Fagundez was pulled back to the wing as the newly inserted Bunbury finished a nice move from Agudelo. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution (10-4-6) vs New York Red Bull (5-6-6)

2-0

10 Shots 12

5 On Target 3

12 Fouls 15

2 Yellow Cards 4

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Agudelo (12) Bunbury (58)

We are now tied for top in MLS with an 11-4-6 record for 37 points but Orlando has two games in hand and KC four. Columbus is only 3 points behind and also has two games in hand. I never would have expected top of the table after the pre-season we had. Bottom maybe, but not top. How quickly things can change.

At the July staff meeting I was informed that rotation midfielder Kobayashi and team captain Goncalves are complaining about training. We started Agudelo working on lobbing the keeper, Fagundez on knocking ball past opponent, and I ignored the recommendation to promote Dickoh from reserves (I actually just gave the offending coach an icy stare). Ian Feuer suggested we use a 5-3-2 vs NYCFC (I’d love to man….but...) I told him we had an organizational philosophy that we were building and we would stick to the 3-5-2. He also recommended dropping Neumann, Heriveaux, and Duliyo due to poor form, but unless the coaches can suit up and play we lack the depth to drop anyone at the moment. Well, except Dickoh….

7/18/15 vs NYCFC. Since Caldwell and Jones are needed out wide the midfield consists of all three players Feuer suggested be dropped. We were actually noticeably outplayed but Shuttleworth was the player of the game with several great saves, including stoning David Villa one on one, and Fagundez ended his thirteen hour goal drought. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution (11-4-6) vs NYCFC (6-4-9)

1-0

14 Shots 14

6 On Target 8

12 Fouls 9

1 Yellow Cards 0

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Fagundez (55)

After the game Tierney resumed full training.

On the 24th I received word that I have been selected to manage the MLS all stars in a game against Monterey. Wow, all star manager in less than a year - take that Boston magazine! Jermaine Jones was selected for the team but not our leading scorer Juan Agudelo, shame.

Both Kate and David called to congratulate me on the honor, which was nice. I think Jayden told them before she told me.

The next match against Chicago is technically top vs bottom but we’ve still played more games (with less players) than anyone else - and Mike still hasn’t shown any signs of making any additions. Last time I asked him about it he told me that next time I should make sure I did a better job of keeping the players that I already had happy.

Tierneys fitness is still low, so Hall will start and Tierney come off the bench. In the tunnel pre match the press asked if that was the reasoning for not starting Tierney and I actually answered them that it was... imagine their surprise.

7/25/15 at Chicago. Former Rev player Jeff Larentowicz was sent off for a straight red at 22 mins and, expecting CHI to park the bus, we tried out some of our new tactical instructions that I dug out of my notes. They never did go into a shell, but we definitely increased the pressure and finished with a convincing win. 3-0. Agudelo (2) and Fagundez scoring. Tierney was impressive in his return off the bench, it’s easy to see why we struggled with both he and Nguyen out. We could survive one being out, but not both.

New England Revolution (12-4-6) at Chicago Fire (4-6-10)

3-0

11 Shots 7

5 On Target 1

10 Fouls 17

2 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals: Agudelo (43,70) Fagundez (48)

The day after the Chicago game Mike finally made a move - we signed Brian Hayes to be a reserves head coach. That’s not exactly what I was looking for, but at least the local amateurs will get some better coaching now. Actually this is still a clever way of giving us extra coaches as the reserves coaches work with the seniors as well. Brian is disciplined, adaptable and distinctly average in every other way. We had a 4-2-3-1 lunch, god bless him.

He doesn’t improve our coaching in any particular area, but using him for cover in all general coaching makes for a light load for everyone.

Juan Agudelo was announced as MLS player of the week, a well deserved honor. He is by far our leading scorer and we would be in a bad way without him this year. Tom also reported on his training, which is going well, but the interesting note in the report was that Tom felt that the teams personalty was having a good effect on him. He does seem fairly professional now, but I don’t remember him being different before so I don’t know exactly how much of an improvement there has been.

In his weekly press conference Jeremy Hall said he’s happy to stay now, since he’s been playing in Tierney’s absence. Now that is kind of amusing, we’ll see how he likes it back on the bench now that Tierney is fit.

7/29/15 MLS All stars vs Monterrey in Colorado. Going with my favourite 4-3-1-2 N from my amateur days. It is quite a lineup, there is some skill in MLS after all. I asked the staff for lineup recommendations and Jermaine is starting in the midfield with Andrea Pirlo and Steven Gerrard. I took Gaucho and Giovinco out and made the front three Villa, Keane and Emeghara.

And so much for our skill - we were thoroughly outplayed and out-chanced, Keane scored our only goal in a 1-3 loss and Jermaine was sent off for two yellows, continuing his tradition of being a complete mess in friendlies.

It was nice to come home to some sympathy though, Jayden was very supportive. We can’t have a public relationship for obvious reasons but we already spend all day together so it’s been quite nice, so far at least. My kids were already in her back pocket as she has been conspiring with them all year to keep their dad in line, so they haven’t noticed anything different. So everything is pretty good at the moment.

[Cheesey1975]

so the relationship is progressing well then

[edtheguy]

August

Training reports were very good on Fagundez, Duylio, and Herivaux. I spoke to all of them to tell them how impressed I was. There were bad reports on Neumann, Dickoh (shocking) and Tierney (who was injured). Dickoh is already banished, Tierney will improve now he’s back, and Neumann’s playing time will be adjusted accordingly soon.

At the monthly Board meeting I found out I was still untouchable, and they were still unhappy about the Columbus game. Which one? There were three to choose from. Doesn’t matter..

Next game is against Toronto FC and Jozy Altidore, who has never impressed me on TV and is yet to score this season. Transfer window closes in 5 days. Andrew Farrell will get a breather as Darrius Barnes continues to do what Dickoh couldn’t and establish himself as a competent CD. Tierney will come off bench at halftime as we still need to build up his sharpness.

8/1/15 vs Toronto FC. Horrible performance, we were second in every challenge, both Caldwell and Hall gifted goals to Toronto and we lost. 2-3. Even Altidore put the ball in the net - but it was called back for offsides so he remains goalless for the season.

New England Revolution (13-4-6) at Toronto FC (6-4-9)

2-3

15 Shots 13

6 On Target 9

5 Fouls 19

0 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Giovinco (23) Jones (46) Jackson (52) Gomez (81) Bunbury (88)

The transfer window has closed without any help arriving. Mike couldn’t do much as while we have two roster spots open, we are right at the MLS salary cap. He again reminded me that I did have more players to manage at the beginning of the season. I couldn’t argue.

Mike promoted Jake DeClute to chief scout, probably because he likes the 3-5-2.

As we have the week of the 7th off we inevitably fall to third in the conference and fourth overall as other teams get points from their games in hand. At least everyone has caught us in games played now except Houston, who is already ahead of us in the standings. We are only 1 point adrift of Orlando and Columbus who are tied for the top spot in the conference. We have already lost to Columbus twice (three times if you count the cup) and beaten Orlando once with one game against them left.

Tom tells me that Darrius Barnes is now satisfied with the game time he is getting. Good for him.

8/13/15 vs Houston. We come off our one week break looking up at three teams for the first time since week one and get to play the Dynamo who have gone top of the table as Sporting KC have gone 2-2-4 from 6/21-8/1 after being unbeaten until then. In a very closely matched game we didn’t allow a single scoring chance of any kind, but only generated one ourselves as Agudelo struggled before coming off. 0-0.

New England Revolution (13-4-7) vs Houston Dynamo (13-7-3)

0-0

11 Shots 11

5 On Target 6

12 Fouls 9

0 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: --

Martin Nash and Judah Cooks both completed their Continental A licenses. Judah already has us best in the league at defensive coaching, Martin puts us second in attacking.

Tom reported after training on the 19th that Teal Bunbury has gotten pretty good at knocking the ball past his opponent.

On the 26th we got word that Herivaux, Fagundez, and Agudelo were all called up for international duty. Herivaux is not even in my current 18 after a season of uninspired performances, Diego and Juan have been our driving forces this year.

And on the very next day Herivaux complained to Tom about training, again. Looking at my operations handbook I think I can put him on an ‘unwanted’ list and Mike will actually try to off load him, but then there's no guarantee I’ll see anyone to take his roster spot, also I doubt Mike would get value for him and as a MLS team it’s not like we need, or could do anything with the revenue, so we’ll just keep on keepin on.

8/29/15 at Philadelphia. After another week off we are 5th overall. Same lineup, I would like to bring Nguyen on at half this game. All pre game plans went out the window as once the whistle blew we gave a perfectly terrible performance, generated no scoring chances, our defenders didn’t, and we let Philadelphia do whatever they wanted. Loss. 0-3.

New England Revolution (13-5-7) at Philadelphia Union (12-2-12)

0-3

10 Shots 21

6 On Target 10

8 Fouls 7

0 Yellow Cards 0

58% Possession 42%

Goals: Aristeguieta (48) Barnetta (87) Carroll (88)

There was much yelling after the game, at the whole team, at the defense and at Jermaine who was singularly bad. No one argued. How could they?

I met Jayden’s ex, Rick, when he dropped off their son at the office. Jayden was pretty angry with him at the time, he had missed their appointed meeting time and because of that she had to deal with him at work, which didn’t impress her. By the looks of him I’m not surprised. He looked like a too full of himself pretty-boy wannabe tough guy, and from the way he acted he was used to getting his way. He is definitely more in her league as far as looks go though, they must have made a striking couple in their day.

She’s definitely better off without him - but it does work out nicely for me when he has their kid. When her son is with his father Jayden has started spending a few nights at the condo, which means I have too, which is a change. It has been nice to go home and get out of the office for more reasons than one. I’m not getting much reading or playing in though.

If this keeps up it’s just a matter of time until someone finds out about us and I don’t think either of us have any idea what to do then. Fortunately the team keeps me busy enough I don’t have time to worry about it. I am worrying about the fact that we haven't won a game since July though.

[edtheguy]

September

Tom’s training report had glowing reviews for Neumann, Farrell and Fagundez, again and I told them all it hadn’t gone unnoticed. Knighton, our backup keeper and Jones were concerns. Jermaine's play was a concern last game too, but that happens. As for training, well he isn’t getting any younger.

At the Board meeting I was told that I was now rated ‘very secure’. They were still happy with the standings, but now upset with the Philadelphia game. Me too. At least they told me with less yelling than I did the players, but the effect wasn’t much different.

9/5/15 vs 4th place Orlando City. Adrian Heath criticized our abundance of homegrown players in the pregame conference, he felt it was hurting the game here in America to not bring in better players. That’s….interesting. Both Agudelo and Fagundez are still on International duty. Good thing we don’t need strikers. And aren’t playing a good team. Or playing an important game. Bunbury and Okoli start. We were thoroughly outplayed but fought back from 0-1 and 1-2 down to draw on 1st goals of the year by Goncalves and Charlie Davis, who had to come on for the really not good Okoli. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (13-5-8) vs Orlando City SC (13-6-8)

2-2

7 Shots 22

5 On Target 10

10 Fouls 9

0 Yellow Cards 0

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Kaka (3) Goncalves (39) Rivas (45) Davis (90)

Mike signed Fran O’Leary as a scout. Over lunch I learned that Fran was an entirely average scout with a fondness for the 4-4-1-1.

For the next game Caldwell, who has been going between average and awful and hasn't had a day off in a while will sit, so Herivaux will start. Barnes will be back in and Farrell out.

9/13/15 at Toronto. Nope, no good, outplayed all game and we even let Altidore score his first goal of the season (unfortunately this one counted). 0-1.

New England Revolution (13-6-8) at Toronto FC (8-7-11)

0-1

12 Shots 17

1 On Target 7

9 Fouls 14

1 Yellow Cards 4

55% Possession 45%

Goals: Altidore (87)

Mike signed Eric Kissinger as a scout. Wow, he wouldn't know talent if he tripped over it and he likes the 4-4-2.

For the next game Tom can set the lineup. We are now at five in a row without a win. More worrisome is that we’ve been outplayed in every one of them, something that almost never happened before this streak. Tom didn’t do much different than I would have, he started Fagundez wide for the injured Tierney and Bunbury up front and moved Jermaine from the important RPM to CM and put Caldwell in the RPM position.

9/16/15 vs NYRB. What the Bleeping Goram Ever Loving Bull-..... We finally (barely) outplay the opponent for the first time in ever, only give up one marginal scoring chance the whole game and yet we see Kelyn bleeping Rowe score TWO wonder goals from 25+ yards out. The two goals bring his total for the SEASON to 4. Draw 2-2. When it rains….

New England Revolution (13-6-9) vs New York Red Bull (10-8-9)

2-2

13 Shots 17

8 On Target 7

15 Fouls 15

0 Yellow Cards 0

48% Possession 52%

Goals: Rowe (21,74) Agudelo (26) Goncalves (69)

I broke my own unwritten rule of always being complementary to other players and coaches when the press asked about Rowe after the game and refused to ‘praise an opponent’. I don’t think anyone didn’t see through me. Oh well, I’m sure Kelyn had a wonderful night.

9/19/15 at Montreal. Not sticking with Tom’s suggestions for this game, he wanted to start the still injured Tierney out wide, I’ll go with Neumann in the middle and Jones out wide. Especially since Tierney failed his fitness test. And yet again- nope. We didn’t even show up. 0-2 loss

New England Revolution (13-7-9) at Montreal Impact (7-11-10)

0-2

5 Shots 12

1 On Target 6

12 Fouls 7

2 Yellow Cards 1

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Porter (2) Piatti (23)

Afterwards everyone was yelled at. I told the press it was completely unacceptable. We have now gone seven games without a win, yet we are still 4th in the conference only 2 points off first and 7th overall 5 points adrift.

