In what should come as a shock to absolutely no one, it appears as if Revolution defender Gabriel Badilla will soon be headed back to Costa Rica to play for Deportivo Saprissa.  According to several articles in the Central American press, the player and the club have already agreed to terms, but Saprissa has yet to agree to a deal with the Revs.

Safe to say, I won’t be shedding any tears over this.

Couple of quick hits:

• The Revs have resigned Kenny Mansally, Sainey Nyassi, and Kheli Dube.  No word on contract terms.
• Midfielder Mauricio Castro has been suspended for the first two games of the 2010 season for kicking a ball into the stands in the season finale against Chicago.  You may remember that Castro blasted a ball into the Toyota Park seats after being taken hard into the sign boards by a Fire player.  The sign boards had intentionally close to the field by the home team to limit the effectiveness of Darrius Barnes’ long throws.  Castro cut his hand on the play; the offending Fire player was not even whistled for a foul.
• Midfielder Mike Videira has had offseason hernia surgery that will keep him sidelined 6-8 weeks.

The Revs have officially signed defender Darrius Barnes to a Senior Roster spot.

Revolution adds Defender Darrius Barnes

Captain Obvious checks in with an obligatory quote:

“We’re pleased to add Darrius to the squad,” Revolution Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns said. “He showed well during preseason training, was eager to learn from our veterans. We’re looking forward to him developing in our system.”

A friend of mine who watches a lot of ACC soccer provides a quick scouting report:

“Physically, he’s everything you’re looking for – big, strong, athletic, good in the air.  But it always seemed to me like he was less than the sum of his parts.  He was prone to some big mistakes, and I always thought he turned the ball over way too much.”

With the season opener now a week away, (…can you believe it?) let’s take a brief look at all of the players on the Revolution roster and see where they stand.

Chris Albright, D – A lock to start on Opening Night… if he weren’t suspended for a red card tackle of Cuahtemoc Blanco last year.  Totally worth it.

Kevin Alston, D – Generation Adidas status makes him a lock to make the team.  However, we’re hearing that Alston has had a tremendous camp, impressed the staff, and could very well find himself in the starting lineup against San Jose.

Gabriel Badilla, D – Followed up a poor 2008 campaign by showing up out of shape and with an iffy back.  I still think he makes the team simply because the Revs put so much effort into signing him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their patience is running out.

Darrius Barnes, D – The biggest surprise in camp?  Should make the team, and if reinforcements don’t arrive quickly, he could conceivably start the opener in the center of defense alongside Jay Heaps.

Mauricio Castro, M – Another International player who may be on thin ice.  I think he makes the team, but he’s someone else who may not be around long if Kenny Mansally or the somewhat rejuvinated Wells Thompson show they can handle the job for 1/4th the price tag.

Kheli Dube, F – Seeing as how he’s the only healthy forward on the roster, he’ll make the team, and he’ll probably start against San Jose.

Argenis Fernandez, F - Still can’t handle the MLS game.  Only way he makes the team is if there’s a delay in signing the two African players.

Dado Hamzagic, M – Not officially released, but it’s never a good sign when the team sends you home.

Jay Heaps, D -A fixture in defense.

Amaechi Igwe, D – Another Generation Adidas player, so he’ll make the roster.  I’ve heard he’s had a good camp, but has still fallen behind Kevin Alston on the depth chart.

Shalrie Joseph, M – Midfield badass.

Brad Knighton, GK – Matt Reis’ backup… probably.

Jeff Larentowicz, M – Probably still a starter in midfield, but not quite 100% recovered from his injury.

Ryan Maxwell, M – Hasn’t done much to show he belongs.  At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Revs passed on signing him to see if he can hook on with an A-League team for a year and see where he is next winter.

Kenny Mansally, M – We’re hearing Kenny’s had a very strong camp and could very well find himself in the starting lineup against San Jose, even if Twellman is ready to go.

Sainey Nyassi, M – Making the team isn’t an issue, but the youngster hasn’t really made himself stand out, either.

Pat Phelan, M/D – Hanging on to a roster spot by a thread.

Steve Ralston, M – Been bothered by a nagging quad injury, but should be ready to go against the Quakes.

Matt Reis, GK – Has his own nagging injuries, but still a goalkeeping badass.

Chris Salvaggione, M – See Dado Hamzagic.

Zack Simmons, GK – Hearing he’s pushing Brad Knighton for the #2 goalkeeper job.

