PBP: 2018 Match Day #1: Union v. New England Revolution, March 3, 2018 p/d/p

I'd feel a lot better with a second goal.

DOOP.

CJ doubles the lead.

 

Hope teams don't take advantage of Fabinho's (lack of) speed. Otherwise a nice outing.

 

That went well.

 

The win was great, 3 points is great... but this was also a short handed bad revs team that wasn’t playing their strongest lineup... should have won by much more.

A better team would have destroyed our back line and CJ can’t leave those opportunities on the table.

Jesus was it was cold, thank god they won, I’d be pretty disgruntled if they didn’t.

 

Ok, the Revs suck and I think there were parts of that game that wasn’t great soccer but the Union won playing three homegrowns, four draft picks, and a player singed from their USL affliliate. That’s kind of nuts.

 

This take makes me feel better. I left the stadium feeling that we're at least not the worst team in the conference.

 

There were some great long passes tonight. That will be out bread and butter this year. We were rusty in front of goal but I'm feeling good that we created as many chances as we did.

 

Yeah but its not like we were playing some kind of B squad. This is likely to be our lineup for the rest of the year.

In other words: it won't get any better for us, but the competition won't get much worse either.

 

Fontana wasn’t overly impressive imo, Bockal will presumably be better, so there’s that.

Best news of night was Trusty’s performance.

 

Accam was pretty electrifying every time he touched the ball, Burke was a beast with a soft touch, Blake is still fantastic, and Borek wasn't even on the field yet. I'm feeling optimistic.

 

Fun to watch...

21 shots

Teenagers calm on the ball under pressure

Rookie center back raises his hand for the offsides, doesn't get it, looks at the ref for a full second then runs and performs a perfect slide tackle to deny the forward even an attempt at a shot

Another rookie spin moves a veteran defender on the end line, crosses a ball so perfect even the forward who missed 3 sitters earlier in the game can score

Are you not entertained?

 

Umm...not really. Picault is out until April, Ilsinho is injured, and Dochal didn't play tonight.

I Agree, though let's be honest, he didn't have a whole lot of defending to do tonight. The Revs were bad, really bad.

Yes, and I was entertained.

The Good:
Trusty was very good and confident with his feet. Also poised and confident in the few times he was tested by the Revs "Attack."

Burke showed well.

Home Growns played.

Bedoya was all over the field

Herbers looked good

Jack Elliot, though we knew that

Andre Blake, and it looks like he worked on his distribution too!

David Accam

The Bad:

The revs, obviously

CJ's finishing

Fontana, despite his goal, didn't really look to get involved enough for a No. 10. That's likely his age, and that should come with experience though.

The fullbacks are sloooooow

What happened to Andrew Farrell? Or maybe, MLS has improved to the point that being big and athletic isn't enough anymore......that's not necessarily a bad thing....

Revs CB's....yikes

That wind in the second half.....Not the coldest home game by any stretch, but cold none the less.

 

Simpson looks to still be himself but I was impressed by Burke. Didn’t expect him to be as fast as he was out there.

Great game for the Academy too. Dream debuts for the two teenagers.

 

Yeah, opened my MLS Live app on my AppleTV and there it was. I wish it was like that all the time. I hope the ESPN+ product gets delayed and delayed.

As for the game, I think they looked pretty good. The Revs are an absolute mess, so I don't want to get too hyped, but the Union came out against the competition on the field and played well.

The scoreline should've been much wider. But I think CJ gets at least some of those in most games.

The recklessness of the Rev backline. Astounding.

I must say, I don't feel hopeless heading into the next string of matches.

 

The Revs beat the Revs as equally as the U did.

To me, game turned on that Trusty tackle on the breakaway in the box. Revs score there and it’s a different game.

CJs finishing was like me on FIFA. I’m still not certain he scored and it wasn’t a deflected OG. Fontana buries an empty netter. Good for him. He’ll be Wally Pipp’d by Dokken. He’s a “10” in a play defense for a road draw way, not a “we need a goal now” way.

Only thing worse than NE CB play was their fullback play. Long diagonal crosses found our wingers alone in acres of space. If the wind didn’t knock down so many we would’ve had numbers in the box for even more missed CJ sitters.

 

I don't think Picault and Ilsinho are going to significantly improve the level of play. Dockal is a question mark still, but my expectations are low.

 

I had to use Internet Explorer and it didn't need a username. It would not work in Chrome.

 

Dockal is a question mark, but common sense suggests he’ll be better than Fontana. (He could bust, but I think the odds on him being so much of bust that he’s worse than an 18 yo HGP are pretty damn low)

Fafa is def an upgrade over Herbers, but yeah not massive, I’ll agree with that.

 

Not sure why everyone seems a bit understated on Fontana. I came away impressed with the poise he showed as an 18 year old academy player starting his first MLS match. It seemed that the game didn't flow through him due to tactical plan. It was mostly sending the ball forward to CJ and working the ball down the flanks. He was calm in the middle, held the ball well and did a pretty good job with distribution. He may never be a prototypical #10 type, most likely a box to box type with an ability to finish. Bedoya is already 30, so maybe he ends up replacing him in that role in a few years. Really happy with Trusty as well. He looks like he has put on some bulk. His passes forward did not always work out, but he is confident on the ball and was obviously given the go ahead to send it forward. Simpson was terrible. It's painful to watch. He doesn't fit the system whatsoever. Are we stuck with him next year too?

 

The game not flowing through him is exactly why I wasn’t overly impressed... it was as if they were working around him most of the game, not with him... I guess I just wanted to see more of a commanding presence, I want a 10 to be the Center piece. I still sort of feel like he’s better suited as an 8 and not the 10... I agree he really should be Bedoya’s understudy.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t a good performance, but I just don’t think it was the right deployment for him. (But he wasn’t seeing the field over Bedoya so whatever)

 

Considering Dockal is an international player for a second-tier European nation, I think that is as good as it gets for the Union. My expectations are high.

 

Come open cup time I don’t think I’d object to lineup like this in the first round (just for the fun of it)

Burke
Fafa - Najem - Epps
Jones -Fontana
Real - Trusty - Makenzie - Gaddis
McCarthy

 

Fontana was pretty good in the first half but faded quickly. Not a bad performance but I woudn't expect him to be a permanent fixture.

 

"High" high or "Union" high expectations?