On the 24th Dr. Allen informed me that Teal Bunbury will be out the rest of the season with torn knee ligaments after injuring himself in practice today. It is now pouring.

9/26/15 vs Philadelphia. I was going to go with the regular lineup with Barnes back at D, but at this point we might as well do just the opposite. Herivaux, Neumann, Kobayashi and Davies will all play. If we still lose at least the regulars can come back next game after having a mental break. It almost worked, we had the better of play for most of the game until an 87th minute goal from Pilly. 0-1. Eighth game in a row without a win.

New England Revolution (13-7-10) vs Philadelphia Union (15-2-12)

0-1

12 Shots 9

5 On Target 5

6 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals: Gattis (87)

That one hurts. The three points for Philly put them soundly ahead of us in the standings. With only three games to go we are dropping fast and have little chance of making up any ground.

When I arrived at my office on the 28th Tom was waiting for me. He suggested we hold a team meeting and told me that Jeremy Hall had been absent from training. I fined Hall 1 weeks wages and held the darn meeting. I told the team that we shouldn’t let our heads drop because we had everything we need in the locker room to turn things around. According to Tom everyone but Hall was feeling better afterwards. Jeremy did at least accept that missing practice was unprofessional and paid his fine without protest. And he didn’t go to the press.

Obviously the squads morale is poor, so to try to address that I changed our training schedule and put the team on cohesion and teamwork practice and gave them a day off before the game. Also, I’ll give a positive pep talk. If that doesn’t work then warm up that firing squad. Even if I was allowed to, it’s too late to change tactics now.

I remember thinking back in the beginning of the year that I didn’t know what to try when our base tactic didn’t work. Well, it’s not working and I still have no idea, different team instructions don’t really seem to have much effect.

For some good news, Tom got his Continental Pro badge and Bryan Scales got his Continental A. I made sure the team officially recognized their accomplishments.

Also, Diego Fagundez was called up for international duty again. It's good to see the young man being recognized on the international front.

I haven’t seen Jayden outside work for a couple weeks and she actually asked for some time off this week for the first time ever. She didn’t tell me why.

[Cheesey1975]

that doesnt sound to good on the relationship front.....sounded like it was blossoming as well

[edtheguy]

October

I wasn’t looking forward to the monthly Board meeting, but apparently I am still very secure, strangely, and now they don’t like my trade with Colorado. I guess it was too hard to pick just one terrible game from the list to be disappointed with.

10/3/15 at Chicago - I tried to be as positive and upbeat as possible all week leading up to this game, and gave a positive team talk hoping it would get a reaction from the players. There didn’t seem to be any reaction, from anyone. I guess my motivation skills are lacking. 1-4. Nothing more to say, the score says it all. Nine in a row. Tom is now going to take the team talks. I’ve tried everything I can.

New England Revolution (13-7-11) at Chicago Fire (7-9-15)

1-4

9 Shots 9

6 On Target 7

12 Fouls 19

0 Yellow Cards 2

62% Possession 38%

Goals: Shipp (20,79) Gilberto (78) Fagundez (53) Larentowicz (pen 64)

Caldwell turned down another contract offer. Don’t blame him, I wish I hadn’t signed mine.

Jayden is now all business at work, something is definitely wrong, but I’m not sure I want to know what. With two weeks between games and no one else at home I would normally look forward to some enjoyable solitude. Any thoughts of fun were ruined by our recent form however, so I just stayed at the office and stewed. By myself.

On the 12th Dr. Allen informed me Lee Nguyen broke his shoulder in practice and will be out for four weeks. This is getting kind of funny.

We held our monthly staff meeting, there were mostly the same suggestions as last month. Which went so well.

Charlie Davis went to the press complaining that he hasn't been sold. No comment. I resisted the urge to remind them that they were asking about our small squad last month and selling another player wouldn’t make it any bigger.

10/17/15 vs Montreal. Regular starters. Except for Nguyen. Whatever. Oh, and we only need 1 point to clinch a playoff spot. Exciting. The game started and I was expecting more of the same. What I saw was absolute, total , and utter domination. Fagundez scored twice, Agudelo once, Jones had two assists and we were in complete control start to finish. 3-0.

New England Revolution (13-7-12) vs Montreal Impact (8-11-13)

3-0

23 Shots 9

7 On Target 4

7 Fouls 18

1 Yellow Cards 0

65% Possession 35%

Goals: Fagundez (2,48) Agudelo (8)

What just happened? What team was that? Is it July again?

With the win we secured a playoff spot, that's what happened. We also clinched top half finishes in league and shield tables, so I probably won’t be fired. No celebration when I got home this time though. For some reason I’m finding it hard to be excited.

The next day I finally asked Jayden if everything was OK and she said it was, that she just had to work some things out and that she really appreciated my patience with her.

That’s probably not good.

I didn’t have anything that needed my attention on our off day between games so I broke down and finally went to my condo by myself for the first time in a long while. And was accosted at the door by Bradley, who told me loudly that I was s*** and had ruined his marriage. I couldn’t believe that he was doing this now, months after the fact, when his wife has clearly taken up with someone else, and I told him so. And to get lost. After that I didn’t sleep much, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the night passed uneventfully and I didn’t see him again. This is just lovely.

He had looked so surprised when I said how long ago it was between Helen and me that all I could think was maybe Helen had just told him about it. Probably to get revenge after she saw me with Jayden - that would fit her personality. And now I’m starting to think I’m not ‘with’ Jayden any more either.

Yeah, things are just going great. Why was it I wanted a 'fresh start' again?

10/25/15 at NYCFC Started all the subs as we are in the mid-week Wild Card Games no matter what. And NYCFC ran all over us and jumped to a 2-0 lead before the subs found their way into the game, in the end it was a more respectable loss. 2-3.

New England Revolution (14-7-12) at NYCFC (10-7-16)

2-3

11 Shots 24

4 On Target 8

7 Fouls 4

0 Yellow Cards

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Poku (18,25) Davis (pen 30) Iraola (38) Fagundez (90+2)

We get to go to DCU for the wild card game on wednesday.

Montreal, Toronto and Seattle all fired their coaches after the final weekends games, a couple weeks ago I was expecting my name to be on that list.

And we’re off to the MLS playoffs to try to salvage something from a dismal second half of the season. Hopefully the team that took the field against Montreal shows up, we will try to follow the same formula that we did for that game as much as possible.

10/28/15 at DC United, MLS Wild Card Game. Played the pre match press conference blase, except saying Jermaine should win player of the year. Sure that’s what I think. Starting as many regulars as we can, with the ineffable Jeremy Hall in Lee’s wide right position. We actually had the edge in play for the game and scored three goals….. But Hall and Woodbury had total meltdowns on the big stage, we gave away two penalties and we gave up four goals IN THE FIRST HALF. Loss. 3-5.

New England Revolution at DC United

MLS Eastern Conference Wild Card Game

3-5

15 Shots 16

10 On Target 7

13 Fouls 16

1 Yellow Cards 2

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Birnbaum (3) Tierney (10) Rolfe (21,39, pen 61) Fagundez (25) Farfan (44) Goncalves (86)

When we got back I went to my condo in a bad mood and had a long and lonely night. Normally I like being alone, just not right then. But it’s probably best that I was.

On the next day we held the end of season team meeting and the only player who didn’t think we could make top half next season was, once again, Jermaine Jones. Yes, that Jermaine Jones, player of the year candidate, friendly match ace, and Mr. Confidence. Good thing his contract was extended, I’m really looking forward to watching him in next year’s friendlies.

[edtheguy]

November

At the Board Meeting my job security was downgraded to stable. For the year they felt that the team's performance was satisfactory and they recognized that I got the most out of Diego. I was impressed with Fagundez this year, but I definitely did not think our performance as a team was acceptable.

The season ending injury report showed Nguyen missed 24% of the season and Tierney 10%. What made Tierney’s injury time hurt was that it was entirely while Nguyen was already out and we never found an answer out wide when they were both missing.

In some postseason housekeeping: Jones won player of the month and Mike extended the contracts of Goncalves, Darrius Barnes, Woodberry, Teal Bunbury, and….. Dickoh…. ugh. Being a glorified coach does get frustrating, I'm jealous of the managers who get to call all of the shots. I guess that kind of responsibility is earned though, you have to start somewhere.

After everyone cleared out for the year Jayden asked to see me in private and gave me the ‘just friends’ talk. Apparently she has gotten back together with her ex ‘for the good of their son’. Right. I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he’s a young hunky supermodel type with all the girls chasing him.

With an empty feeling in my chest I told her I hoped everything worked out for them and that she had been a tremendous help to me this year. She asked if she still had a job and I told her of course. My cynical side couldn’t help but wonder, just a little, if this had all been a trap to get me to fire her so she and her scumbag ex could sue, but she seemed truly relieved and gave me a big hug before saying goodnight.

I give up, relationships just aren’t worth the hassle. I think it’s time to become a ‘Confirmed Bachelor’. I tried calling the kids to see if they'd be around for thanksgiving, but they were both busy and said they'd call me when they could. It's probably just as well.

The conference finals are Columbus v Philadelphia and LA vs Colorado

Scott Caldwell turned down another contract offer, which is happening more often than Jeremy’s press conferences, Tierney is also expiring at the end of the year. Problems.

Mike extended Tom as my assistant for two years. That is good news, Tom’s advice has actually been pretty useful this year. When we went for a celebratory beverage Tom informed me that Diego Fagundez can now knock ball past opponent and that Bryan Scales got a two year extension as HOYD. Yay. The MLS academy system is strange, I’m not sure Bryan actually does anything, but good for him.

Tom and I agreed that we would keep in touch while the players were on break and try to figure our how to make next year better. We are hoping that another year's familiarity with the system and some player development will make a big difference.

Toronto offered Ian Freuer a job as Assistant Coach, he's currently our reserves assistant so we will likely need a replacement once he takes what would be a pretty good promotion there.

The MLS Cup final on 12/6 will be Philadelphia vs Colorado. Philadelphia won the eastern conference, Colorado was under .500, 5points less than us.

[edtheguy]

December (part 1)

At least now that I have no social life again I can look forward to a quiet, relaxing, holidays. I was hoping it would be with the kids, but it sounds like they both have plans - so like last year I’ll just have to wait and see. It’s not like I won’t find ways to amuse myself. It’ll give me a chance to reflect and recharge my batteries before we do it all again.

So it's a case of deja vu as I sit here and write this, alone in my condo eating a homemade meal and drinking a beverage du jour - this time a poor man's jambalaya and some Long Trail Double Bag. At least it was a good year for music, I'm enjoying my 'current top' playlist as I reflect.

For some reason Ian Feuer rejected Toronto FC, which is good for us.

At the Board Meeting I was told my job status is still stable. Apparently they feel the fans have been unified by our convincing 3-0 victory over Montreal. Ummmm.... Unified? I could see one step further from the edge, maybe..... However the board was disappointed in our 2-3 defeat in the season ending dead rubber against NYCFC.

They’re disappointed with the NYCFC game but no one mentioned the Wild Card game… at least they know what to focus on….

Colorado won the MLS cup on penalties. Yes, Colorado, who had 5 points less than we did in the regular season.

Agudelo finished tied with Innocent Emeghara for second in the MLS golden Boot with 18 goals, Robbie Keane won with 20.

On the 9th Mike made an offer for Mario Rodriguez, who is not good enough to be a striker for us right now, and not as good as Tierney at left midfielder, but he has potential.

And on the next day Mike called me while Tom and I were going over training schedules for the coming season to tell me that Juan Agudelo signed an extension through 2019 with a 5.22m free release clause. This is good news, unless he looks appealing to someone in the rest of the footballing world, in which case we will find ourselves with another 5.2 million useless dollars.

And so much for a peaceful holiday season, Mike and Michelle just stopped by and apparently there are mandatory team functions. When Mike told me about them I tried to get out of the big Kraft Sports Group Christmas party by saying I didn’t have anyone to go with.

That was a mistake….

[Cheesey1975]

come on then...what happened ?? not jayden again ??

[edtheguy]

Definitely not Jayden, as far as Peter knows she's off having a grand time with her once and future pretty boy of a man... no, it's something far more ominous from his point of view...

December (part 2)

Mike said that it was funny I should say that, apparently Michelle didn’t think it was healthy for me to be ‘on my own’ anyway and had been carefully screening the local divorcees in her social circles for a while. As a result, I was supposed to go to the Burns holiday party so she could see if there was any chemistry between me and her favorite candidates.

This doesn’t sound good to me, but disagreeing with Mike hasn’t worked out too well for me either, and I don’t think he’s going to tell Michelle no… so off to the holiday parties I go.

While I spent the next day dreading the party Mike picked Andrew Jacobsen in the MLS re-entry draft. (WTF is a re-entry draft? I wonder where that rules summary I was given at the start of the year went….) Jacobsen actually looks like a decent midfielder. Rotation option.

At the end of the day we got word that Mario Rodriguez agreed to terms. Right now he would be our #4 striker and #3 ML and he’s only 21. I am interested to see him in action. At 21 he could still develop, but I don’t know if it’ll be as much as the coaches hope.

On the 12th I went to the Burns’ party. Mike and Michelle have a very nice home and throw a wonderful party. Their holiday get together would have almost been fun, if it wasn’t too upscale for me to be really comfortable. And if I didn’t feel like a piece of meat on auction. A piece of sub-standard meat. Every one of Michelle’s ‘good friends’ that she introduced me to was attractive, desirable, and an appropriate match. But every one of them had a personality that made me want to run away, some faster than others. Then again I have been told I’m too picky when it comes to women. Michelle has invited me back to their house to have lunch and ‘talk about things’, oh boy.

On the 14th as I tried to think of ways to cancel my lunch with Michelle, Sporting KC offered a second round pick for one of our international slots. I said no thank you.