Wells Thompson, M – Had a bit of an up and down camp.  Has probably done enough to hang on to a roster spot.

Chris Tierney, M/D – Solid and dependable.

Taylor Twellman, F – Encouraging that he’s joined his teammates in North Carolina, but likely won’t be ready for Opening Night.  The home opener is a realistic goal, however.

Rob Valentino, D – Has a guaranteed Generation Adidas contract, but he has been passed by Darrius Barnes at this point.  Likely wouldn’t make the team if he wasn’t a Generation Adidas player.

Michael Videira, M – Seems poised to take over the role that Andy Dorman used to play for the Revs.

So, with those updates in mind, here’s what we think the Roster will look like for Opening Night:

Senior Roster (20 of 20)
1.  Chris Albright
2.  Gabriel Badilla (International #1)
3.  Darrius Barnes
4.  Mauricio Castro (International #2)
5.  Kheli Dube (International #3)
6.  Jay Heaps
7.  Shalrie Joseph
8.  Brad Knighton
9.  Jeff Larentowicz
10.  Kenny Mansally (International #4)
11.  Sainey Nyassi (International #5)
12.  Pat Phelan (acquired in exchange for an International Roster Spot)
13.  Steve Ralston
14.  Matt Reis
15.  Wells Thompson
16.  Chris Tierney
17.  Taylor Twellman
18.  Michael Videira
19.  Unknown African Defender (International #6)
20.  Unknown African Forward (International  #7)

Developmental Roster (4 of 4)
1.  Kevin Alston
2.  Amaechi Igwe
3.  Zack Simmons
4.  Rob Valentino

The Official Revs Blog tells us that Dado Hamzagic and Chris Salvaggione have been “released from training camp”, which I don’t believe should be confused with simply being released.  At least not yet.

For now, we’ll still classify both players as Unsigned Draft Picks on our roster page.

The Boston Herald provides good news on the transfer front in today’s edition.

The Revolution are in the advanced stages of negotiations with a defender and a striker of African descent and are hopeful of sealing their signatures, according to vice president of player personnel Michael Burns.

Nicol said he spotted both players during the course of scouting trips to Ghana. The defender could be expected to step right in and play if signed, while the striker is a younger player who may need some time to adjust, the coach reported.

My guess is that there’s no way the team lets this information out to the press if they weren’t pretty damn sure these two guys were pretty much signed, sealed, and delivered.

But… two players of African descent?  Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but does that sound like at least one of the players isn’t from Ghana?

And here’s the other part of the story – if you’re bringing in two international players, who’s going?  The Revs only have room for one more international player on their roster.  They could cut Argenis Fernandez without any problems, but remember that Ryan Maxwell is still unsigned.  So, if Steve Nicol is bringing in two international players now, then that means that either Maxwell won’t be signed (…which would be a monumental screw up, IMO) or one of the other international’s on the roster has to go.  Perhaps Mauricio Castro’s time is short if Kenny Mansally’s getting a run at left midfield?

Either that, or someone – perhaps Kheli Dube – is really close to gaining their citizenship.

Credit the Globe’s Monique Walker for this tasty little nugget of information:

Nicol returned from a trip to Ghana earlier this week and said he saw a couple of defenders and a striker he liked, and the team planned to make offers this week.

Here’s hoping reinforcements are on their way.

Both the Globe and the Herald quote Steve Nicol as having offered contracts to a young forward and young defender from Ghana.  Obviously, Nicol doesn’t give too much away beyond that…

“They’re young guys,” Nicol said. “They’re only offers. They might take them, they might not.”

Taking public speaking lessons from Captain Obvious, eh Steve?

Not much to work with, but that won’t stop us from making an educated guess about the identity of one of the players in question…

Name: Emmanuel Clottey
DOB: 8/30/87
Position: Forward
Team: Great Olympics (Ghana)

Notes:

Leading scorer in Ghana Premier League (2007)

• Spent time on loan with Wacker Innsbruck in 2007, and six months on loan with Odense BK in January of 2008 before being returned to Great Olympics
• Hertha BSC Berlin, SC Freiburg, and Widzew Lodz have also expressed interest
• Has played for Ghana at the U-20, U-23, and Senior National Team levels

And finally, ever since reading this article, I’ve got this song stuck in my head and I can’t get it out.  Someone please help:

In what appears to be a stroke of good fortune, the Revs have signed former UMass All-American goalkeeper Zack Simmons as an undrafted free agent.  Simmons will be a part of the Revolution’s developmental roster.  To make room on the Developmental Roster for Simmons and Generation Adidas defender Kevin Alston, the team has also promoted goalkeeper Brad Knighton and defender Chris Tierney to the senior roster.

