Revs Get 1st Win

The New England Revolution ended their home debut on a good note with with their first win of the season. They got their first three points after defeating Portland Timbers by the score of 1-0. The Revs scored early, just 28 seconds into the match by newly aquired player Saer Sene making his MLS debut. This was also Jay Heaps first win as a professional coach. another milestone in the game was when long time Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis made his 1000 career save, he entered the game with 997 saves. They did however have to work for the win with their best player, Bennie Feilhaber injured, as well as missing three other defenders to injury, and one player suspended from getting a red card in last weeks game in Kansas City. One more disadvantage was scoring so early into the game. By scoring early they left Portland 89 minutes and 32 seconds to equalize.

(Pictured Saer Sene against Kansas City)

Revamped Revs

After a less than impressive season last year, the New England Revolution look to be back in playoff form with major changes to their roster. The team has 13 new players and counting added to the roster, out of all the players that started the season last year only three return. This is not including their new head coach Jay Heaps, who retired in 2009 after a 13 year playing career with Major League Soccer. The Revs are by far the youngest team in MLS with 20 players under the age of 26. A couple of their more promising aquisitions include french forward Saer Sene, and also newly drafted midfielder Keylan Rowe.

Best Player EVER

He is perhaps the greatest player of all time and for some time to come. His name is Lionel Messi. Messi has played for FC Barcelona since 2004 when he was just 17 years old. By the time he turned 21 he had earned the FIFA world played award for the first time. in making 205 appearances with Barcelona he has scored 154 goals, the most in the Spanish league ever. In his time there Messi has won 5 league championships and 3 champions league titles, as well as one Olympic gold medal with his home country of Argentina. He is the most technical player in the game. He can take the ball down the field and no one can get it away from him, its almost like the ball is glued to his foot.

Technology in Soccer

Many people are afraid that if we bring technology into "the beautiful game" then it will be ruined. Soccer is one of the only sports with no form of review after goals. However after some contraversial calls in the 2010 world cup in South Africa, FIFA is considering goal line technology. They will not review other calls the referee makes, only goals!

There are two slightly different concepts that FIFA are looking into. One of them is putting cameras in the two goal posts and the crossbar and the other is putting a chip inside the ball and sensors under the grass to see if the FULL ball crossed over the white line. There are eight companies creating there own product to present to FIFA, the company that wins the competion and has their idea implimented in games will get 100 million Euros. Hawkeye, the company developing the cameras is already being used in most tennis matches.

I think its a good thing that technology will be in the game because it eliminates all of the bad calls and what if's. Many people believe that it will slow down the game to have the referee go off the field to look at the camera but this is untrue. If this system is implimented then there will be a seperate fifth offical whose job it is to watch th monator and relay the message to the main offical on the field with a wireless microphone. The problem with the chip inside the ball is that it will break inside the ball and not relay the correct information to the ref.

Soccer or Football?

Have you ever wondered why in some parts of the world it's called soccer and in other parts it's called football? Well it all started in 1863 when it was given the name association football to distinguish it from rugby, another type of football. The term association football was shortened to just "football." In the late 1800's the term started to develop slang terms. So it is said that the word "association" was first shortened to "ssocia" then to "socca" and it eventually it became "soccer." The word soccer originated in England although it is no longer used there they call it football. If someone says that word in the United Kingdom they will most likely be made fun of, and they will not be taken seriously if they talk about the game.