6.30.18 @ N.E. Rev Game Thread

Right after the game he was seen entering the Brit Embassy seeking asylum

 

I'm biased, of course. But I'd say the penalty on Mattocks was legit. He was trying to hold position and was clattered in to from behind. He was facing away from goal at the time, and I generally hate those, but there you are.

I thought the penalty on Fisher was wrongly decided. The ball was clattered through his legs and he was trying to turn and maintain position. At the same time, the NE player grabbed the back of his head and pulled down, using his neck for leverage and preventing him from turning. Fisher, still trying to maintain position fell into the path of the NE player, tripping him. There was, first and foremost, hand to head contact. My rulebook says that's a foul on NE.

I'm just an internet nut, so there's probably a good reason that's not a foul, but I'm awaiting the explanation.

 

I thought Fisher tugged his arm before that, but I'd have to watch it again.

 

Not overturned by VAR good chance it was the correct call

 

As much as interns get banged on here, the Wapo has a sports writing intern named Emily Giambalve who did the work on last night's game. Good job,

Also good job to DCU's VP of all things who did the best work I've seen from her ever last night. What? She wasn't there? Well I stick by my first comment she finally got the hang of sideline propaganda and stayed home.

 

As noted, there was a tug on the arm. Fisher lost position and sort of threw himself forward rather than moving his legs. Sure, both players got tangled up, but if you're a defender and you go to ground in the box, don't be surprised if the call goes against you. The issue really isn't the call, the real issue is how this FO managed to completely ******** up the defense on this team. There isn't a player out there when healthy, except maybe kinda sorta Mora, who is anywhere near competent. Instead of "we win trophies" the motto should be "we leak goals."

 

When you say the FO f—ed up the D, I assume you meant they did nothing to endure we had 4 or even 1 competent players to put on the field as starters.

 

Yep. They acquired Brillant and then much later Fisher for depth and Mora out of desparation. Remember, this crew had NDL penciled in as a starter on the right side of defense to start the season. The “ideal” lineup for these clowns would have been Kemp, Brillant, Birnbaum and NDL. Coupled with a new GK, does anyone think that’s enough to “win trophies?”

 

I’m with you. I think the GK situation with Ousted is sufficient, but the team came into this year deluded to think NDL was an MLS starter, fairly well known questions about Kemp’s health along with Birnbaum’s down year & leadership flaws. And then they too a classic bargain rack flyer on Brilliant. Mira was another stereo typical DCU move, trying to pick up a lotto ticket in Costa Rica. Picking up Fisher just confounds me.

I will say that I have been wrong about Mattocks, but he’s another classic DCU story. Unwanted elsewhere and we got him to perform. Although I think we overpaid a tad and he still wages too many chances. I wouldn’t count on him repeating it next year.

 

A bargain rack flyer in Brillant was a logical pickup, really. He's started. We expected Kemp to be back shortly into the season, OA was earning a lot of praise in the preseason, and for as bad as we all thought DeLeon was, we've given up 17 points in the 10 games he's started, and 9 in the 3 that he hasn't. There was a lot of reason to believe this year's defense would be an upgrade, at least.

Fisher was a stopgap - we didn't have enough healthy bodies and we hadn't wrapped up Mora yet.

Mora's in a different category. He can actually play the position of left back, and is worth his salary. I'm not saying he's good, I'm just saying he's an MLS quality LB - there just aren't that many great ones.

And it should be said, we're playing an 18 year old DM in front of the back line. For all his strengths, his biggest weakness is defending too deep and wide when the ball goes out wide. He ends up ball watching, doubling the defenders in the line and is out of position to see, let alone intervene, with attackers stationed at the top of the box. I've been waiting to see improvement on this front, and it's been slow in coming. So slow, I'm beginning to think I'm the idiot. Which is entirely possible. Maybe I'm seeing something that isn't there.

But all this is to say, the CBs are meh-plus. And meh-plus can only deal with so many issues at one time. I think if Durkin corrected this tomorrow and we got a NT quality RB, we'd probably stop the worst of the bleeding. A CB that would start over either Brillant or Birnbaum would be awesome, too. But, seriously, RB.

Props to Robinson. He didn't look entirely comfortable doing it, but he didn't panic, got forward a few times, and did the job. He's a soccer player.

 

I'm trying to see it. ((2:54 in) If it's there, it was so garden variety, Penilla wasn't obstructed in the least...? The reason Fisher doesn't "move his feet" is because Penilla pulled him off balance by cranking on his head. If Penilla doesn't do that, Fisher's able to turn and maintain position. I'm baffled that didn't at least trigger VAR.

 

Thanks for the link. On second viewing, there wasn't much there, tough call.

 

At the end of the day, these are the kinds of calls that don't go your way when you're a bad team. And that's where we are right now. The back half of 2016, its the Revs the bitching about a missed PK call, but its 2018 instead.

 

Silly me, I thought that's what VAR was supposed to fix?

 

Sorry, the player was Andrew Farrell, not Cristian Penilla, who took the PK. I can't read.