![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/joseph6.jpg?resize=252%2C300\" "\\"Shalrie")
<\/a>Shalrie Joseph aired his frustrations after Saturday’s loss to San Jose. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
Perhaps the most disheartened of them all was Captain Shalrie Joseph, the veteran midfielder who helped lead the team to three MLS Cup finals between 2005 and 2007.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple of years of my years here we got to the final so many times and it was sweet,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cIt was hard work, it was putting it in and we definitely got rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n
On those successful teams Joseph was aided by experienced stars such as Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman, but now the burden of carrying the team falls on Joseph. With an inexperienced squad, the team has progressively gotten worse over the past three seasons and will miss out on the playoffs for the second year in a row, the first two times the Revs haven\u2019t been in the postseason since Joseph joined the club in 2003.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of immaturity, we\u2019ve got a lot of inexperienced guys and at the end of the day we\u2019re just not good enough to be one of those teams that people talk about,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to look ourselves in the mirror, make the changes necessary in the offseason and come back and turn things around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph suggested the addition of one or two players and improvement from the current group would be enough to get to the playoffs in 2012. With his contract expiring this offseason, it\u2019s unclear if Joseph will be a part of that squad.<\/p>\n
Of course in New England, even making the playoffs isn\u2019t enough to become part of the sports conversation these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a championship town and if we can\u2019t be one of those teams, we can\u2019t be one of those sports teams people talk [then] there\u2019s no point for me to be here,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cI\u2019m the team leader, I\u2019m the team captain and it\u2019s frustrating that people look upon me and I like the leadership role, [but] I need to carry more, I need to do more to get the team into playing into better shape\u2026 right now we\u2019re just not that team that people want to talk about that people want to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small crowd, reported at 9,111, showed up to watch the Revs\u2019 latest loss, but it was noticeably quieter than many games this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fans don\u2019t come out and support which is our fault because we don\u2019t produce enough or we don\u2019t put enough players out there that are exciting or good enough for them to come out and support,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cThat\u2019s our fault for not winning games to have support. You could hear a pin drop tonight and it\u2019s frustrating playing in front of a dead stadium, playing in front of people not supporting you and it takes a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely frustrating in terms of being out there; another loss at home,\u201d he added. \u201cI mean what can I say? It\u2019s just frustrating being a part of this right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Revs go into their final two games needing to win both just to avoid the first season in team history in which the team has failed to win at least seven games. The team currently sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, four points behind eighth place Toronto FC. Only the Vancouver Whitecaps are behind the Revs in the overall standings and they sit just two points back with a game in hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis franchise deserves better, these fans deserve better,\u201d said Joseph. \u201cWhat we\u2019re giving them tonight, what we\u2019re giving them this season is something that\u2019s lackluster and they don\u2019t deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revs captain believes the fans deserve better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[24,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/josephfeature5.jpg?fit=490%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6496"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31623,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6496\/revisions\/31623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}