Afterwards, at our surprisingly relaxed lunch, Michelle convinced me to get to know one of her friends a little better. Gia - Gianna Lovell - is a recent divorcee who is trying to find a way to make it on her own for the first time. She didn’t seem to be the smartest woman I’d ever met - she had essentially been a trophy wife since high school and she had no children and no real world experience. However I did like her sense of humor and she was less in your face supermodel-ly than the others which made me a little more comfortable around her. Apparently she has just gotten her real estate license and want’s to practice showing a house before she’s thrown to the wolves, so I agreed to be her guinea pig.

The off season roster moves continued a few days later as apparently we drafted 25 year old Vancouver striker Darren Mattocks in the re-entry draft stage two (I’m not kidding, there's a stage two) and Mike has offered him a contract.

So after another couple days of dreading a social engagement I finally went to the real estate 'showing' with Michelle's friend. God, I’m easy. One trip through the extravagant and overpriced home with Gia and I’m sold. We had a wonderful time, we bonded over how embarrassed we were to be set-up by Michelle and she graciously agreed to help me through the big Kraft Sports Group (KSG) Christmas party. For someone who’s supposedly ‘picky’ about women, I seem to get attached awful quickly.

I do still miss the late nights with Jayden though. I haven't seen her since she left for a season ending vacation with her former hubby - I'm sure they're having a wonderful time. At least Gia is a more appropriate age for me, and we are able to go out in public. She’s just so clueless about the real world it’s sometimes cringe-worthy….

The KSG Christmas party with Gia was actually a lot of fun. Gia was a charming force to be reckoned with and the party was so large it was easy to blend into the background and just observe the mass of humanity around us most of the time. Everyone was in a good mood, and Gia and I got to know each other a little better.

I really hadn’t expected us to get along, despite the positives, she had one of the personalities that I wanted to run faster from that night at the Burns’. Aside from her slightly alarming naievety she is a bit of a fiery ‘bigger than life’ italian, which is a personality type that has always rubbed me the wrong way, but so far she has been pretty fun to be around.

I saw Jayden and Rick accross the pavilion at one point with their son, but I don’t think she saw us. Mike and Michelle sat with us most of the night and I enjoyed being around them even more now that I wasn’t feeling third wheel-ish at all.

So it was with a much more optomisitc attitude than I'd had in a while that I went to work the following week to keep up on the off season roster moves. Most of the news of the week centered on speculation about the upcoming Superdraft. Diego Peralta, a very promising young keeper posted on social media that he hopes we pick him in the superdraft. It’s good to be wanted to want….. Peralta’s comments were followed by Jhossimar Arias, moderately promising CD, who felt the same, and on the next day Freddie Allen, decent RB, added his name to the list.

Christmas Day. The Press has picked up on the fact that Tierney’s contract is about to expire and included that information in their year end summary which also reported that the Portland Timbers led the league in sponsorship revenue at 8.25m, the league average was 3.9m and we raked in a whopping 1.3m. That’s probably the take for a 30 second commercial during one Patriots game.

I spent a quiet Christmas at home with Gia, who surprisingly had no other plans and really liked my Christmas ham, with extra bourbon on the side. Kate and David each called and when they heard Gianna was there they organized a group skype to officially wish us a merry Christmas (and, I’m sure, to see what Gia looked like) and everyone's personality seemed to click. It was a good day.

When I got back to the office there was a very kindly worded christmas card from Jayden, which thanked me for being a wonderful boss and friend ‘in her time of need’, and a surprisingly large present on my desk. When I opened it I couldn't help but gasp as I found a framed and autographed picture of the Red Sox outfield from the late 70’s, my childhood heros. That woman knows her stuff. I hurriedly started searching for something I could give her, wishing I’d been considerate enough to think of it before then.

On the 27th the MLS announced their 2016 schedule which will see us open our season 3/6 vs the LA Galaxy, it was also announced that the salary cap and minimum senior contract had been raised.

We received 425k in allocation funds because we did not purchase an extra international slot last year. And following that announcement the board immediately purchased a slot for the coming year.

Philadelphia inquired about acquiring Darrius Barnes.

The Red Bulls rejected Mike’s trade offer for defender Lloyd Sam, then offered us cash and a future pick for our 12th overall superdraft pick. I returned their rejection.

On the 31st it was announced that Juan Agudelo won the USA Young Player of the Year. The media department was very excited about that. I would rather keep his name out of the press with his new free release clause, but it is a deserved award and I called and congratulated him. He thanked me and said he didn’t see any reason he couldn’t play better….

[Cheesey1975]

not a bad christmas then

[edtheguy]

January 2016

Tom and I got together in the office on the first to drink lots of coffee and catch up on the year end news. The first reports we had were that Scott Caldwell, Brad Knighton and Chris Tierney’s contracts expired, among others, and they left the team. It will be interesting to see how we replace Tierney, we didn’t do too well when he was out of the lineup last year.

Andrew Farrell signed a two year extension, which is good news. Again, we lack the depth at defense to see anyone leave.

And In year ending news from around the rest of the world:

Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball.

Kevin De Bruyne won the player of the year.

Carlos Vela won North American player of the year

Mike has signed 17 year old central defender Nathan Burton to a professional deal from our academy. Tom, who had watched the young man practice, put him just behind Darrius Barnes on the depth chart. He has the key skills, and some potential. And we don’t exactly have a surplus of central defenders, so I moved him to the senior squad.

After a long discussion with Tom I also moved Francis Dickoh back to the senior squad. It’s a new year - hopefully It’ll be better for him. I will have to try to find a way to motivate him this year.

A couple days later as everyone worked back into their regular routine after the holidays was the monthly Board Meeting. I was told my job was still stable. They were impressed with the atmosphere in the dressing room. Mike and I had a chuckle about that afterwards - That’s me, people person and elite motivator…. the insight of the board never ceases to amaze me. At least that should help me with Mr. Dickoh.

Jayden returned to work the next day and had even more correspondence for me to review. NYCFC offered cash and the 6th pick in the superdraft for Lee Nguyen, which I rejected. I couldn’t accept any deal like that without a backup plan in place, and with our current allocation of responsibilities that is not in my purview.

And the buildup for the draft continued as I received a ‘combine stock report’ for whatever it’s worth. The scouts felt that Josh Sonis, Martin Coyne, Steve Mejia Bennett Baker and Carlos Adame were all improved while Nick Soffner, Louis Greenway-Tambini, Colin Beeney, Daniel Yazzie, and Logan Evans were all looking worse.

I had been dreading her return but the day went smoothly as we settled into our old routines. She seemed to be in a good mood and was even enthusiastic about my late Christmas present - season passes for her family to the local children's museum. The only hiccup was when Gia stopped by for lunch, there were no fireworks, but I thought I could see sparks in both of their eyes.

As part of our offseason evaluation process Tom submitted a pre-season report on the players. His fitness report had no concerns. After reading the report I made sure our training schedule was set to high intensity fitness and maximum work on match tactics with no days off for when the players return. Welcome back, it’s time to work. And looked at our (lack of) depth chart. We only have 18 total players currently.

The club announced friendlies scheduled with Colombian Second Division team America de Cali, as well as USA teams Rochester, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

On the 14th I received notice again that we apparently have to send someone to observe Mike make the picks in the Superdraft. Good job for Tom. Gia and I are going to a show that Kate choreographed and then dinner with Kate and Andrew in New York tonight.

Mike Drafted and offered contracts to the following players:

Peter Johnson a potentially useful left midfielder with great fitness and technique and slightly questionable composure.

Jake Van Matre a potentially good left attacking midfielder who is physically top notch but lacks technical abilities.

Regis Diba, a questionable goalkeeper with little skills to comment on.

Steve Bulow a wide midfielder who can play either side and has the potential to be a leading MLS player. He has blazing speed but little flair and questionable leadership.

The Foxboro Soccer Review gave us a B for the draft, which was the highest grade they gave to any team. So- good job Mike? They considered Van Matre, Diba and Bulow long shots but liked Johnson and Mike Flores, who wasn’t in the initial report I got from Mike (maybe because he only plays right back, and once he showed up for training the first thing the coaches noticed was that he seemed rather lazy)

I was impressed when I worked the draftees into practice that we now had two players for each position on the squad (once we re-train Flores for the right midfield position). Maybe I need to keep staying out of Mike’s way.

After our Christmas Day Skype session I didn’t see much more of the kids over the holidays. We caught up with Kate and Andrew after Gia and I went to Kate's show. We all had a nice late dinner at an italian restaurant called Lattanzi and everyone had a very good time, but both Kate and Andrew have very busy schedules and that is all I got to see of them. David came to visit for a weekend in January and we did a mini late-Christmas that Kate skyped in for part of, but then he was off to do his own thing over the rest of his winter break.

Both kids still seem to really like Gianna, which isn’t a surprise, Gia has such an outgoing and infectious personality and great sense of humor it is hard not to like her when you first meet. Gia and Jayden, on the other hand, are not getting along. At all. It’s not because of what Jayden and I briefly had between us, at least on Gias side anyway, as far as I know no one else knows about that, but whatever the reason there is definitely bad blood between the two of them.

Which makes some of my days rather uncomfortable. I went most of my life with only three relationships, and now there are three woman I have ‘known’ that I still see on a regular basis. It is rather surreal, and not in a comfortable way at all.

[edtheguy]

February 2016

After an uneventful Board Meeting, I sat in the conference room going over reports from the last day as I waited for the players to show up for the season opening team meeting, to be followed by my staff meeting. The first was a news story where I noticed that we are ranked 16th in the MLS in the pre-season predictions. That’s not too promising. The next report was the training camp fitness test results which showed that Jones, Goncalves, Nguyen, Barnes and Van Matre all tested out in ‘Top Condition’.

After all the players rolled in I just welcomed everyone back for a ‘good season’ and even Jermaine was positive for a change. I said some final words of encouragement and sent them all on their way before anyone could change their mind.

Next up was the coaches meeting and the only coach with anything to say was Ian Feuer, who still wants us to play narrow formations. I reminded him of our team philosophy and sent them off to get started with the players.

At the end of the week we make a long trip to Colombia for our first friendly. To start there will be no changes to the tactic from last year, hopefully with a little stability we can start to build something here.

For the lineup we will start with Shuttleworth in goal Farrell, Goncalves and Dickoh at central defender - Dickoh is third on the depth chart according to the coaches, so I’ll give him a chance and we’ll see. Our wide midfielders will be Nguyen on the right and in Tierney’s old position on the left we’ll start draftee Peter Johnson. The three central midfielders will be Duylio, Jones (in a friendly, oh boy….) and former NYCFC player Andrew Jacobson. The strikers will be Fagundez and Agudelo.

On February 2nd, just before we took the field in Colombia I got word that Malmo FF made a 4.5m offer for Fagundez. Crap. That’s only 700k less than his free release clause. I wonder if that clause was a serious mistake, maybe super Mike isn’t bulletproof.

2/2/16 at America de Cali - Well, the players might have been fit, but they didn’t look ready to play as we were down 2-0 inside 9 minutes. Agudelo eventually responded with a hat trick, two of the goals on excellent service from the wide midfielders, draftee Johnson with the first assist. Dickoh was terrible and looked disinterested all game, I passionately told him at half he needed to show me why he should be on the team and he didn’t get any better. After the game I aggressively told him he was awful and he looked crushed. I am still not a fan. At least Jermaine had an uneventful game.

New England Revolution at America de Cali

3-4

11 Shots 15

5 On Target 7

8 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 1

50% Possession 50%

Goals: Ramirez (3,31) Cabrera (9) Agudelo (14,41,66) Mercado (80)

Back at the office after the return flight from Colombia Jayden gave me a report that Mike made an offer for Chicago central defender Onyekachi Apam and there was an immediate fan reaction stating they would not accept a former Chicago player on the club due to the recent rivalry between the teams. Ah, spots fans are nothing if not passionate. There was also a report from the medical staff that our less than hardworking draftee Jim Flores tore his groin muscle in training and will be out 7-8 weeks.

When I showed up at the office on the 5th I was greeted with an email from Mike saying we had acquired Apam from Chicago for a 4th round pick in the superdraft. That afternoon at the press conference to introduce Onyekachi, when I was asked about his coming from a rival, I told the press that the fans will applaud his good sense to come here. What they’ll applaud are wins. If we play well they’ll love him if not he’ll be a Chicago infiltrator.

There was another interesting note from the medical staff waiting for me after the press conference, this one from Dr. Allen, meaning it had first team implications. Apparently after his inauspicious performance in first friendly Francis Dickoh suffered a double hernia in practice and will be out 7-9 weeks. And I was just thinking about trying the teams “unwanted list” policy to see if we could get rid of him.

Our second friendly will be at Pittsburgh, we’ll start with the same lineup, except Woodbury back in his position instead of the always disappointing and now injured Francis. I expect this game will see more substitutions than the one in Colombia as players build their fitness levels.

2/6/16 at Pittsburgh - Well, we certainly don’t seem to get up for friendlies. Looked like a boring game from the sidelines. Nothing good, not terrible. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution at Pittsburgh Riverhounds

1-1

8 Shots 12

5 On Target 8

8 Fouls 15

1 Yellow Cards 0

67% Possession 33%

Goals: Agudelo (7) Vincent (79)

One of the day’s news stories after the Riverhounds game was that Salt Lake is reportedly chasing Shuttleworth, I told the press there was no way Bobby was leaving. It is kind of cute that they still think it’s up to me.

For our next friendly, Johnson and Fagundez will start on the bench as they are both match fit already, which is impressive. Otherwise no changes from last game.

2/13/16 at Harrisburg City Islanders - I’m not even sure there was a game. Both teams could have just run sprints and accomplished as much. Except Harrisburg got plenty of tackling practice, which they seem to need. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution at Harrisburg City Islanders

1-0

3 Shots 3

1 On Target 0

10 Fouls 23

0 Yellow Cards 0

62% Possession 38%

Goals: Nguyen (15)

At least we have a pre season win this year.