Simmons, a Third Team All-American during the 2007 season in which he led the Minutemen to the NCAA College Cup semifinals, was considered arguably the top senior goalkeeper in the country this season.  However, there were concerns that Simmons would bypass the professional game entirely to attend graduate school, which could go a long way towards explaining why he wasn’t even drafted.

The 23-year old native of Durham, NH left the UMass program as it’s all-time leader in wins (42), shutouts (30) and saves (386).

With the addition of Simmons and the promotion of Knighton and Tierney, the Revolution have nearly a full roster.  They have 18 players under contract, not including first round pick Ryan Maxwell.  All four Developmental Roster spots are full.

While Kevin Alston already has a roster spot, the remaining six draft picks as well as non-roster invitee Brian Visser (GK, DePaul University) are fighting for two spots.  Second round pick Andrei Gotsmanov and fourth round selection Tyrel Lacey will be staying in school until they graduate.  But you’d have to figure Ryan Maxwell is a lock to sign.  That means maybe one other youngster makes the roster, or they’ll have to beat out someone like Wells Thompson, Pat Phelan, or Chris Tierney for a spot.

You know, I really wanna like Mike Burns.  I think he was a pretty decent player in his day, and he takes WAY too much crap about not being on the post in the ‘98 World Cup.

But every time I start thinking positively about him, he opens his mouth.  For example, take his most recent entry on the Official Revolution Blog.

Sure, it’s a good thing that Burnsie’s taking questions from fans.  But if you had given me the questions a day ahead of time, I could have practically predicted his responses.

Let me sum up:

• Can’t talk about rumors
• We’ll sign a Designated Player if he’s “the right fit”
• We don’t spread rumors
• We dont’ really scout college players all that much
• We lost Khano Smith in the Expansion Draft, and had to cut some other players because the league shrunk the rosters
• European players are expensive
• We didn’t try to lose on purpose in the USOC or the Champions League last year (We just didn’t try real hard to win)
• We played a lot of games and were tired
• We like drafting local players
• We’ll bring in some trialists, but only if they’ve got a chance to make the team

1,496 words… one piece of useful information:

Having said that, during the past few years, our staff has been to Central America and South America and Steve and Paul are currently in Africa right now scouting.

Of course, we could have gotten that and more from Steven Goff of all sources.

*Revs Coach Steve Nicol and assistant Paul Mariner are currently on a scouting mission in Ghana. Meantime, New England draft picks Andrei Gotsmanov (Creighton) and Tyrel Lacey (Tulsa) will remain in school and not join the club for trials until May. The club has also offered a workout to undrafted keeper Zack Simmons (U-Mass.).

Getting back to Burnsie, let me just pick out two snippets of his post that drive me nuts.  First, on being “tight-lipped”:

I’m not going to disagree that we’re not probably a little bit more tight-lipped than some of the other teams in our league, but our position has always been that there are enough rumors that circulate in and around the Revs or in and around the league that we don’t need to add to them. Instead of having rumors circulate or appear to have come from the Revs, traditionally speaking, we have been an organization that has chosen not to leak information and one that only likes to put out factual information. You see that in all areas of the Krafts’ businesses, including the Patriots. To be honest, if we were leaking information, we could leak information every day, but we don’t think that’s fair to our fans as most of those rumors don’t turn out to be accurate.

Does he really not understand the difference between the situation the Revs are in and the situation the Patriots are in?  The Patriots could fire Stacy James and their entire PR/Media Relations staff, and they’d still sell out every game.

The Revs spend five months a year where literally no media outlet talks about them.  That’s just absurd.  There’s nothing wrong with throwing your hardcore fans a bone every now and then.

Burnsie on “Mailing It In”

From my playing days to now working in the front office, I have never been part of a Revolution team that has intentionally tried to lose or “mailed it in.” I don’t like to make excuses, nor do our coaching staff nor our players, but we had a very full plate in 2008.

I don’t like to make excuses, nor do our coaching staff nor our players, but allow me to make an excuse.

