Anyone remember the epic 6-0 game against New England in 2009? We scored all of our goals after minute 53, and all on the same goalkeeper: Brad Knighton, the same guy in the net for the Revs tonight.
Shame to get scored on on a set piece given for a non-foul on a NE player already falling down (unless I misread that replay).
Onuoha was beaten pretty easily up the line there, while Herrera made a great recovery run and slide tackle.
Luke has had a pretty terrible game if I'm going to be honest, some decent breakups, but awful passing and lost his mark on the goal.
I didn’t want to be the negative one on his return, but I have noticed a number of poor one-touch pass attempts from his foot and head.
LSilva has hit 2 right to Knighton tonight. His other 2 were well struck though. As I wrote this he couldn’t control a great pass to him and blew another chance.
Unfortunately couldn’t control that ball. What really ticked me off was him standing there with his arm raised for a handball for so long.
That bears repeating and tells serious truths about how badly New England's midfield played. It was also a seriously ugly game. NE was hacking RSL players down from behind every 30 seconds.
Is there a remotely good angle that shows he actually committed a foul? I couldn't see anything. But, our kid was being a bit loud and obnoxious, so I couldn't hear the commentators.
Well that was as much fun as I have had at Rio Tinto in a long long time. I am going to eat some crow here because Baird is pretty damn good. I was pretty down on him early this season but not anymore, kid has speed great touch and a hell of a lot of heart. Luke was just like the Luke we know, super high energy but not always on target. New Center back did pretty well, with Glad and Silva maybe time to look for a quality number nine. Side official on the east side flat out sucked! Did I mention that was a hell of a lot of fun?
Nedum Onuoha managed to play 90 minutes at center back without completing a pass forward. Is this all that unusual? I mean it seems unbelievable to me but I don't always go looking for stats after games, so maybe this isn't that crazy.
He passed back to Nick a lot but he was under a lot of pressure when he did. A couple of times I thought he was going to be dispossessed before getting rid of the ball.
I know we are all waiting on 15 for a full report, so just a couple of quick thoughts about what is likely to have been the last home game of 2018. - RSL missed Luke way more than I expected. He still has his shortcomings - not fast, small, fairly poor in possession. But he more than makes up for it by understanding who he is as a player. He is a high energy, forward-moving, attacking minded disrupter. Was his passing % fairly low? Yep. Was that because he was passing forward most of the time and putting NE under pressure? Absolutely. Frankly, if RSL had a 9 playing yesterday who moved faster than the tides, he could have completed even more. Add on the positive effect that Luke had on his teammates. He and Nick B KNEW they would be working hard and busting up everything in the middle. Then you finally add in the effect that Luke's effort had on the home crowd, and naming him as player of the game was actually a no-brainer. As a fan at that game, I felt proud to get to root for a player playing with such heart. - Which all leads to a thought. Petke has preached that he wants to play a high press creating immediate opportunities. Unfortunately, 5 of the 6 starters who didn't play yesterday (KB, Plata, Sava, Rusnak and Glad) and one who did (Kreilach) AREN'T GOOD AT IT!! Beyond what you saw from Luke and Nick B working their socks off, Baird was very honest defensively and Bofo at least pretended to be. With the "starters", KB and Kreilach are slow, Plata and Sava are small and uninterested, Glad contains and doesn't win balls early, and Rusnak knows his effort would be wasted because most of the rest of the team won't work hard with him. This season, once Petke went with his "starters", he lost the ability to play his preferred system and instead had to play counters from balls won in the defensive 1/3 and possession, except for those moments when Sunny won balls early. Petke has a lot of personnel vs tactics decisions to make this off-season. - Finally, someone explain to me why Luke, post back surgery, still looked more fit than many of the "starters" have looked all season. My impression is that the training staff is looking to get the team to a certain level. May I propose that the staff needs to raise the 'level" to where Luke keeps himself. We've heard for awhile that KB is the leader of this team. Perhaps he is. Last night we were all reminded that last year Luke was the HEART of the team...and he was sorely missed this season.
So I saw the starting lineup and as I watched the game I still didn't realize Luis Silva was playing. He was basically invisible for most of the game and blew the chances he got. I've always thought that he could be a decent fit somewhere in our lineup, but I just don't see it happening anymore
Funny Silva moment from the1st half. RSL was rotating the ball around the back and We-Need-Him took a nice first touch and played a beautify ball over the top of what would have been the weak side of NE's defense into huge space. Unfortunately the "forward" at that moment on the right who should have been running by himself was Luis. Luis didn't even move and looked at We-Need-Him like he had lost his mind. LOL
I've actually been quite critical of Luke in the past due to his obvious shortcomings. But that was VERY funny.