The next week, When our head groundskeeper asked about the pitch dimensions I opted to leave our home pitch at standard size. I don’t have experience with how much a different pitch size affects the tactic and I’m hesitant to make a change that we will have to live with all year.

On the 17th Mike signed Duylio to a two year extension, which is good news - while he is not an elite player, players of his caliber are not easy to come by in MLS.

On the very next day Mike stopped by in person to tell me he finalized the signing of former BMG striker Mario Rodriguez, who is fairly solid all around offensively and can play central midfield and left midfield as well. At the press conference I was asked if this would change the tactical style we played - I wish it was that easy. No. No it won’t

Tyler Rudy tore his hamstring in practice on the 19th, he will be out three months. Teal Bunbury suffered a thigh strain on the same day and will be out two weeks. With the injuries starting to accumulate I dropped the training schedule to average, our fitness is coming along nicely anyway.

I saw on our internal emails that Mike is looking at Busan striker Elias Oliveira as well as Inside Forward Justin Meram on a free transfer, I wonder if all this means he’s expecting either Fagundez or Agudelo, both of whom have been getting interest from overseas, to leave.

I continued my tradition of sending Tom to watch Mike make our draft picks, this time at the waiver draft. Mike picked Meram, and we added him to the roster.

As Mike and Tom were completing the draft paperwork Jayden informed me we could take part in the MLS allocation for Marky Delgado. In reports last year the scouts figured Delgado was just a tick behind Nguyen at only 19 years old. I asked for a current scout report, and when it came back the next day the new report was just as favorable, I told Jayden to confirm our participation. Three days later, while I was listening to Gia ramble on about the real estate business as I cooked some shrimp scampi I got an email notification that Chicago won the allocation for Delgado.

It had to be Chicago, who our fans don’t like, and their rather obnoxious manager Hugo Sanchez, who I’m not a fan of, darn them.

Next on our pre season preparations, we had to choose our captains for the coming season and with Tierney gone there is an opening at vice captain. Goncalves will stay captain and Tom recommends we make Jermaine vice captain. With all of his personality quirks I’d really rather not, but looking at the squad it would probably cause more disruption on the team if we picked someone else. So it’s Goncalves and Jones.

As we were preparing for our last friendly Jayden informed me that Mike made an offer for Sriwijaya FC attacking midfielder Morimakan Koita.

For the last friendly I’ll rotate the squad to try to give the reserves some fitness before the season opens.

2/29/16 at Rochester Rhinos - Didn’t look that good, hopefully we’ll improve once the games start counting. Couldn’t cover their striker who scored a quick brace, and didn’t break them down at all. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution at Rochester Rhinos

1-2

9 Shots 9

4 On Target 4

11 Fouls 14

2 Yellow Cards 1

52% Possession 48%

Goals:Nukic (38,42) Apam (43)

After scoring in the game Apam injured his foot and will be out 2-3 weeks

While Gia and Jayden not getting along still causes me all sorts of problems, I can only be amused by Gia’s relationship with Helen. Helen made the mistake of making our short affair known to Gia early on and my new girlfriend has not hesitated to twist the knife in return at every chance since then. Helen has had several men move in and back out of her condo since her divorce from Bradley and Gia has been so ruthless in pointing out the shortcomings in each of her male friends that Helen actually runs the other way when she sees Gia now.

I’m starting to feel a little worn out though. Gia has so much energy, and so many things she wants to do that I am starting to make excuses to not get together, just so I can relax. I’m more of a stay at home kind of guy, especially with all of the time I need to be at work. I’m going to have to man up and talk to her about it at some point.

Just not right now.

We will open our season the end of next week against the LA Galaxy. I am both hopeful and apprehensive about the coming season, let's hope it is an improvement over year one.

[tenthreeleader]

I like the pacing of your writing. It's very effective and moves your story along. This is good stuff.

[jdoyle9293]

Apologies for not commenting in the past week - I have been reading though. Like how we're getting to the real meat of the story now, the writing's as good as ever. Love the questioning of the re-entry draft system, haven't got a clue either. Great stuff all in all, perhaps a better season on the horizon?

[Terry Ballsack]

Just caught up with this; good luck for the season head!

[EvilDave]

I'm sorry I haven't commented on this before now Ed - I like this a lot, it's quick, there's detail, and I can feel Peter's frustrations at working within the 'philosophy' imposed on him. Interesting way of writing a story, and I'm a fan - KUTGW!

[edtheguy]

Thank you all, I am truly glad you are enjoying it. The pace and style of prose was my main concern when I was thinking about posting here - especially with my playing habits - and it is definitely still a work in progress. It has been very helpful to continue to read and get ideas from some of the other fine threads on these forums (including those written by the very authors that I am replying to here).

I’m thankful the ‘team philosophy’ device has complimented the story. It was a result of me trying to figure out how to start an inexperienced American manager’s career without any playable lower leagues in the USA. When I saw screenshots of the staff profiles that had tactical preferences laid out a light bulb went on and I said ‘A-HA’ (literally) “I’ll let the game tell the story, he’ll start as a glorified ‘head coach’ and will have to run whatever tactics are in his boss’ profile until he builds a reputation of his own…”

The thing is, I was expecting one of the common formations that the AI always uses in game and figured it would be a neat device/challenge that I could handle. Then I bought the game, opened up Mike Burns profile, and saw the 3-5-2 in every slot - a tactic that I have tried many times and am yet to have any success with.

After I regained consciousness, we ended up with what we have here.

Anyway - thank you all for the kind words, and now back to the story,

March 2016

As I returned from another largely pointless Board Meeting Evan Allen came to me with news that Jermaine Jones had come down with a virus. He recommended we send Jermaine home until he’s over it so the rest of the team doesn’t become infected. Well, I’d rather not have the whole team sick so I agreed.

Before I even had time to plan the match day squad without Jermaine, Dr. Allen was back in my office to tell me that Andrew Farrell had food poisoning and would be unavailable for 4-5 days. What is going on here? I scratched out my latest proposed lineup and called Tom in to discuss strategies.

With both Jones and Farrell unavailable for the first game of the season Zachary Herivaux and Darrius Barnes will get the start. The academy kid, Nathan Burton, has moved ahead of Darrius on the staff’s depth charts now, but with his lack of experience I’d rather bring him off the bench a few times before I throw him to the wolves.

Mike finalized the Koita signing. He can actually play striker as well as AML/R, so maybe he is just more insurance. We added him to the roster and as we went through the paperwork Jayden informed me that the club could send him on an intensive language course for 13.25k over 35 weeks. I told her football was a universal language and that we’d get on just fine.

Koita is actually pretty far down the depth charts at striker, but he’s got some pretty good skills for wide positions, so I am going to start him on training for right midfielder, with Lee’s injury history some more depth there might be nice.

I wonder how I’m going to keep all of these strikers happy?

The board sent an official message reminding me of their expectations for the year, which are only slightly higher than last year. Mid Table in the supporters shield, top half in MLS, and this year they want an appearance in the quarterfinals of the MLS cup. I guess they weren’t too impressed with our one and done exit last year.

The club announced season ticket sales for this year at 7,504, up a massive 4 tickets from last years 7,500. I don’t think we’re exactly setting the world on fire there.

We open the season against the pre season MLS favourites the LA Galaxy and we are without Jones, Farrell, and my first choice replacement for Farrell - Apam (aka that Chicago guy)

3/6/16 vs LA Galaxy - In the tunnel the press asked about Mario Rodriguez being left out of the starting 11, I said I’d like to talk about the players who are playing. It’s interesting that he is getting that much attention though. On kickoff the galaxy started on the front foot and ran at us for the first 30 minutes of the game, but could only create long shots and half chances. On the half hour mark though, Lee Nguyen took over and absolutely terrorized the Galaxy for the rest of the game ending with a goal and assist and a 9.0 player of the match rating. A very pleasing win. 2-0.

New England Revolution (0-0-0) vs Los Angeles Galaxy (0-0-0)

2-0

16 Shots 13

10 On Target 6

7 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 1

60% Possession 40%

Goals:Nguyen (32) Agudelo (49)

In the news story after the game I was referred to as media friendly - that’s not by choice, the media must pay attention to what I’m doing as well as our board does.

We have a midweek trip to Houston, our lineup will be determined by fitness levels. Shuttleworth and Nguyen were named in the MLS team of the week, Nguyen was a world beater in the Galaxy game, Shuttleworth looked like he had it pretty easy to me - but it’s good recognition for him.

Tom and I got together after our practice in Houston and decided we are going to stick with same lineup for the midweek game against the Dynamo, then we will do some rotating back at home vs Colorado.

3/9/16 at Houston - Gave up the first and last goal of the game. We looked good the rest of the way, but the game was a little too open. Teams traded long range goals, Jacobson scoring his first for us from range and Bent’s second goal was from another zip code. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (1-0-0) at Houston Dynamo (0-0-1)

2-2

13 Shots 21

5 On Target 8

6 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Bent (3,84) Jacobson (11) Agudelo (64)

Real Salt Lake is denying interest in Shuttleworth. Yeah, you just keep being not interested, he’s our keeper.

3/13/16 vs Colorado - Mattocks, Neumann, Rodriguez, Bulow, and Farrell will all get their first start. It looked like the rotation would be a good thing as we scored first and kept control of the game; until the second half that is when we gave up two and Shuttleworth picked up an injury. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (1-1-0) vs Colorado Rapids (1-0-1)

1-2

12 Shots 18

6 On Target 5

12 Fouls 21

0 Yellow Cards 0

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Johnson (26) Ramirez (47) Torres (83)

Jayden reported that Philadelphia won the allocation for Chris Kraft. When I sarcastically said I didn’t know there was one, thanks for telling me though, Jayden replied ‘He’s a Kraft. From Massachusetts….’ which did get my attention. Apparently he’s a nephew/cousin of our father/son board members. I asked if we should have been involved in the allocation and Jayden told me that we were actually told by the Kraft’s to stay away. They would rather Chris made his own way, away from all the media attention that would accompany him playing here, for family.

This week Andrew Jacobson was named in the MLS team of the week, that is three players in two weeks named to the squad - hopefully a good sign.

Next up, back to Texas to play FC Dallas then home for a midweek game vs Vancouver. This weekly back and forth between Texas and Massachusetts is less than optimal.

We will go back to our best lineup for the Dallas game, except with Fagundez in midfield to give Bunbury a chance to start. This will give Teal a chance to try to hold off the new pack of strikers Mike has brought on. He might only get the one chance. Mattocks already has two assists in two games and Rodriguez is a good prospect, but doesn't really have the marking skills to make me comfortable with him at the defensive winger spot.

I brought sandwiches back from a local deli for the staff as we went over the weeks news items. There were a few interesting things, but nothing as good as my turkey and avocado with gouda sandwich. The first item was confirmation that Mike had made an offer for another striker, Alidin Hajdarovic, as was rumored in the press earlier in the week. Justin Meram had been called up for international duty by Iraq despite the fact he hasn’t seen a game for us yet. At the bottom of the stack was the medical staff report, which included confirmation that Jermaine was back to full practice, so he will come off the bench for our next game. Jim Flores also passed his fitness test for 30 minutes but since he’s not ready to play at his new position he’ll stay out of the squad. Also we won't have a backup keeper for the next match as Shuttleworth is still injured.

3/19/16 at Dallas - Not good enough, we barely created anything, fell behind early and then saw Dallas get a red card at 30 mins. Which was just enough for us to scratch out a goal, barely. Draw 1-1

New England Revolution (1-1-1) at FC Dallas (0-1-2)

1-1

6 Shots 6

4 On Target 2

13 Fouls 10

2 Yellow Cards 3

59% Possession 41%

Goals:Mota (17) Mattocks (72)

The game was not good for Teal, he left with an injury at 30 mins and Mattocks, on to replace him, scored our goal. And after the game Dr. Allen informed me that they were both injured for the next few weeks.

After the game we finalized the Hajdarovic signing and shockingly, despite our plethora of strikers, he will go straight into the squad as Agudelo and Mattocks are on international duty and Bunbury is injured.

3/23/16 vs Vancouver. - Shuttleworth is back in goal for this game, Hajdarovic played at striker and the team delivered a thoroughly professional, patient game. We had to bring Koita off the bench for Fagundez and he scored the winning goal late. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution (1-2-1) vs Vancouver Whitecaps (2-0-2)

1-0

13 Shots 8

4 On Target 6

6 Fouls 17

0 Yellow Cards 0

70% Possession 30%

Goals: Koita (67)

We will go with as similar a lineup as possible for the quick turnaround in Philadelphia.

3/26/16 at Philadelphia - Ugh. no, no, no. Nothing more to say about it. Loss 0-2

New England Revolution (2-2-1) at Philadelphia Union (3-1-1)

0-2

9 Shots 14

3 On Target 7

5 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 0

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Sapong (69) Cruz (84)

Gave the press the full nothing, except to praise Fagundez for 150 games with the club. That’s what they quoted.

We are still keeping up in the weekly awards, this time Koita won goal of the week for his game winner against Vancouver.

At least I don’t have to make excuses to dodge Gia, with midweek games and full training schedules, there’s no time for me to do anything outside of work anyway. It is helping to build a good working relationship with the staff though, which I wouldn’t do on my own. Tom and Ian are both good coaches and decent guys to be around. I can’t believe it’s been over a year already and I’m just getting to know them - tempus fugit.

[neilhoskins77]

I can help you out with the increase in season tickets by 4. I think it's Helen and her three latest boyfriends, and they are there to heckle you. Enjoying this Ed, keep it up. Hopefully Mike will give you free reign soon.

[edtheguy]

I can help you out with the increase in season tickets by 4. I think it's Helen and her three latest boyfriends, and they are there to heckle you. Enjoying this Ed, keep it up. Hopefully Mike will give you free reign soon.