But I want to reaffirm that we did not “mail it in,” and we did not intentionally try to lose. It was almost like something was going to give, and after our SuperLiga title, there just wasn’t much in the tank. And that’s not an excuse – that’s just the reality of our schedule and situation last year.

Here’s the reality of the Revs’ situation last year.

The  team that they claimed was too tired to compete for ANYTHING after SuperLiga finished the year with open roster spots, a large chunk of unused cap space, and about eight players on their roster that Steve Nicol would only have used if forced to at gunpoint.

You screwed it up, Mike.  Your front office.  You were the guys that used first round picks on guys like Rob Valentino, Wells Thompson, and Leandro de Oliveira in recent years.  You were the guys that made Argenis Fernandez one of your big offseason signings.  You were the guys that were quick to promote Sainey Nyassi and Kheli Dube to the senior roster before exploring alternatives.

The Revs could have handled things much differently last year.  I would have hoped for a response that acknowledged that the organization has made some mistakes, not one where you throw your hands up in the air and say, “What can you do?  Who knew we were going to play that many games?”

Oh, and one more thing.

You will never convince me that the Revs did not “mail in” the 2nd leg of that home and home series with Joe Public.  There’s no way the Revs are four goals worse than a mid-table club team from Trinidad and Tobago.

The Revolution yesterday took the unusual step of announcing changes to their roster… via a blog entry.  Only, they didn’t really announce it, only that there had been changes and then let their blog readers figure it out.

Are you bleepin’ kidding me?  And people wonder why there’s no offseason media coverage.

There was an official announcement, but it was buried between a recap of the Adam Cristman trade and a reminder that the team will play in SuperLiga again next year.  I’m not even kidding.

Looking for work are Sam Brill, Joe Germanese, Gary Flood, Brandon Tyler, and Brandon Manzonelli.

Also notable that Argenis Fernandez is apparently back.  That brings us to 20 players on the current roster – room for four more.  How they’ll fit seven draft picks into four spots is anyone’s guess.

In other news, 30 players who have absolutely zero chance of making the team participated in what was likely a sham of a tryout.

After failing to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2001, and stumbling badly during the second half of the season, many had believed this winter could possibly bring sweeping changes to New England.  The Revs have been the model of consistency, and haven’t experienced a major roster turnover in several years.  But the window of opportunity seems to be closing on the current group of core players, and one could look at the departure of Michael Parkhurst as a sign that a significant shakeup was in order.

While the club seems to have the means and the will to go shopping, there are some roadblocks in their way.  Most notably, the league’s reduction in overall roster spots from 27 to 24 means the cuts will have to come before the team can go shopping.

New England currently has 24 players on their roster, including Jeff Larentowicz and Argenis Fernandez, whose futures are a bit uncertain at this point.

So the Revs are in a situation where if they want to bring someone in, then someone has to go.  If you’re Sam Brill, Brandon Tyler, Gary Flood, Joe Germanese, or Brandon Manzonelli, you’re not very happy about this.

Let’s say all five of them are cut, and the Revs open up five roster spots.  Where might those roster spots go?

One of them will go to a backup goalkeeper.  Even if Brad Knighton is moved up to the Senior Roster to replace Doug Warren, I can’t imagine the Revs opting to go with only two goalies on the roster.

I’m hearing that Michael Videira is read to try his hand at MLS after being released by SPL bottom-feeders Hamilton Academical.  Their loss – Videira’s a player.  That’s two spots.

You’d have to think that at least one other spot will go to a player the team drafts.  After all, they’ve got two first round picks and five in the first three rounds.  I can’t imagine them drafting only one player who makes the team.

So that leaves two slots the team would have to fill.  So, go sign the two best foreign players you can find, right?  Sure… except the Revs have only one available International Roster spot in this scenario since they traded one of their eight International Roster spots to Toronto for Pat Phelan last year.

That means the Revs would have to cut Fernandez if they wanted to bring in two International Players, and they’d still have three roster spots to fill.  Presumably, I’m guessing this is why they traded for all those draft picks.

In the end, I’m guessing the Revs sign no more than two International Players.  They’ll bring in Videira, a backup goalkeeper and probably two more draft picks.  But that might be about it.

Could all this change?  Sure.  The club could trade Taylor Twellman or Shalrie Joseph tomorrow, in which case this entire post would be moot.  Call it a gut feeling, but I sense that this winter will see tweaking rather than an overhaul of the roster.