Pre/In/Post: Revs @ TFC 6/23 5:30pm

In the first half, Benny seemed to be getting frustrated with a number of teammates and their false runs. There was tons of space behind the TO back line, which he was looking to take advantage of, but guys seemed to be starting runs but then letting off. Another thing that was probably frustrating him was his own back line, which was playing boot ball for the first 20+ minutes for no logical reason.

Regardless of the reasoning, I'm not a huge fan of his, at-times, entitled behavior. At this point, whether he likes it or not, Benny IS an MLS player (as well as someone who has seen his last minutes for the Nats), and he should embrace a leadership role with this side. I can understand his frustration but until he's playing flawlessly himself, he really needs to adjust his attitude.

This is where I am with this. It's not like Benny's passing or shooting has been anything impressive lately. He has been considerably less valuable than Nguyen. I think you are right about the runs as well. If he had a forward - let alone 2 forwards - to pass to, I think he (and the rest of the mids) would be a lot happier.

Doesn't stop them from playing Robben.

from the post game report:

"The left side of the Revolution lineup – Lee Nguyen at left midfield and Chris Tierney at left back – completed a combined 89.4 percent of their passes this evening … Tierney completed 60-of-68 passes for an 88.2 percent rate, while Nguyen completed 50 of his 55 passes (90.8 percent rate) … together, the duo was 110-for-123 in their passing on the evening"

Tierney also had the lovely free kick over (around?) the wall, and then scored the game tying goal.

Pretty good evening of work for a guy who isn't a starting quality MLS back.

You might want to look up the definition of sample size, consider it's meaning, and then go back and edit your post

As a Tierney hater I'll admit he played reasonably well (excluding his crosses). That still doesn't mean it makes up for all the other poor performances he's put in this year (pretty much every single other game besides the Galaxy one).

This was a game that the Revs clearly should have taken advantage of. Instead their back 4 let them down. Might have been Soares' worse performance of his career. He looked stupid on both goals. This game is another reason why a CB signing is a must. Second goal by Toronto seemed to wake the Revs up. Another easy chance for 3 that they blew. This is not a good team, its an OK team and still several players from a contender

Lechner played well. His crossing is a step up from Alston thats for sure. His lack of speed could be an issue

Disagree. San Jose, DC, NYRB and Vancouver all have better mids, in addition to the initial 4 you named.

There is no way NYRB and Vancouver have a better midfield than us. Vancouver has a plethora of options up front and the best backline in the league, but their midfield is average at best. NYRB have a ridiculously effective striker pairing where Henry creates for both Cooper and himself. SJ also rely heavily on their strikers.

DC you have a case.

San Jose? Are you trolling? Have you watched them this year? They can't keep possession to save their lives. Almost all their goals have come from Chavez and/or direct play bypassing the midfield.

DC? Sure they have great counter attacks, but they've pretty much lost the possession battle against every opponent this season not named Toronto. Possession isn't an indicator of success, but it is an indicator of midfield quality. They struggle to play out of the back because the only quality distributor they have is Perry Kitchen. Every other quality midfielder they have is an attacking winger.

New York and Vancouver are at least debatable, but even then, the gap in midfield quality isn't significant. I struggle to see how Benny would prosper on other teams if he cannot prosper with the Revs (unless crowd noise and atmosphere is the thing holding him back)

No need to edit -- he's a better player than people here give him credit for. No reason you should believe me. Or Jay Heaps.

I wondered if the stats might cause people to re-think the negative opinions of Tierney, but I guess not. Fair enough -- his bad completion percentage in earlier games didn't entirely convince me he was sub-par for MLS, because I thought it was more a system problem and that he didn't have good outlet options.

As for sample size, let's see? 68 attempted passes (an impressive number in itself -- and the MLS site has him attempting 87 passes!). 68 or 87 - either is a large enough sample to convince me Tierney was very much involved and can be pretty useful. What is the alternative explanation? Are you contending that he got lucky on 88% of his 68 pass attempts? That the goal was unimportant? That the free kick was lucky? How about the fact that neither of the Toronto goals came from his side-- does that not matter?

I think he's a solid MLS defender. You and lots of other regulars disagree. Okay. Onward.

Once again, he was fine against Toronto but he has been awful in many, many other games this season. One game isn't enough to declare he's a good left back, that's what LDD meant by sample size. If he does this consistently the rest of the season (which he won't) then we'll talk.

I thought they were awake most of the first half, dominating play and only giving up two chances -- which unfortunately resulted in two goals. It happens.

Looked to me like Revs had a decent first half (except for the score) and a very good second half. Changes were less a result of waking up and more that Heaps changed formations and brought in good subs whereas Toronto ran out of gas.

Not sure how you define "good" and "ok" but IMO, Revs look like a playoff bound team. After the 2-5-0 start, they've gone 3-2-3 (1.5 ppg). At that pace, they'll end up with 46.5 points. I think they are a pretty good team already, and I expect a few additions this summer.

I think the alternative explanation is that because we were playing TFC, the Revs (the defenders and the mids anyway) had more time on the ball than they otherwise would have. This fits with my feeling about CT, namely that he is a bright kid with heart and some skill, who will be fine (MLS fine, anyway) if left relatively unpressured. Stronger teams will know that he can be pressured to make mistakes, and can be beaten for pace. That doesn't make him a bad guy to have on the team. It does mean that as we look to build a champion, we will eventually want someone with more speed, more secure touches, and more ability to effectively overlap.
I'm fine with "Okay. Onward." though.

No, I was talking about earlier games. Tierney passed at 50-60% for the first 10 or so games this season. One good game doesn't vindicate your assertion that he's a good player.

If Tierney links up that well with his teammates against quality opposition going forward, then great, but until that happens the statistics are overwhelmingly on my side.

And I'm fine with your analysis -- I agree he has limitations. I just disagree with the "he sucks" stuff.

As a starter he does suck. If he was a rarely used utility bench player it would be a different story.

Question: How has a guy who sucks locked down a starting position?
a.) Heaps is such a bad judge of talent that he doesn't realize his LB sucks?
b.) Despite having some cap space available, Heaps can't find anyone anywhere who is better than "he sucks" to play LB.

Either of these might be true, but I think it is more likely that your assessment of Tierney is wrong.

I personally think it's option A with this particular scenario, because it wouldn't be terribly hard to go find someone who is better than him. We apparently have a statistician now and if Heaps saw his passing numbers (minus the last game because I know you'll point it out) he wouldn't be a guaranteed starter. I don't know what's going on with that, unless he's going the cheaper route and trying to groom Tierney into a left back who doesn't lose the ball constantly rather than sign someone better.

The fact Heaps played with him and likes him might be a factor as well, because both Shalrie and Tierney have had poor seasons but neither have been benched once.

did you really just ask this question?

Yes. And cml gave his answer. Do you have something to add to the discussion?

As a color man last season, Jay repeatedly stated that he preferred Tierney as a mid and at season's end, he pointed out LB as one of the positions where the Revs needed to upgrade. If Jay sees Tierney as the LB of the future, I doubt they would've picked Borman (a TFC castoff) in Stage 1 of the re-entry draft and they certainly wouldn't have drafted Polak. Tierney is just holding a space until they upgrade. When/how they upgrade is anyone's guess - LB isn't the easiest position to find quality.

Yeah, Zach Boggs must be decent because he earned a starting role under Nicol. Logic at it's finest.

Until this team fixes its issues with ball watching and missing marks on the back line, they aren't got to go very far