“The margins are thin,” Revolution sporting director Curt Onalfo said last week. “Three more wins, three ties, that could be three plays. It could be two saves, one save, it could be a couple of chances that you make. All of a sudden, we’re not in this situation.”
Captain Carles Gil’s take: “In some games, maybe we deserved better, but honestly in the end I think we are in the place we deserve. You can see in MLS right now, there are top teams, and I don’t think we are close.
“We need to change many things. We had a bad season, that’s the reality, and we need to know that. Starting on that, we need to make sure that we can change that situation.”
If Gil is right, the Revolution’s way forward might be returning to their ambitious ways of six years ago, when they made splashes via coaching hires (Bruce Arena) and multi-million dollar signings (Gustavo Bou).
Saturday’s loss meant the Revolution (8-15-8, 32 points) will miss the playoffs for the third time in four years. But they went to the wire, despite a numerical disadvantage after Payton Miller’s 75th-minute ejection, nearly equalizing in stoppage time. Tomas Chancalay’s breakaway shot was batted away by Union All-Star keeper Andre Blake, then Will Sands headed a free kick past Blake but wide of an open net just before the final whistle.
Gil’s fouls suffered count increased to 97, an MLS career high, and second to Charlotte FC’s Wilfried Zaha (105) this season. Gil has committed 15 fouls (three cautions). Bruno Damiani, who scored for the Union, ranks third on the list with 68 fouls suffered, along with 62 fouls committed (four cautions). Lionel Messi’s totals: seven fouls committed (three cautions), 32 fouls suffered.
Saudi Arabia has disrupted men’s soccer, offering inflated salaries to players such as Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo to perform in the Saudi Professional League, and also successfully bidding for the 2034 World Cup finals.
Next up could be women’s soccer, judging by the contract awarded to former US U-20 national team midfielder Abi Kim. The Saudi Women’s Premier League club NEOM SC signed Kim to a deal worth $15,000 monthly, with incentives that could raise the value to about $200,000 annually.
Kim, 27, born in Liberia and raised in Seattle, captained the University of California team before starting her pro career with Fiorentina in 2020. Kim also competed for the Orlando Pride in the NWSL, plus Bordeaux and Ankara BB Fomget, and made her international debut with Ghana in May. NEOM SC, the men’s team guided by former Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier, represents a yet-to-be-constructed city, projected to be completed by 2030.
Boston connections to the Saudi Professional League include sporting director Michael Emenalo, a former BU star, plus former Tufts rower Ben Harburg, the league’s only US investor, with Kholood FC. Harburg has been involved with Cadiz CF in Spain since 2021. Tufts’ highest-profile graduate in soccer is City Football Group (Manchester City, et al.) chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Class of 1997.
Christian Pulisic converted twice in Milan’s 3-0 win at Udinese, in his first starting assignment since Serie A Opening Day on Aug. 23. Milan (3-1-0, 9 points) next meets the league’s top two teams, Napoli and Juventus.
During the summer, Pulisic was criticized for skipping US national team duty, but he hasn’t had to explain the effects of excessive playing demands to Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri.
While Pulisic, et al., were taking a break, East Hartford’s Patrick Agyemang played through a sports hernia injury, and the delayed surgery meant missing the start of Derby County’s English League Championship season.
But the US international made his Rams debut last week, picking up an assist on Andreas Weimann’s goal in a 1-0 win at West Brom Albion, then went the second half of a 1-0 loss to Preston North End Saturday.
Elsewhere in Europe, Florian Thauvin scored his second goal of the season for Lens in a 3-0 victory over Lille in France’s Ligue 1. Thauvin, a member of France’s 2018 World Cup champions, has been offered to MLS — no takers, though.
World Cup qualifying tournaments in Europe and South America have been diluted by the expanded field (from 32 to 48 teams) for next year’s finals in Canada, Mexico, and the US, raising questions about the format.
Qualifying for most top teams has become a formality. England blanked Andorra (2-0) before a crowd of 39,202 at Villa Park in Birmingham on Sept. 6, and Serbia (5-0) in Belgrade on Sept. 9, improving its record to 5-0-0 (13-0 goal difference).
Investors in the club game must be questioning the sense of shutting down the Premier League for the sake of national team matches that have degenerated into walkovers.
Meanwhile, CONMEBOL, the South American federation, stages 90 games over a two-year span in order to eliminate three teams. Group leader and reigning WC champion Argentina clinched a place in March, and most of the other qualifiers — Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay — were virtually determined with two windows remaining.
Bolivia slipped into a playoff after being awarded a controversial penalty kick in a 1-0 victory over Brazil on Sept. 9, edging Venezuela for seventh place.
Matt Beard, 47, Boston Breakers coach in 2016 and ’17 (7-28-9 record), died Saturday. Beard, a two-time FA Women’s Super League-winner with Liverpool (2013 and ’14) and coached at Burnley FC, which confirmed his death but did not list a cause.