Talkin' (and Talkin') About A Revolution

Watching MLS Cup on Sunday, I was struck by one thing more than anything else, and it certainly wasn't the level of excitement.

Eric Wynalda really, really likes the New England Revolution.

As a fan of the undercard of the two previous ESPN2 playoff broadcasts, I had come to expect seeing the game almost exclusively through the lens of whichever team Waldo preferred. You know what I'm talking about -- where a team doesn't score not because of the opposing defense, but because of it's offense, and vice versa. That sort of thing.

Sunday's ABC broadcast of the final took it to a new extreme. Going into the overtime period, Wynalda actually made the claim that the extra session favored New England because they had played so poorly through ninety minutes. His rationale was that they'd realize how crappy they had been, and force themselves to step it up a notch, as contrasted to Los Angeles, who had been peppering goalie Matt Reis through the final fifteen or twenty minutes of regulation. It wasn't until L.A. had capped off that pressure with a goal at the end of the first overtime period and subsequently started playing an awfully effective game of keep-away that Wynalda seemed to finally notice there was another team on the field.

For good measure, the member of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame -- and I say that with some degree of reverence, along with the requisite sarcasm -- went on to make a similar claim when New England earned a free kick just outside the penalty area. This would be a good opportunity for the Revolution precisely because all of their set pieces and corner kicks up to that point had really, really sucked. I'm paraphrasing, but not by much.

Now, I actually like Eric Wynalda as an announcer, but this goes a long way to explain why a lot of people don't.

On a related note, Max Bretos and John Harkes were surprisingly good in their call on location at the USA-Scotland match. I'm not sure if it was calling the game live in the stadium like a real sportscaster versus working from a video feed in Fox Soccer Channel's L.A. studios, or if maybe said studios have a well-stocked liquor cabinet, or what, but it was a welcome change. Of course, the absence of Pablo "O before E" Mastroenni from the roster, might have helped.