Pros

Twellman leads Revs romp
March 14, 2007

Revolution 7-0 Inter Playa Del Carmen

Taylor Twellman scored four times as the Revs romped to an easy win over their opponents from the Mexican second division, although the gloss was taken off the evening’s work somewhat by the sendings off of Jeff Larentowicz for two bookable offenses and Joe Franchino, who saw red three minutes into injury time having come on as a substitute.

Taylor Twellman (Photo by Chris Aduama)

Twellman opened the scoring in the 14th minute when he converted from close range after a Steve Ralston corner kick had been headed on by Shalrie Joseph and Jay Heaps.

Eight minutes later, Adam Cristman, who started alongside Twellman at forward in the absence of Pat Noonan and ahead of Willie Sims, doubled the New England lead when he took a long pass from Joseph and fired past Inter goalkeeper Luis Guirola from fifteen yards.

Khano Smith sent the Revs into the intermission ahead by three goals when he controlled James Riley’s long pass from defense and dribbled into the penalty area before shooting home from twelve yards.

Eight minutes into the second half, Twellman notched his second goal of the evening with a spectacular effort. Ralston whipped a cross in from the right and Twellman, despite the close attention of two defenders, managed to create enough space for himself to turn and shoot into the net.

Larentowicz got into trouble in the 56th minute when his tackle in midfield sparked pushing and shoving between both teams. Larentowicz was cautioned for the challenge and recived a second yellow card for dissent, while Inter’s Nazario Flores also saw red. The defender had been carded two minutes earlier for a foul on Twellman before being shown his second card of the evening following the ruckus.

Twellman completed his hat-trick in the 62nd minute, running onto Smith’s lofted cross from the left and slotting it past Carlos Castro in the Inter goal. Eight minutes later, the Revs striker struck for the fourth time when he finished with his left foot from Cristman’s assisting header.

There was still time for Sims to remind Steve Nicol what he is capable of. The striker replaced Twellman in the 77th minute and, with five minutes remaining, ran onto a through ball from fellow substitute, Chris Loftus, and slotted home from seven yards.

Inter had few chances on the evening as Matt Reis recorded his first shutout of the pre-season, making three saves, all on shots from long distance.

Following the game, Nicol was delighted with the soccer his side had played and saw promising signs from his new-look forward pairing:

“I thought it was great and I thought we played well. We made some decent passes, we scored some goals. Really, of all the goals we got, we were only given one, which was a bad clearance by the goalkeeper. All the other goals we worked hard for and did some good stuff creating them. And there were good finishes.

“Taylor and Adam up front, I thought, worked great as a pair. Just in general, we were happy with what we saw. Obviously, we still have some things that need to be ironed out, but (this game) doesn’t bring to bear any major things that need to get done.”

The Revolution will continue its eight-day training camp based in Cancun, Mexico, and will conclude the trip with a match against Pioneros de Cancun, another Segunda Division squad, on Thursday.

Revolution: Matt Reis, Avery John, James Riley, Jay Heaps, Khano Smith, Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Larentowicz, Steve Ralston (Wells Thompson 68), Andy Dorman (Joe Franchino 75), Adam Cristman (Chris Loftus 77), Taylor Twellman (Willie Sims 77)

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Amaechi Igwe, Tony Lochhead, Marshall Leonard, Miguel Gonzalez, Ryan Solle