Revs Offseason News, 2013

Glad Dan Kennedy isn't coming here. I remember when Chivas was here last season when Shalrie returned, Kennedy was awful.

 

Rihanna has almost the same hairstyle

 

Because it's totally rational to judge a player off of one game.

Let alone a game where his defense was, as was the case the majority of the time, non-existant. You must have watched a different game if you think any of the three goals were Kennedy's fault.



#1, Shitty defending to even let Sène get a shot off.
#2, Own goal by his defender
#3, Joseph gets caught in possession (surprise!) and Sène pounces. Kennedy gets a hand on it but the shot had a lot of swerve. Lots of keepers wouldn't have even touched that kind of shot.

 

One game, that's a pretty good sample size.

 

We're on the same page lately...

 

Well considering Chivas was even more of a train wreck down the stretch than the revs, it's not just that game where he sucked, that one just stuck out in my mind.

The point is, there were far better options than him and the revs did well today by drafting Soffner instead of going for a not very good MLS retread. I hope that Soffner proves to be decent enough to battle Shuttleworth in 2014.

 

I knew someone would be anal retentive enough to jump down my throat and assume incorrectly I was judging Kennedy based off a 1 game sample size. It's just an example, I realize it's one game, but all three goals he was at fault. I can dig up plenty more examples of why he's a poor goalkeeper if you'd like. Chivas had a shitty season, that usually has to do with the players on the field.

 

lol
Just watched the highlights to refresh my memory from the Fort about 15 yards behind Kennedy's goal for all 3.

Even if you want to put the first one on his defenders when Kennedy was clearly out of position, or the second goal when he misjudged the deflection (again positioning) that third goal was completely on the 'keeper. But I won't win this argument, I know that.

 

Please do.

 

Honestly, I'm not even trying to be snarky - you seriously consider Dan Kennedy a decent to above average MLS goalkeeper?

 

Yes. Clearly I'm not the only one, since he was an All-Star this year and finished second in the Goalkeeper of the Year voting.

 

Yes, absolutely yes. I think he's a top five goalkeeper in MLS.

 

Fair enough, I'm over it.

 

Strong draft gives Revs fresh start
January, 17, 2013
By Brian O'Connell | ESPNBoston.com

Carlisle: Analysis of Farrell pick
Jeff Carlisle
January, 17, 2013
ESPNBoston.com

 

Yes. Kennedy is a very good keeper. Seeing that would require someone to actually watch him play, not just judge him on a youtube video and the one time a year he comes to your home stadium.

 

I think that one of the things that some longtime MLS fans may be having a bit of trouble with, is how the game has changed recently. Even 3-4 years ago you could win in MLS with mediocre back lines. Maybe you couldn't win MLS Cup, but you certainly could make the playoffs. I think that all started to change with the DP player rules. As the quality of player, especially in attack (GBS, Henry, Donovan, Beckham, Morales etc...), began to rise year after year, and the playing style began to change, teams have been less able to be competitive with mediocre-to-bad backlines. Individual players are more often exposed by better attacking talent, and more intricate attacking systems. The game has also sped up quite a bit as a result.

So, in that context, and I could totally be wrong, some longtime MLS fans can look at a player like a Chris Tierney or McCarthy and think that they are adequate. Which, 5 years ago, they may have been. Now, more and more defenders are asked to be able to begin the attack inside their own 18. Opposing teams press much higher up the field, and expose players like McCarthy and Tierney, and even Soares, who have trouble dealing with the ball under pressure. They are alsolacking quite a bit on the defensive end as well, and now that teams are attacking with 5-6-7 players very often, a team like the Revs is often forced to drop 8-9 guys just to be able to cope with pressure, because some of their defenders cannot handle 1-on-1 battles or understand how to zone out certain attackers.

MLS has changed, and I'm glad Heaps and Burns at least seem to realize that. Hopefully the players are the right ones, and that they can utilize them in their system.

 

trust me, there are plenty who disagree with me, and most of the time they are right.

thanks for the condescending stamp of approval

 

4-3-3's make outside backs defend 1 v. 1 for 90 minutes. Can't have a non-defender/converted mid out there. DC found that out several times with Najar, good as he is at other things, and of course we did with Tierney.

A lot of teams are shifting CB-types (Anibaba, Josh Williams, maybe us with Farrell)out wide these days if they don't have true, natural defenders out there.

I do give Heaps credit that he seems to realize his attacking wingback concept is going to have to take a back seat to pragmatism.

Kevin Payne said something very simple about the rationale for TFC's rebuilt defense recently that applies to us as well: "We have to become a tougher team to play against."

 

MLS SuperDraft: Revs' Farrell not expected to carry load
January 17, 2013
Andrew Wiebe
MLSsoccer.com

 

This is a hugely important point.

It brings to mind a related issue, which will no doubt come up again. There was a BS exchange from last year when people were grousing about our team being relatively small, and vulnerable to being pushed around. I remember thinking that we can never again get tempted to making sacrifices in technique in order to be bulkier. As we rebuild, we should only take players on who have impeccable technique, and an age-appropriate soccer brain. The game moves way too fast now to have your first touch go too far or in the wrong direction.

 

That doesn't make them right. You're a numbers guy, right? The numbers say defensively we're average.

Then why doesn't that show up in the GAA? We're not dropping the whole team back defensively.

In fact, in most games we spent significant time behind and were actually pushing a lot of players forward to try to bulk up an offense that didn't perform in the final third.

Our outside defenders sometimes look bad, but they generally got the job done. Tierney is a favorite target, but it was extremely rare that he was primarily to blame for a goal.

Most of the goals we gave up came from poor marking or mental lapses on long balls into the box (often from miscommunication or confusion), or the failure of midfielders to track forward runs.

In standard 1v1 battles, we actually did quite well.

 

It's apparent that we are watching two completely different games.

 

Yeah he's watching the game on the field and then using data to support his position. Our defense was comparable with San Jose's last season in terms of goals conceded. We did need to improve the defense but now that Farrell is drafted, there should be enough competition along the back line. Bringing in Cisse (on paper) took care of problems at DMid and possession that you always harp on. The focus now should be to improve our conversion rate in the final third because timely scoring is where the actual problem lies with this team, if the goal is to make the playoffs.