by Jeff Dieffenbach

In the 10th minute of a match that would earn a scoring crown for one Revolution player and revive the scoring touch of another, goalkeeper Adin Brown set the tone. Brown came out for a ball as the MetroStars’ Mamadou Diallo crashed in.

Six feet five and 200 pounds going out, six feet three and 215 going in. Brilliant diving save by Brown. Collision. Both a little slow getting up. Advantage, Brown. Advantage, Revolution.

In the 42nd minute, Brown again made a brave challenge on Big Mama, this time launching himself sideways to smother a point blank blast. Soccer365 asked Brown after the game what it’s like to face a player with Diallo’s size, to say nothing of his reputation for dismantling goalkeepers

Brown replied, “Playing your game, no matter who it is, you’re giving it all you have. Even if you’re going up against a 5’2” guy, you’re still going to jump as high as you can. He said a couple of things at the beginning of the night and I really wanted to stick it to him and keep him out of the goal. Luckily for us, the defense played fantastically, and we kept the shutout.”

Despite Diallo’s words, there’s no real animosity between the two. “There’s always been kind of a rivalry between us [Diallo started the season with the Revolution]. I love going up against him and I’m sure that he loves going up against me. It feels great shutting him down.”

The MetroStars were only the latest victim of a Brown out. In the last month, the Revolution have amassed a 5-0-1 record in large part on the strength of Brown’s goalkeeping. Over that span, he allowed only three goals for a 0.50 goals against average (by comparison, the Crew’s Jon Busch holds the season league at 1.02).

At the time of Brown’s second Diallo confrontation, New England led 3-0 as the result of the MetroStars’ strange apparent experimentation with a formation that played like a 0-9-1. While the MetroStars dominated the midfield (they would control possession for nearly 60% of the game), particularly during the period between Brown’s two big saves on Diallo, they did so at the expense of an exposed defense. And the exposer of this defense was not the usual suspect for New England, league assist leader Steve Ralston, who sat out the game for accumulated caution points. That task fell to fill-in Braedon Cloutier.

Cloutier’s night started off on the wrong foot. Before the opening whistle, he’d already shanked one shot badly. As part of the pre-game festivities, Revolution players booted balls into the stands as souvenirs. Cloutier’s effort missed completely, finding instead Gillette Stadium’s Southeast tunnel.

Fortunately for the Revolution, his touch improved. In the 4th minute, Cloutier slotted a ball into the box for Twellman, who after turning the ball was pulled down by the MetroStars’ Mike Petke. Twellman buried the ensuing penalty kick: 1-0.

Cloutier earned the assist on New England’s third goal in the 35th minute, sending a diagonal ball through to Harris on the right edge of the penalty box. From a tight angle, Harris took the ball towards goal before slotting a seeing-eye ball low into the net at the far post.

Sandwiched in between, Twellman notched his own an assist to Harris, whose two-goal effort marked a resurgence of sorts. After scoring 15 times for the Revolution in 2000, his contribution suffered, with only 3 tallies in 2001 and 2 entering tonight’s game.

Twellman’s “pass” was actually a shot across the face of the goal and just past goalkeeper Paul Grafer’s outstretched left hand. “I was a little selfish, I took the shot,” he would later say. Harris crashed the goal, literally, knocking the ball home before plowing hip-first into the right goal post. Said Twellman, “Wolde deserved that goal, Wolde worked hard, and obviously he’s got a bruise for it on his bum as well.”

Later in the evening, Twellman tried another assist for Harris, this time in the post-game press conference. Sitting in a chair at the front of the room with coach Steve Nicol at the microphone, Harris entered from the back. In a show of class perhaps unexpected of such a young talent, Twellman immediately stood to offer the seat to his senior strike-mate.

Harris waved him off, choosing instead a seat among the assembled press. Not seeing this turn of events but catching Harris’ now-raised hand out of the corner of his eye, coach Nicol turned to call on the “reporter,” only to break into a smile with a, “Yes, Wolde?” Even the jaded press smiled at that.

Smiles aside, Nicol ended his remarks by offering high praise for his goalkeeper, “The big man just looks like he’ll get a hand on anything that’s flung at him.” With a playoff berth clinched to end a regular season that appeared dead in the water just a month before, Brown and his Revolution teammates look forward to continued flinging.