A-HA! Brilliant - how did I miss that one? I'm sure Helen bought them with Bradley's alimony checks too.... unfortunately there does seem to be plenty of opportunity to heckle doesn't there?

And yes, hopefully Peter can take on more responsibility soon, even if it doesn't make things better it will at least make it more interesting...

[edtheguy]

April 2016

In the pre game press conference before the NYCFC game the press wanted to know how we are going to stop NYCFC’s Mullins from scoring on us and how we planned to score on their keeper who apparently has great success against us, I said they would both be tough to handle. To be honest I hadn’t given either player a second thought, but whatever.

Immediately after that enjoyable experience I got to attend this month's Board Meeting where I learned my job status is still secure. The board loved the LA game and hated the Philly game. Yup, same.

Agudelo and Mattocks are back from international duty and will be available for the next game . I asked Tom for lineup suggestions and he made some interesting changes, including moving Nguyen to DLP and Fagundez out wide.

4/2/16 vs NYCFC - We gave up two goals in the first ten minutes to fall behind 2-1, as Farrell scored both for and against us, but we came all the way back to win 3-2. Fagundez, playing in Nguyen’s wide position at Tom’s suggestion, had two assists and was player of the match.

New England Revolution (2-2-2) vs NYCFC (I’m sure they had a record…)

3-2

17 Shots 10

7 On Target 3

4 Fouls 15

0 Yellow Cards 0

58% Possession 42%

Goals:Farrell (2) Mullins (5) Farrell og(9) Agudelo (30) Hajdarovic (40)

After the game Dr. Allen told me that Hajdarovic, who scored the winning goal, would be injured for 3-4 weeks. Evan has quite the full time medical practice going with this squad right now.

I locked myself in my office between games to reflect a little and see where I thought we were at as a club. Defensively, we are not what we were last year, we have given up 2 or more goals 4 times in 7 games Apam - that Chicago infiltrator - had a 6.1 against NYCFC and had to be replaced at half in very Dicko-ish fashion. On the other hand last year I had no idea if we would score any goals without Agudelo, and in the last four games we have seen goals from new strikers Hajdarovic, Koita and Mattocks - they have all made an impact in limited minutes.

It is also interesting that last year Tom is the one who suggested Jones play RPM which I hadn’t even considered, but actually worked surprisingly well, and now he's red-coded Jones as a no go there, and in fact doesn’t even recommend starting him at all. What a difference a year can make. Especially when you’re a footballer in your 30’s. I decided that it was too early in the season to make any conclusions, in fact making any knee jerk changes now would probably just cause more problems, and went to sleep on the office couch.

The next day it hit the news that Fagundez was named in the team of the week. I don’t socialize with the players, it would just make life harder when tough decisions are needed, but as a manager you do still generate relationships with them no matter what, sometimes those relationships aren’t good, like Francis, and sometimes they are. Diego is a good player and a good kid so I was happy to congratulate him on the award.

4/6/16 at Montreal Impact - Trying to recapture some of last years defense I made sure all three of our starters from last years defensive line played in this game. We controlled the first half and got the lead on an Agudelo goal, had a second Agudelo goal questionably ruled out (not really that questionable - he wasn’t even close to being offside), and survived a late charge by Montreal. Win 1-0. Our regular back three (wingbacks-in-the-middle) from last year was stable.

New England Revolution (3-2-2) vs Montreal Impact (2-2-2)

1-0

10 Shots 17

5 On Target 5

9 Fouls 15

1 Yellow Cards 2

59% Possession 41%

Goals: Agudelo (32)

Agudelo leads the team with 4 goals, Nguyen with a 7.19 rating and 87% passing and Fagundez with 3 assists.

Pre match vs Columbus the press asked about my terrible record against Greg Berhalter and if I wanted to put it to rest, I said it wasn’t me vs Greg and we treat every opponent the same, we want to win them all.

Of course Greg Berhalter replied that it’s because he knows how to beat me. Tool.

Ian Feuer wants us to set up a second tactic. Yeah, I agree in theory, but there's only so much we can do with a 3-5-2. I do want to see if there could be a more direct option, but I still remember trying to make a useful tactic last year. I don’t know if we could survive that many late night meetings and horrible games as we try to work out the kinks again. Also, late nights at the office would probably mean that Gia would have to deal with Jayden way more than would be good for anyone….

4/10/16 vs Columbus - We outplayed and out chanced them, but Farrell gifted them two goals before coming off at half (4.8 rating). Controlled second half and equalized. Draw 2-2

New England Revolution (4-2-2) vs Columbus Crew (4-1-2)

2-2

10 Shots 12

5 On Target 3

9 Fouls 15

1 Yellow Cards 2

54% Possession 46%

Goals:Mabwati (17) Duylio (36) Kamara (40) Agudelo (56)

So much for last years back three bringing some stability. Before the game Tom had recommended we play Apam instead of Farrell. Should’ve listened to that one.

Told the press I thought we played pretty well but just didn’t get the result, and ESPN FC went with the headline ‘Banalik moans about bad luck’.

Lee Nguyen was named in the team of the week, another player that I didn’t mind congratulating. I was tempted to make a crack about him being healthy for a change, but decided that wouldn’t go over too well.

Seattle is rumored to be interested in Teal Bunbury who was very effective off the bench last year, but I am finding it hard to find playing time for him, even off the bench, this year.

Well, the Mexican leagues must have just ended, my inbox was spammed with Mexican award notices, skipping.

Before the Red Bull game the first question from the press was from ESPN FC's Jason Milne asking if I’m looking forward to seeing Kelyn Rowe. I decided to stick with the don’t want to talk about opponent’s schtick. Especially with Jason in the room, his reporting can be rather… devious. For an example see the earlier ‘Moaning’ article.

Dylan Miller was waived by Columbus, which is only noteworthy because I don’t believe the afro on his profile picture could fit in our dressing room. It definitely makes a statement though.

For the Red Bull game I will listen to Tom and not play Farrell. I am rotating out Herivaux and Johnson to play Koita and Rodriguez.

4/17/16 vs NY Red Bull - Bleeping terrible. The team couldn’t be bothered to show up, and I told them so after their pitiful performance. Goncalves was dismissed for two yellows. Koita, Agudelo and Apam were the awfulest. Loss 0-2

New England Revolution (4-3-2) vs New York Red Bulls (umm…)

0-2

8 Shots 10

2 On Target 4

18 Fouls 18

2 Yellow Cards 3

57% Possession 43%

Goals: Felipe (22) Neagle (47)

With Goncalves suspended maybe we’ll play both Farrell and Apam next game and see if we can give up 5.

No, really, we will have to play both Farrell and Apam against Toronto. We will go into this game with a lineup of poorly performing players. Farrell, Apam, Jones, and Herivaux all are averaging under 6.7 so far this year - some well below.

4/20/16 vs Toronto FC - Not our best game ever, but we jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held on. Farrell was ok, Apam was not and came out. Lee Nguyen had a nice free kick for the first goal.

New England Revolution (4-3-3) vs Toronto FC (5-1-3)

2-1

15 Shots 13

8 On Target 5

7 Fouls 31

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Nguyen (24) Agudelo (31) Osorio (41)

Jayden informed me of another allocation draft, for Richard Burt. I asked for a scouting report. We got the report while Tom and I were taking a break and watching some of the Sox game. He came back undesirable. No thanks, we’ll pass on his allocation.

4/30/16 at DC United - Not a great game, we had an early 1-0 lead then didn’t pose a threat the rest of the way and faced a ton of DCU pressure. Held on for a draw.

New England Revolution (5-3-3) vs DC United (2-4-5)

1-1

9 Shots 13

5 On Target 5

9 Fouls 24

0 Yellow Cards 0

50% Possession 50%

Goals:Agudelo (5) Birnbaum (53)

I think with all the fouls we are facing, we might want to try that more direct passing style.

I informed Jayden we would be having our first late night session of the year and she set it up.

We set up a counter version of the tactic with an attacking central midfielder and a ball winner alongside a deep playmaker, up front the deep lying forward will change to a defensive forward. We also prepared a different set of team instructions to use with our base tactic.

As I expected, Gia brought me take out for dinner during the meeting and Jayden didn’t want to let her disturb us. I came out to get the food and asked Jayden if she could see what the other coaches wanted, which gave me some time to see Gia before we got back to work. I’m going to have to talk to Jayden, I can barely manage the team, I don’t need to be managing her as well.

[edtheguy]

May 2016

After our first practice of the month we held a full staff meeting at Jake n JOE’s, a local sports bar. The discussion covered the usual stuff, except I did move Meram to the reserves based on a recommendation, and our ipads were covered in wing sauce and crumbs. It was a nice change of pace though.

Not surprisingly Meram didn’t like it on the reserves and I had to apologize and move him right back the next day. I can’t imagine there will be much good to say about my personal skills in my next review, I always seem to be either to negative or too much of a push over.

Speaking of reviews, at the Board meeting I found out I have been upgraded back to very secure, they are very happy with our league position, and the team is financially secure.

At a post board meeting dinner with Gia and the Burns’ I said I was glad they’re happy with the league position, I’m not. And of course we’re financially secure- it’s the MLS, the franchises rake in the money and can only spend a fraction of it on players, if we weren’t secure there would have to be an inquest. Mike just chuckled and changed the subject.

5/4/16 vs Chicago - This was a back and forth game, we faced too much pressure once we had the lead - twice. But at least we held on the second time. Used more direct passing once the fouls started mounting up, but it didn’t achieve anything but a stalemate. Win 2-1

New England Revolution (5-4-3) vs Chicago Fire (6-3-3)

2-1

12 Shots 14

4 On Target 4

5 Fouls 23

0 Yellow Cards 2

63% Possession 37%

Goals:Jones (pen 9) Gilberto (28) Agudelo (43)

After the game my friend Jason Milne asked what I made of Fire Manager Hugo Sanchez's comments when he passionately called me unprofessional. I replied that I wasn’t paying Hugo the slightest bit of attention, I had a team to run. Hugo and Jason - what a pair that is...

Teal came asking for playing time and I told him he’d get a shot in our next game against Orlando City. We will also play Darius and Jermaine, with Peter Johnson back in his wide position after a game off.

5/8/16 at Orlando City - I don’t even know where to begin. Barnes, Woodbury Goncalves and Agudelo were all pathetic and Jacobson got sent off. Total capitulation, we didn’t even belong on the same field as a professional team which Orlando, unfortunately, was.

New England Revolution (6-4-3) at Orlando City (6-4-2)

0-3

10 Shots 21

3 On Target 12

11 Fouls 6

5 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Shea (2) Shuttleworth og (49) Molino (84)

After the game Mattocks came asking for playing time and I told him he could have a shot. No sooner had he left my office than Jayden brought in Mario Rodriguez who came asking for playing time too... sure why not. I almost blew up at Mario, just because I was still irritated from talking to Darren, but Mario I actually want to give some playing time to, so I bit my tongue.

Seattle offered a 1st round pick in the superdraft for Bunbury, who is now 5th on our depth chart, and I can’t find playing time for all of our strikers. Mike left it up to me. I hate to lose any players after what we went through last year, but this only makes good sense for the organization so I accepted.

Houston offered a 4th round pick and an international slot for Goncalves. That one is laughable. No.

5/14/16 vs Seattle - What the f- somehow we managed to give up three goals without allowing a single clear cut or half chance on goal and only four shots on target all game. This game was as lopsided as the stats indicate. Well, except the score. Whatever. Loss 2-3

New England Revolution (6-4-4) vs Seattle Sounders (3-4-7)

2-3

27 Shots 5

14 On Target 4

12 Fouls 13

1 Yellow Cards 1

60% Possession 40%

Goals:Valdez (34,81)Roldan (39) Goncalves (41) Mattocks (70)

I had no idea how to respond to that game. There really aren’t any lessons to learn, or changes to make. It’s not like they were sitting back and countering, we were in complete control, except when we made horrible back passes, fell down on the way to the ball, of just stopped running. So, since I couldn’t think of anything else to do I went home and called Gianna.

5/18/16 at Real Salt Lake - This was more like it. This time we played like a team that deserved to lose. And we did.

New England Revolution (6-4-5) at Real Salt Lake (5-9-1)

0 - 1

9 Shots 14

1 On Target 10

14 Fouls 5

2 Yellow Cards 1

59% Possession %41

Goals:Koreniuk (18)

Next up overall 1st place Portland - oh, and we drew Philadelphia in the US Cup

After practice the next day I got an email from Dr. Allen saying Lee Nguyen had bruised his head in training and would be injured for 5-8 days. Training, not a game, training. Here we go, this is like deja vu all over again.

Gia wanted to go to Boston to see her family during our ten day stretch between games and I told her I couldn’t. She took it pretty well, I think - she went without me, but now I feel guilty. She did go out of her way to do things with me and the kids over the holidays when we’d only known each other two weeks, and I still haven’t met her family four months later. Crap, sometimes I’m not a very good person.

I did get a chance to catch up with the kids electronically. David is having a blast getting ready to go into his senior year. He's gotten heavily involved in the development of his schools new e-gaming program, so maybe he'll be one of the lucky ones who can do what he loves for a living. Which, as a matter of fact, is exactly what Kate and Andrew seem to be doing. Realizing that earning a living as performers in the performing arts is tenuous at best, they have moved to a much smaller apartment over a studio and opened their own independent school of the arts which seems to be going fairly well.

5/28/16 at Portland - We still played like a bad team. Once again multiple defenders had ratings of 6.2 or less. We tried the experimental direct tactic finally after we were down 3-0. It was uninspiring, like our team, whatever.

New England Revolution (6-4-6) vs Portland Timbers (11-3-2)

1-3

15 Shots 37

8 On Target 12

13 Fouls 12

0 Yellow Cards 2

48% Possession 52%

Goals:Urruti (6,9) Melano (32) Mattocks (51)

Might as well make drastic changes next game. Activated Tyler Rudy from the DL. Mattocks and Agudelo will both be away on international duty and Justin Meram asked for playing time. Sure Justin, we can lose with you in the lineup as well as anyone else.

This doesn’t really seem to be going any better than last year.

[Greyfriars Bobby]

I hadn't been hanging out on the FM Stories board as much lately, so I missed the beginning of your story. I've caught up now, and I'm glad I did. It's a fun read. Even though I'm American, I don't understand the MLS nearly as well as I do the British leagues...but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Peter and the rest are enjoyable characters, too. Keep up the good work!

[edtheguy]

thank you for the kind words bobby, and I'm glad you're back, the more the merrier! And MLS definitely is its own world - dealing with all of the extra roster limits is... interesting.... for sure.

June 2016

I held a staff meeting to go over our training routines,we changed the team training focus from tactics to ball control and reduced the time spent on match prep, as our tactical familiarity is good.

Mike signed Jacobson to a 2 yr extension. He’s actually been pretty good this year, so good. I guess.

The Board Meeting went better than expected, my job was secure, but they are concerned about Woodbury’s performances. We had another post meeting dinner with the Burns where I mentioned the board was lucky to only have one concern - I’m concerned about Woodbury, Apam, Farrell, Barnes and Goncalves performances. Gia mentioned to Michelle that she was worried about my stress and asked how Mike handled it.

We will start the academy kid Burton, with Apam and Barnes on D. The draftee van Matre at wide mid and Meram at poacher and run experimental tactic against the Fire(ing squad)

6/4/16 vs Chicago - Fifth straight loss, let’s see Burton 6.0 and gave away a pen, Apam 6.2, Barnes 6.2. Tough to win when we spot the other team three easy goals every game.

New England Revolution (6-4-7) vs Chicago Fire (7-5-6)

1-3

11 Shots 18

4 On Target 5

22 Fouls 15

2 Yellow Cards 0

47% Possession 53%

Goals:Igboananike (4,90+1) Larentowicz (pen 50) Meram (68)

I have a shortage of players that I want to use right now.

Jason Milne is reporting that I am unwilling to experiment because I only use the 3-5-2, Don’t get me started... Too late, I spent half the night ranting about it before Gianna finally managed to distract me.

6/11/16 at DC United - Well, we managed to blow a 2-0 lead but still broke the losing streak. Can’t help but notice we didn’t look terribly convincing against a team that has only won 2 of 18 though.

New England Revolution (6-4-8) at DC United (2-8-8)

3-2

11 Shots 18

5 On Target 10

6 Fouls 20

0 Yellow Cards 1

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Meram (1) Rodriguez (31,88) Rolfe (45+1, 78)

After the win, continuing the tradition of raining on our parade, we got the news that Goncalves twisted his knee in the game and is injured for 2-3 weeks.

So, against Philadelphia we will play Barnes in Goncalves place, Mattocks, back from international duty will play and move Rodriguez back to midfield to rest Jacobson.

6/15/16 vs Philadelphia- US cup - We generated several scoring chances in the first half but only converted one, but the complete press we are continually facing finally backfired as Philly’s Derek Farrell got a red card in the first half, the Union gave away a penalty in the second and we remained in control for a clean sheet. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution vs Philadelphia Union - US Cup

2-0

17 Shots 5

9 On Target 1

7 Fouls 20

1 Yellow Cards 7

63% Possession 37%

Goals:Meram (34) Jones (pen 86)

Fagundez twisted his knee in the game and will be out 2-3 weeks. Meram scored for the second game in a row.

The next day, when he came to my office to plead his case I told Francis Dickoh he would get a chance to show me what he could do. Oh boy.

We drew the Indy Eleven in the Us Cup fifth round. A win against the lower league side would put us in the quarterfinals and meet the board's expectations.

I was amused to see that Philly manager Jim Curtin immediately waived Derek Farrell, who got the red card against us. I wonder how he would handle Dickoh and Apam.

Next we go to New Jersey to play the New York Red Bull, and Kelyn Rowe. The Red Bull are winless in their last five games. I know how that feels. And it’s always nice to see my old friend Kelyn, that petulant little whiner.

Because of the Fagundez injury and lack of fitness after the cup game we are forced to nearly fully rotate the squad. Enter Dickoh….

6/18/16 at New York Red Bull - We started well and had the first three scoring chances but didn’t convert, then Darrius Barnes’ error let Kelyn Rowe score from 20 yards out and the Red Bull scored the game's first - and only - four goals as we continued to play them even and create more scoring chances. Let’s see Woodbury, Barnes and Johnson 6.3, and Mattocks at poacher 6.0. Loss.

New England Revolution (7-4-8) at New York Red Bull

0-4

14 Shots 14

3 On Target 8

13 Fouls 16

1 Yellow Cards 1

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Rowe (17) Veron (20,37) Olivera (73)

This is pretty much how a back three with the wide players stationed in the midfield has always gone for me. We look like we should do well but just leak too many goals. Crosses, crosses, crosses.

The press asked why we had one of the poorest defensive records in the league and I replied that there have been too many mistakes. But only because I didn’t have the option to say that our team philosophy was completely flawed.

Somehow we are still 11th in the standings, which won't make the board too disappointed - hopefully. Next up is a trip to Chicago.

Since a mediocre 6-4-3 start we are 1-0-6 in the league and have been outscored 19-7. It’s past time to make some changes. I told Jayden to circle the wagons and called Gia to cancel our plans.

At our latest late night tactics session we decided to go with a new alternate tactic to combat the press and hopefully take some pressure off the back three. Sitting deep, playing out of defense and keeping our passes short is just too easily exploited by the press. At least Jayden isn’t actively making life difficult for me and Gianna right now, she didn’t say anything when I told her she was out of line, so I didn’t know what to expect, but so far so good.

Dr. Allen reported that Goncalves failed his fitness test. I hadn’t planned on him being back so this wasn’t a surprise.

6/25/16 at Chicago- Another game, another three goals allowed. Let's see the roll of awfulness: Burton 5.4 Johnson 5.8 Farrell 5.9 Rodriguez 6.1 Nguyen 6.3. The tactic didn’t seem to help at all. What would help is some cover out wide to stop these crosses coming in. Or maybe just some performances from our players, we weren’t having these problems when everyone was healthy last year. Juan is probably happy he’s still on international duty.

New England Revolution (7-4-9) at Chicago Fire (9-5-7)

1-3

13 Shots 15

7 On Target 7

22 Fouls 14

0 Yellow Cards 1

40% Possession 60%

Goals:Igboananike (28) Gilberto (32,53) Meram (40)

I closeted myself in my office for the next day to consider my options. After some long talks with the staff (and phone calls with Gia and my kids) I’m still not sure which course to take.

I asked Jayden to contact the board's administrative assistant to check my status on their doomsday clock while I pondered my options.

The way I see it there are maybe three viable options left to change our fortunes. The season is slipping away fast, there’s probably only time to try one of them. This is obviously a significant decision. I need to go home and cook some bacon wrapped chicken breasts for dinner with Gia while I think it over.

I told her to bring extra wine.

Gia is, of course, in favor of option #3 - which is the guns-a-blazing high risk / high reward approach. I got the feeling she felt any man of hers would have the balls to just blow things up. I don’t normally react well to that stereotypical machismo BS pressure. The thing is that was actually the plan I was considering.

The report from the board’s assistant was that I was still stable, which might give me a little more time than I thought.

In the end I hedged my bet (or wussed out) and went with idea #2, a more direct semi overhaul of the 3-5-2 principal to give it one shot against Indy in the midweek cup game. If I don’t see something I like there, it’s doomsday time. The tactic breaks team philosophy as it omits Mike's preferred passive defense and patient passing, but it is less drastic than idea #3 - or ‘operation doomsday’.

I called Jayden and, as usual, she had anticipated my needs and already set up the meeting with the coaches.

Goncalves resumed full training and Agudelo is back from international duty. Both will see the lineup in the cup match as we try to restore some stability to the side - all of the lineup changes we have had this year can’t have helped. Fagundez will make the sub list as he passed his physical for 30 minutes.

6/29/16 vs Indy Eleven - US Cup- Wow, that was… really good. The tactic worked very well. Or was it our players that were really good? Or were theirs really bad? Agudelo was player of the match, but there were others to choose from, Meram scored again, Rodriguez in the attacking central midfielder role had two assists... and the list goes on. The game was lopsided. In our favor for a change. Win 3-0

New England Revolution vs Indy Eleven - US Cup

3-0

25 Shots 7

11 On Target 2

5 Fouls 15

0 Yellow Cards 2

55% Possession 45%

Goals:Agudelo (22) Meram (38) Johnson (86)

Gia was almost as happy as me and was waiting in my office with a nice reward after the game, Jayden didn’t seem too impressed with that, but even she was in a good mood after watching that game.

Everyone went home in a good mood for a change, but can we carry it over to the league?

We drew the Rochester Rhinos in the Quarterfinal of the cup, so we’ll have a chance to avenge another training camp embarrassment from last year.

We’ve actually won three of our last five games now, it's just that two of them were in the cup.

On Thursday, June 30th, the other shoe finally dropped as Mike came into my office and shut the door.

He had come to tell me that he received an official notice from Juan Agudelo asking to leave so he can play for Cagliari. (When I told it to Gia that way she punched me several times for making her think I’d been fired, which wasn’t my intention, but in retrospect I can see how it looked that way….)

Anyway, Mike asked me if I wanted to talk to Juan before he met with the player. I said yes, I figured it couldn’t hurt.

It didn’t help either. I tried to make Juan see that he wouldn’t be a star there like he is here, but he wouldn’t have any of it so I finally told him we wouldn’t block a move and sent him off to see Mike.

We will have to go with the same tactic that we used in the cup game (We’ll call it 352 sword, since our original tactic is more of a shield) in our next match against Philadelphia, but I am anxious to see how it holds up against a league opponent.

Things need to improve soon, or the next time Mike shuts the door on my office it will probably be to discuss my severance.

[edtheguy]

July 2016

Agudelo transfer rumors have hit the press, but so far there are no official offers.

At the dreaded board meeting I was told my job was stable, as I had learned before the cup game. They said the fans were overjoyed with our 3-2 victory over DC United - which seems a little extreme - but extremely distraught with the 0-4 loss to new York - now that is spot on - and hoped I could make amends. I kept my thoughts to myself. For now.

Hong Myung-Bo bagged the continental pro licence, I took him out to dinner to congratulate him.

Against Philly we will go with the same tactic/lineup as the cup game except Fagundez will play wide left instead of Johnson, who will start on the bench.

7/9/16 vs Philadelphia - Holy S***, it was a complete and total onslaught. Apparently 352 sword held up pretty well in the league. Union head coach Jim Curtin had said he wanted to press ‘posession hungry’ New England before the game, which made sense since that is what had been working for everyone against 352 Shield. It did not work against 352 Sword. At all. We scored early and often and never worried about Philly and all three defenders had 7+ rating games. Of course even though Nguyen was player of the game, Agudelo had two goals and an assist - losing him would not be good. Win 4-0.

New England Revolution (7-4-10) vs Philadelphia Union (10-5-9)

4-0

22 Shots 10

9 On Target 6

5 Fouls 17

2 Yellow Cards 3

57% Possession 43%

Goals:Agudelo (38,55) Nguyen (46) Duliyo (66)

Speaking of losing people, Lee Nguyen left the game with a thigh strain and Dr. Allen reported he will be out 2 weeks.

The fans were jubilant after the win. Hows that for making amends?

Of course it’s only one game.

Now we have a midweek friendly in Austria against Sportclub Ritzing. I wasn’t in favor of this, but it was part of the Hajdarovic transfer.

There are some really bad teams in MLS this year. We are still two games under .500 and safer in the wild card positions than we were last year when we had a much better record. If this new tactical approach holds up we might just be able to make some noise by the end of the year.

Onyekachi Apam came to me irate that he hadn’t gotten the playing time he was promised, so I used him to try the team’s ‘unwanted list’ policy. This should be interesting. Are you taking notes Francis?

Mike sent me an official message that Apam didn’t attract any offers the same day a story broke that the Czech team Slovacko was interested in him, so I sent out an offer to sell for 375k.There were no offers but ‘interest was thought to be high’

Woodbury Nguyen and Agudelo were all named in the MLS team of the week.

The Kraft’s progeny Chris, who is still scoreless for Philly is injured for 5 weeks with a sprained ankle.

7/13/16 at SC Ritzing - friendly - We played all of our depth players and tactically controlled the game but lacked the quality to make it pay. We still won in a mediocre fashion. 1-0.

New England Revolution at SC Ritzing - Friendly

1-0

19 Shots 6

8 On Target 2

12 Fouls 19

1 Yellow Cards 1

59% Possession 41%

Goals:Rakovic og (20)

I have to say, even though I wasn't in favor of the added complication of a midweek friendly a continent away it was my first trip to Austria and I really enjoyed what little I saw between flight, practice, game, and departure - which wasn't much.

Apparently there has been a war of words between the NYCFC head coach, name escapes me, and myself. Huh, I must have missed that one.

Mario Rodriguez was called up for international duty at the Olympics. He was still all smiles when I found him after practice to congratulate him.

I reminded the staff that last year at this point we were 11-4-6 and all of the teams that finished at the top were behind us. It is how you finish that matters.

7/16/16 at NYCFC - Back in the states after the friendly we were back to the lineup used against Philadelphia, except Johnson back at wide left with Nguyen out and Fagundez moved to the right. When the game started we were flat, David Villa took advantage of an error from former NYCFC man Andrew Jacobson, who had been the center of the media attention prior to the game, and scored for a 1-0 NYCFC lead and we didn’t respond. We had to give the “Where is your passion” number at halftime and we were marginally better in the second half. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (8-4-10) at NYCFC (6-5-13)

1-1

8 Shots 10

2 On Target 3

4 Fouls 6

0 Yellow Cards 0

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Villa (9) Meram (60)

Watching video of the game with Tom afterwards it looks like they were really not pressing us at all, might have been a good time to go back to our ‘shield’ tactic. I’ll file that away for future use. It would be nice if I had a member of the staff that excelled in tactics and motivation so I could delegate some of the game day responsibilities, but I will just have to make do.

Next up the US Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday against the Rochester Rhinos. It’s a cup quarterfinal and, to be honest we are looking mid-table in MLS anyway (not that I’ll admit that to the staff or players) so we’ll put out as top a lineup as we can and then figure out how we’ll deal with the 16th place Impact on Saturday.

Dr. Allen was happy to report a near clean bill of health for the squad, the only injury is Nguyen who is listed at out 1-3 days with his thigh strain.

We are projected to sell 10,000 tickets for the cup came, which is about average for the home cup games so far. This is compared to our league average of just over 20,000.

Our lineup changes for the cup game are Jones in for Johnson at wide left, Johnson just hasn’t been up to snuff lately, Rodriguez is being rested for saturday and Herivaux will get a shot at CMA, and in my one ‘reserve’ move Burton will get another shot to get his career going at CD.

We will start with the ‘sword’ variation and either drop to ‘shield’ or move to a more attacking mentality depending on how the game goes.

Lee failed his fitness test, but I wasn’t going to use him even if he had passed.

7/20/16 vs Rochester Rhinos - US Cup - And there was no need for any tactical changes. They sat back and tried to be hard to break, but we always looked up to the task and eased to a 2-0 victory. Pulled both Agudelo and Meram at 60 mins to rest them for saturday. Win 2-0.

New England Revolution at Rochester Rhinos - US Cup

2-0

17 Shots 7

3 On Target 0

5 Fouls 17

1 Yellow Cards 2

52% Possession 48%

Goals: Meram (11) Agudelo (52)

We’re through to the semifinals and the last non MLS team is out of the cup. It is nice to easily beat the lower league sides for a change though.

Resting Mario Rodriguez was a waste, I got notification that he was leaving for the Olympics the day after the Rhinos game. This is a week earlier than I expected from the initial notification I received. Manager error there.

On Thursday I had more player issues to deal with as Morimakan Koita complained to Tom that he wasn’t getting the playing time I had promised him, now might be a good time to try him at his new right midfield position

We had no players named for the MLS All Star team coached by my old ‘friend’, Chicago’s Hugo Sanchez, for the game against West Ham.

7/23/16 vs Montreal - We looked good from the start, Herivaux scored his first ever goal, and then we stopped playing, Montreal tied and we tried changing to the shield variant and they easily took the lead, we went back to the sword and tied on a brilliant bicycle kick from Agudelo and then Montreal hung on for dear life, successfully. Draw 2-2.

New England Revolution (8-5-10) at Montreal Impact (4-9-10)

2-2

18 Shots 10

7 On Target 5

4 Fouls 18

0 Yellow Cards 0

51% Possession 49%

Goals: Herivaux (1) Drogba (32) Mapp (48) Agudelo (56)

What is concerning here is that this is the second league game in a row where we played well enough to win but couldn’t take maximum points off a team behind us in the standings.

On Monday Alidin Hajdarovic came to me to ask for more playing time, I said sure.

Hugo did no better than me with the all stars, losing 0-3 to West Ham.

At the staff meeting I didn’t learn too much exciting, Tom confirmed that Jermaine's ability had declined significantly. Judah Cooks made several tactical suggestions for the game against Columbus. I told him we couldn’t change shape for obvious reasons, but I would consider his suggestions to drop the instructions to close down more and work the ball into the box.

Mike signed Robbie Findlay as a scout. Robbie has just retired from playing, is slightly devious, but driven and has some skills that would make him a decent coach. The thing is, when it comes to evaluating talent 85% of the general population could do a better job. And just to prove my own point to me, his first recommendation was 34 year old keeper Tomasz Kuszczak, who was abysmal in the championship last year and has gotten eaten alive when he’s had some fitness games in on Birmingham’s u21 squad this year. Oh well. At least he prefers the 3-5-2.

It’s starting to look like there might actually not be a bid for Agudelo this year, I shall keep my fingers crossed.

Tom informed me that Francis is upset that he isn’t getting the game time I promised him. I’m upset he’s not playing like he promised me, so nothing will change there.

7/31/16 at Columbus - And we again found a way to drop points as after Columbus jumped out to a 1-0 lead we came out in the second half and took over the game, equalizing early on. in the last 20 minutes though we just stopped playing and let Columbus run all over us until they got the winner. It seems like Cederick Mabwati is always scoring big goals against us. Loss 1-2.

New England Revolution (8-5-10) at Columbus Crew (14-3-6)

1-2

10 Shots 21

4 On Target 8

1 Fouls 8

0 Yellow Cards 3

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Kamara (25) Meram (58) Mabwati (90)

I don’t think it’s ever going to work for me, running someone else's tactic with someone else's players. The time for operation doomsday draws nigh.

Portuguese club Nacional da Madeira offered us a couple players, but player acquisition is Mike's job, so if he is interested, he can sign them.

Gia and I basically have a phone relationship at the moment, I don’t remember the last time we actually saw each other. She has been very patient with me this year, especially since I’ve been in a pretty bad mood when the team hasn’t played well (which seems like it has been most of the time), so the last time we spoke I made sure I told her I appreciated it and hoped she would give me a chance to make it up to her. Taking her to Austria with me would have been nice, but it was a work trip and bringing a significant other would have opened a major can of worms.

[edtheguy]

August 2016

Kate and Andrew were in town to visit on the day of the board meeting so they came to dinner with us and the Burns. At dinner we discussed how fortunate I felt to still be ‘stable’ in the board’s eyes, they didn’t even have any new concerns since last month. Kate was very polite and friendly and put up with my complaining about the team during dinner, but when she was saying goodbye afterwards she asked me if managing a professional team is really what I wanted to be doing. I told her of course it was….

The most significant memos on my desk for the week were the fact that Mike signed Adam West, a level headed friendly guy who actually has some scouting ability (And likes the 3-5-2) to be a scout, and the Montreal Impact offered Ian Feuer their Assistant Manager's position.

8/6/16 vs New York Red Bull - This was almost back to when we were good. We created many more chances than the opposition and kept a clean sheet - of course we spurned nearly all of our chances and only won by one. Fagundez scored his first goal of the season finally. Win 1-0.

New England Revolution (8-5-11) at New York Red Bull (5-8-11)

1-0

19 Shots 16

6 On Target 6

2 Fouls 21

0 Yellow Cards 0

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Fagundez (17)

After the game Ian told me that he had rejected Montreal’s offer. This is the second year in a row he’s said no to Canada, last year it was Toronto. I wonder how that country can go on.

As we slogged through another week of practice, trying to build on some momentum, I got word that Mike gave Lee Nguyen a four year extension. If I wanted to meddle in Mike's business I’d suggest that that might not be wise for someone Lee’s age and with his injury history, but I am not going to meddle.

8/10/16 vs FC Dallas - US Cup - The score didn’t do this game justice as this was the New England team that knew what they were doing. We didn’t just control the game we dominated it. Old pro’s Agudelo and Fagundez scored (but the Dallas keeper was credited with an og) and we eased to a victory. Win 2-0

New England Revolution vs FC Dallas - US Cup Semifinal

2-0

21 Shots 2

10 On Target 2

2 Fouls 13

0 Yellow Cards 3

58% Possession 42%

Goals: Agudelo (16) Lopez og (54)

Well, the final exceeds the board's expectations, so that’s good, but frankly I’m still irritated. There is still a lot not to like on this team, too inconsistent, too unprofessional, too profligate, even when we are playing well it’s borderline, I am definitely not a believer yet.

We will face Adrian Heath’s Orlando City SC in the Cup final.

We now have a ten day break before we face the bottom of the eastern conference Impact in Montreal. Then we have a midweek friendly at Indonesian Superleague side Sriwijaya FC - another transfer clause friendly. The board must be hoping to grow some sort of worldwide brand with these friendlies, but the travel doesn’t help us in the league at all.

Francis came to me, upset. Again. And I told him we would try to sell him. Back to the unwanted list. Good Luck Mike.

Just like Apam, who is still on our team (remember him?) Dickoh failed to attract any offers despite news stories circulating about interest.

Our Portuguese affiliate Sporting has a player who would be willing to join us on loan, Iuri Medeiros, who would be better than any of our players, but only plays the AM strata. Oh the things I could do….

At dinner Friday night before the game Gianna commented that Jayden was looking a little rough around the edges and wondered if everything was alright at home for her. I didn’t know how to respond, and as usual hadn’t noticed anything myself, so I changed the subject.

8/20/16 at Montreal Impact - And once again we F****** threw away two points in a game we dominated against a team below us. We spurned chances to finish and made two mistakes on the three shots on target that Montreal had. B***S*** Draw 2-2

New England Revolution (9-6-11) at Montreal Impact (4-11-11)

2-2

15 Shots 6

8 On Target 3

4 Fouls 4

1 Yellow Cards 1

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Agudelo (18,46) Romero(22) Drogba (75)

I was not a happy camper after the game and everyone knew it. Loudly.

On the bright side, since implementing the ‘sword’ variation we are 6-3-1 in all comps. The three draws were all points spurned though, which isn’t good, especially since we had already dug ourselves into a hole, and only two of the wins were in the league.

As we were preparing for our long trip to Indonesia Jake Van Matre came to see if he could go out on loan to get some playing time, I said good idea and emailed Mike.

While we were in the air we learned that Duylia and Agudelo were named in the MLS team of the week for their performance in Montreal. Duylia had two assists, one a creative back heel pass, and Juan had our two goals.

So, after throwing away two points against the Impact we found ourselves halfway around the world for a friendly in Indonesia. As much as I had enjoyed seeing Austria this was a bit of a letdown. The trip was nowhere near as enjoyable. The much longer travel time meant even less time there and while it was nice to see some of Indonesia, it definitely isn’t my cup of tea.

8/23/16 at Sriwijaya FC - With a fully rotated squad we tried a new variant of the 3-5-2 called Cobra, designed to be a higher press possession based tactic. Didn’t do great. Jones scored from the spot. Win 1-0

New England Revolution at Sriwijaya FC - Friendly

1-0

21 Shots 5

6 On Target 0

3 Fouls 7

2 Yellow Cards 1

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Jones (pen 30)

Next up another long trip home and then a game against 2nd in MLS Orlando City, after a bloomin 16 day layoff because we’ve played more games than anyone else. At least the layoff will negate any effects jet lag might have had on our next game.

The Colombian team Santa Fe actually made a 375k bid for Apam, good. While I was reading this story Koita came to me again to ask for playing time, after talking it over we decided moving on would be best.

As soon as Mike listed him Vancouver immediately offered two draft picks for Koita, I accepted. As I was sending that response word came in that Apam had rejected Santa Fe. Whatever dude, it's your bench time.

Since Gia’s comment I had been watching Jayden and something definitely isn’t right. When I asked her if she was ok, she said she was fine but I have known her long enough to know she’s not.

At least the two week break gives me a chance to make things better with Gia, not that she has ever indicated things weren’t good, but she deserves better than I have been giving her. I took her to a concert at the Opera House and out to dinner at Mistral where I gave her a nice thank you present and asked if we could get together with her family before the next game. I must have done something right, it was nice to see her so happy.

Now I’m worried about Jayden though, but I don’t think there’s anything for me to do there, I can barely keep one woman happy and Jayden’s personal life is none of my business anyway - right?

[edtheguy]

September 2016

At the Board Meeting I found out that somehow my job status has improved to very secure. They cited our ‘excellent’ position in MLS. Um… what? At dinner I asked anyone to explain that one, we’re fighting for a wild card spot, again, with less points than last year and we are nowhere near mid table. I don’t get the board at all. They didn’t have any negatives either. I’ve got a few…. This isn’t making my doomsday plan any easier to implement.

Gia and I went into the city for a big ‘dinner party’ with her family on Saturday night. Gia’s family was large and loud, they were all anxious to meet me but, despite being an Italian/American family they were mostly fans of american football so I’m sure they would have been more impressed if ‘their Gianna’ was dating a Patriots coach than the Revolution’s manager. Still, I enjoyed meeting them and had a good time, but I was more than ready to leave when the time came.

Back at work the next day Dr. Allen was was in my office first thing to inform me that Apam tore his groin muscle in training, out 7-8 weeks, no loss there. He also told me that Juan Agudelo had injured his heel on international duty and would be out 8-10 days. Now that is a loss.

At dinner Wednesday I told Gia that I thought she was right, there was something going on in Jayden’s personal life. She just chuckled and told me of course there was, I would have seen it sooner if I wasn’t so clueless. This coming from the woman I had to pick up on the side of the road because the police impounded her car for being unregistered for over a year. I guess we each have our blind spots.

After an uneventful rest of the week at practice we were back on the field at Foxboro Stadium to host Orlando City.

9/10/16 vs Orlando City - We actually played well, thoroughly outplayed OCSC but no one except Agudelo can score and our defenders suck. Loss 1-2

New England Revolution (9-7-11) vs Orlando City SC(13-9-6)

1-2

20 Shots 14

8 On Target 6

9 Fouls 8

2 Yellow Cards 3

61% Possession 39%

Goals: Jonathan (12) Higuita (48) Rodriguez (51)

Nguyen had to leave the Orlando game with another injury and after the game Dr. Allen notified me he would be out 5-6 weeks with a sprained ankle. Amusingly Jim Flores, who could have been called up from the reserves with Nguyen out, injured himself the same day lifting weights and is out 3-4 weeks.

On Monday I got an email notifying me that Mike signed Josh Ford, a completely unremarkable keeper, to a two year deal.

After practice, just to keep the good news coming, Jose Goncalves pulled a stomach muscle in training and will be out 3-4 weeks.

We escaped the rest of the week without incident and welcomed Toronto FC to Foxboro on Saturday. Toronto came to town just 6 points ahead of us in the standings, and if we have any aspirations to climb up in the standings ourselves we will need to take the points from them here.

9/17/16 vs Toronto FC - We finally got three points from a game we should win. We outplayed Toronto all game but failed to convert any chances until Hajdarovic scored in the 90th minute. Win. Barely. 1-0.

New England Revolution (9-7-12) vs Toronto FC (12-4-12)

1-0

15 Shots 10

8 On Target 1

11 Fouls 17

1 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Hajdarovic (90)

Talking with Tom after the game I decided we would go with Johnson on the left and Fagundez on the right in Nguyen’s absence for the next game, and put Meram back up top with Agudelo. We will start with the latest tweaked version of cobra and see where that takes us.

We actually headed to Philadelphia unscathed on Friday once again needing to take the points to gain ground on a team slightly ahead of us in the conference.

9/24/15 at Philadelphia - The game was a tale of two halves, the first half was the old Rev’s - dominating but wasteful - as we had 11 shots, four scoring chances, including two one on ones with the keeper... and scored only one goal. Philly tied the game on their first shot on target of the game in the second half then took over. Pulled Agudelo for uninspired play and switched from cobra to sword and held on for a draw. 1-1.

New England Revolution (10-7-12) at Philadelphia Union (11-8-11)

1-1

17 Shots 10

6 On Target 3

6 Fouls 11

2 Yellow Cards 0

53% Possession 47%

Goals: Jacobson (43) Sapong (48)

A draw really isn't good enough for us given the position we put ourselves in, but I guess it's better than a loss. The press is reporting on a ‘row’ between myself and Mr. Dickoh. Well, not lately, he must have gone to the press mad about not getting the playing time he asked for earlier. I think he’s already on the unwanted list. Back to the reserves!

At my typical pregame non press conference one reporter asked me about the ‘reports that players had lost faith in me because of too many broken promises’ - no comment. That’s probably not a good sign though.

For the cup final against OCSC we will again start with cobra and this time Jermaine will play on the left side, Nathan Burton will continue his recent run at D with Goncalves out.

9/28/16 at Orlando City - US Cup Final - This time we were the team that scored on our first shot on target in the second half. But by then we were already down 2. Mr. Shuttleworth managed to allow 5 goals on 5 shots on target and Mr. Meram managed to either hit the crossbar or miss the net on each of his many scoring chances. No one else played much better. Of the eleven starters only Duylio and Agudelo rated above a 6.5. Loss.

New England Revolution vs Orlando City SC - US cup Final

1-5

6 Shots 14

2 On Target 5

12 Fouls 10

2 Yellow Cards 3

56% Possession 44%

Goals:Larin (18) Molina (27) Agudelo (53) Arnaldo (54,75,78)

Just lovely.

After the game I promised Darren Mattocks more playing time, again, does it really matter?

I still don’t know what's going on with Jayden, she has been applying her makeup with a spatula lately. When we were having dinner at Tavolino friday night I asked Gianna if she thought that meant Jayden was hiding bruises and Gia said no, that looked different. Gia thinks Jayden’s just been doing a lot of crying lately. That wouldn’t be good either. This is out of my league, I really hope it takes care of itself.

[edtheguy]

October 2016

We once again went to dinner after the monthly Board meeting, this time at Davio’s. Unsurprisingly my status was back to secure, which was better than my mood. My only comment during the meal was when Mike mentioned that the board wasn’t happy with the cup final and I replied that I would be worried if anyone was happy with that abomination. Gia was quiet, but supportive. At the end of the night she asked me to try to stay positive. I would have to actually have been positive at some point to do that.

The next game will be the key to the season, if we want to stay in the wild card positions we need to get something from it, otherwise we will be on the outside looking in, hoping for some help. For the game Johnson will be back at wing, Mattocks up top with Agudelo, and we will start with ‘sword’.

10/2/16 at Sporting Kansas City - Ok, the players are just mailing it in now. I’d yell at them but there's no point. Average rating for the team was 6.52. We didn’t do anything worth talking about in the game - well, I guess at least Shuttleworth did make some saves. Loss 0-3.

New England Revolution (10-8-12) vs Sporting KC(13-9-8)

0-3

6 Shots 15

2 On Target 6

5 Fouls 17

1 Yellow Cards 1

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Jonathan (12) Higuita (48,64)

And now we are two points out of a wild card spot and fading. Which is fine, as Jason Milne keeps pointing out these players aren’t that good to begin with, and if last years wild card game and this years cup final are any indication, they only get worse when it matters. Time to go home.

Agudelo and Meram will be on international duty for the next game vs San Jose. Good for them, can I leave too?

Which means we will go with Rodriguez on the left, Hajdarovic and Mattocks up top, Barnes will play for Woodbury who was an impressively bad 4.7 in the last game. Tactic; cobra - have at it.

I was worried that whatever issues Jayden was going through would affect her work, but if they have it has only been in a good way. She has been almost living in the office and even more efficient than ever - if that is even possible. I’m not foolish enough not to realize that this is probably just because she has problems at home though, so despite my apprehension at becoming involved in her personal life again I called her into my office late one evening and asked her if she needed someone to talk to. She thanked me but said no. So I guess there’s not much for me to do there.

10/8/16 vs San Jose - San Jose was clearly trying to bomb direct counter attacks against us, so we changed to shield after a few close calls and quickly capitulated on a set piece. The tactical change brought us back into the game though and the players didn’t give up like the last couple games. Instead we came back to tie immediately and played them even the rest of the way. Not good enough for a team that’s supposed to be good, but a success for a team that’s looking to not be embarrassed. Draw 1-1.

New England Revolution (10-8-13) vs San Jose Earthquakes (13-11-7)

1-1

11 Shots 13

4 On Target 6

11 Fouls 12

4 Yellow Cards 1

54% Possession 46%

Goals: Emeghara (32) Mattocks (34)

I have decided against operation doomsday, which was going to be a request of the board to change philosophies and put me in charge with the Mike answering to me, and decided to give this situation until next April. If I don’t see a future by then I will resign.

What changed my mind was a late night conversation with Gia where she asked me where I wanted to be, long term. I realized the answer to that was not in MLS, so I won’t do anyone here the disservice of attempting a ‘hostile takeover’ just to leave them in the lurch soon after.

My thought is that since MLS is on a different ‘time clock’ than most of the rest of the world I can give it until partway through next year before I decide. By then jobs should be opening up as the seasons end in other leagues. Of course there's always the question if anyone would want me with the resume I am building but I’ll just have to wait and see.

Gia was so supportive it almost brings a tear to my eyes thinking about it. Of course in hindsight, her original question might have been asking about long term plans for my personal life…. great, now I have something else to worry about.

Next up 20th overall DC United with Nguyen back from injury and on the sub list. Dr. Allen informed me that Apam failed his fitness test. Darn now it’s not a statement when I leave him off the squad.

Going with cobra to try to control a ‘lesser’(?) side, Nguyen will start on bench. It was hard to choose a partner for Agudelo between Meram, Mattocks and Haj. We went with Mattocks as in practice he at least acted like he wants to play.

10/16/16 vs DC United - Things went to plan for a change as we pressed DC when they had the ball, won it back quickly and turned the possession into offense, even finishing more than once. Goncalves did give them a goal to celebrate his return from injury, but once we established a 2 goal lead we switched to a revamped shield tactic that doesn't let us get trapped deep with the ball as often and never looked threatened. Win 3-1.

New England Revolution (10-9-13) vs DC United (5-12-15)

3-1

22 Shots 15

7 On Target 5

14 Fouls 6

2 Yellow Cards 0

56% Possession 44%

Goals: Mattocks (19) Boswell (38) Hajdarovic (53,67)

Of course every silver lining has a dark cloud - Juan Agudelo left the game with a groin strain and will miss 3 weeks, ending his season a game early. Which is less significant than it could be as we didn’t get the help we needed from other teams and won’t be playing for anything on the last day.

So, we close our season in six days at Toronto FC and will take the field mathematically eliminated from wild card contention. After a rare professional performance, the same lineup that played vs DCU will go against Toronto, with Haj starting for Agudelo in the role in which he scored two goals off the bench in the last game.

10/22/16 at Toronto FC - We fell down 2 goals early, changed to the shield version and came back to tie the game before losing. Again, the team played well overall but key mistakes and poor play from the defenders cost the game. Loss 2-3

New England Revolution (11-9-13) vs Toronto FC (14-6-13)

2-3

11 Shots 17

5 On Target 8

7 Fouls 15

2 Yellow Cards 2

49% Possession 51%

Goals: Osorio (21) Jackson (26) Hajdarovic (31) Rodriguez (37) Giovinco (43)

Typical. That’ll do. Now let’s see if I still have a job. If I do, I will tweak the three variants of our tactic and see if I can press Mike to get better defenders. His track record isn’t so good so I’m not sure if I want him to find me any more….

At the end of season team meeting I called for mid table next year and was told I wasn’t being ambitious enough by - wait for it….. Jermaine Jones. Come on now, It’s pretty clear he just doesn’t like me, I don’t think it matters what I say. When I said how about top half most of the rest of the team was understandably concerned.

At the season ending board meeting I was rated stable and our performance in competitions was deemed satisfactory. There does seem to be a general lack of ambition here. Is this team just a tax write off or something?

Our year end housekeeping included extending next year's pre-season to five weeks so we can hopefully be in better shape to start the season, reviewing the numbers, which showed, among other things, that the most injured player this season was Apam at 23%, but Lee wasn’t far behind at 18% and going through Mike's contract updates which reported that he extended Fagundez, Herivaux, Johnson, Meram, Hajdarovic, Goncalves and Shuttleworth’s contracts. I can’t object to any of those too much. Darrius Barnes and Jim Flores also signed two year extensions and Woodbury a three year extension - these ones are more questionable.

Gia and I went to a nice Bed and Breakfast in Vermont for a season ending weekend getaway and I am starting to think more about those long term personal plans. At this stage of my life I never intended to have any of those again. We also made plans to go to Thanksgiving at her parents - which should be about as quiet as a runway at Logan International.

On October 23, the board announced plans to build a new $37 million dollar stadium. Revolution Stadium is scheduled to be completed December 2017 to be ready for the 2018 season. This is a surprise, plans for a new stadium in south Boston had been rumored for a decade, but never seemed likely. A soccer only stadium is a dream, it would be nice if we could put a better quality team on it though.

The stadium announcement came at the same time as word that our training and youth facilities no longer rank with the top teams programs. Normally I would immediately ask the board to fix this, but I don’t want anything to get in the way of the stadium (even though I’m not sure I’ll be here to see it) so for now, I’ll wait.

This has me reconsidering a modified operation doomsday, where maybe I’ll just ask for final ok on all player moves and have full control over tactics. I would still need Mike’s assistance for roster control and drafting under MLS roster rules. Gia said she thought that was a good idea. She hoped it would be less frustrating for me if I could ‘drive with both hands on the wheel’ as she put it.

If I am going to do anything it should be soon, or next year will be more of the same….. of course I haven’t been offered a contract extension, so as October draws to a close it’s starting to look like I will soon be unemployed.

At 2am on the 30th my phone rang and the caller ID was Jayden’s number. But when I answered it wasn’t Jayden’s voice on the other end.

[edtheguy]

November 2016 (pt. 1)

The caller was Natalie Sullivan, ‘Nats’ was one of Jayden’s friends that I met way back when we went out to celebrate my first contract extension. I could barely remember her, that night tended to all run together, but I knew who she was. She was calling for help with Jayden. They were at a bar that had just closed, Jayden was passed out in the restroom and my number was the only one in Jayden’s phone that Natalie felt she could call for help. So much for not getting involved.

So I went off to help them out and wound up with Jayden back at my condo, which fortunately Gia wasn’t staying at that night because she had early meetings the next day. I was able to get most of the story from Natalie and the rest from Jayden when she came to a little later.

Apparently things haven’t gone well for Jayden since she got back together with her ex at all. According to Natalie, Jayden is ‘hopelessly stupid in love’ with Rick and he ‘doesn’t give a rats a**’ about her and never has. Once Jayden realized nothing had changed after they got back together she slipped into a full blown depression which has led to this, and to their son living with Jayden’s mother full time. It’s amazing she’s been functioning at work at all.

I had a long talk with Jayden, and after she got over being mortified at waking up in my condo she basically admitted that everything 'Nats' said was right. She also apologized to me and admitted that she had never had any real romantic feelings for me but was basically using me to get back at Rick when we had our brief affair. That hurt, but not as much as I would have thought. I told her not to worry about it, we were both grown adults.

By the time we had gotten her put together enough to go home and get ready for work she seemed to be doing better, but she freely admitted that she was madly in love with an awful man and couldn't do a thing about it. I told her that just being aware of that was something, and that its ok to have feelings you can’t control. I also suggested she see a counselor, I told her of my good experience with my sons counselor and said that her best chance of getting back on track as a person and a mother was if she got all the help she could. She said she’d think about it - which means no, but I felt I had to try.

I’m not sure if all of that made anything better for her or not, but soon enough it was time to get back to work. At least we got through it without any added drama from Gianna finding out that Jayden spent the night at my condo, I shudder to think how that would have gone.

Finally on November 16th, after another two weeks of office mundanity, the board approached me about a contract renewal. I told them that I wished to discuss the team philosophy and they scheduled a meeting for the next day.

After a sleepless night practicing my presentation in front of mock board member Gianna Lovell, I met with the board and proposed that I be allowed to implement my own tactics and have final approval of player acquisitions. This was the moment of truth. If they agreed, I would actually have something to look forward to and could start planning for next year. If not, this will be the end for me here at New England.