One other stat that stood out: Kei Kamara took 6 shots (4 on net). I went back to check, and not one Revs player had as many as 6 shots in a game all season. One of Kei's shots lead to the CK that created the first goal. He also made a run into the box that drew two defenders on Femi's goal. Based on the extremely small sample size of one game, I give this trade a thumbs up so far.
Lee up against Robbie Rogers in the first round of GOTW voting: http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/05/15/att-mls-goal-week-week-11-voting
I liked Agudelo's performance as well, I like how, when he is "on", he brings an unpredictable element like nobody else in the squad, though I would also say that for the money he is on, he should have been "on" more often than he has been, but hopefully he's found his form, and can keep it going. After scoring or creating a goal in each of the past 3 games, I'd think he'd have to be in the lineup again next game. I was not expecting to see him there, though with both Smith and JoGo not even mentioned as questionable on the injury report, while Watson was, I would not have expected to see Rowe in the back. When you say you expect a 3 man rotation when Teal gets back, did you mean 4 for the 2 spots - Rowe, Teal, Diego, Juan - or did you mean 3 guys rotating for one side, while Rowe gets the other spot, either due to Heaps apparently believing him to be our talisman who has to be out there every game, or due to him having incriminating pictures of someone high in the organization, either Heaps or someone higher? In general, as others have said, I too was quite pleased with the game, though I'm not going to get too excited until we can have a complete game against a better opponent. It seems like, no matter how bad it seems we might be getting, there's always Chicago there to remind us it could be worse, which is awfully charitable of them, it should be said.
Yeah, the whole Chicago situation is pretty sad. I went over there last week to see what they might be saying about the game, and they don't even bother with pre-game threads. You KADs think that some of us are negative, but there are more threads criticizing the owners than those that talk about the players. Granted, from what I know of their ownership situation, it sure seems justified, but that is one sorry-ass team in so many ways. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
I have Comcast and live in Woburn, and it wasn't listed as blacked out for me as far as I could tell, and seems to have recorded fine (I went to the game, but set it to record on Friday I think, when I wasn't sure if I could go). Do the other people who saw this live in NH, or in Mass. near Nashua?
I live in Keene. Time Warner had it listed as blackout, but they showed it live. Gee, a menu from TW that didn't match the programming, who could imagine that!!
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the types and categories of worries/concerns/complaints/shortfalls of Chicago and a few other teams as compared to the key shortcoming of the Revs as espoused by the NNNs, and then those same items looked at from a duration/longevity/recurrence perspective. A sort of NNN Equivalence perspective. For some teams there may be periods where it gets very very bleak on a number of fronts, but some or all areas improve in a relatively short term. There may be other teams with the same bleak outlook, but that persists over a longer period and/or recurs frequently even if there are short teaser respites in between. Then there are teams who never have to look into the abyss, never spend time in the void. Good to be them.... Because I was thinking the same about Chicago as Tom -- they're in a world of hurt right now, enough that one could actually feel for them. But then I thought about the fact that they have had real periods of decent fortune -- of having DPs, have had a new stadium, etc. - and thought, gee, are they actually overall better off, or worse off, than other teams, including Revs, when viewed over a longer time horizon? Not sure....
I dunno, their situation is pretty bad. Their owner, Hauptman, is a vulture, um, I mean venture capital guy, so all he does is look for investments that he can buy on the cheap and sell at a massive profit a few years later. That's what those guys do. And certainly investing anything in the club is simply out of the question. Whatever you want to say about Kraft, he more or less breaks even, so occasionally he can throw some money at a top player like Jones or Kamara who might actually make the team better. None of that is happening over there. In fact, that is one of their memes, that a few years ago he said he'd spend "Keene money" on bringing in a DP. So far, he's failed on Jones and Drogba, two guys who have gone on to make a huge difference with other teams. That must be a real kick in the nads to them.
I may be a NNN on the revs sometimes but would consider Chicago the new Chivas USA. Yes, they have a 10 year old SSS but it's a POS. I was there the year it opened for the MLS All Star game and it was nothing special even then - just a hunk of concrete dropped in the middle of an industrial park a 10 minute shuttle ride from the nearest train station down by Midway, south of downtown. In fact, it's a great example where building a SSS doesn't mean shit if you have a bad owner, poor management and it's in a lousy location. The revs are far better off in Gillette than Chicago is in Bridgeview. If you want to feel for anyone, feel for the Bridgeview taxpayers that paid for that stadium and now have to live with their decision. They're shitcago they deserve it
I really liked what I saw from Kamara. Especially with his combination play. Can't wait to see where this goes as they get used to each other. The other player who impressed me was Caldwell. I thought that was his best game of the year so far. He seemed to be in the right place to disrupt what little attack Chicago ad before they could get going. Also, that perfectly weighted one time pass to set up Lee was a thing of beauty. When I saw Rowe was playing as a back it worried me but he held his own. The best chance the Fire had was Farrell's header that force Bobby to make a diving save.
There were plenty of times when Rowe was pushed forward enough that they were essentially in a 3-5-2. I wonder if that was Heaps' intent - if Chicago kept sitting back. Against that weak a team, I really wanted to see a 3-0 pasting, but I'll take 2-0. Kamara and Nguyen took turns being too unselfish - each setting up the other when they had great chances too shoot. It looked to me like Kamara was working real hard to make a good first impression. I thought Femi was fantastic - making stuff happen everytime he was around the ball. And, great sign of growth - his goal was exactly the same as the chance he muffed that would have tied up LA. Speaking of that 2nd goal, I'm not convinced that Agudelo was passing it to Femi - both he and Kamara were pretty open in the same area; I'd guess he was aiming for Kamara but put it behind/over him a bit. One of the real weaknesses of the Revs is fighting for high balls. Between Diego and our forwards, we generally concede almost anything in the air in the attacking end. It was great to see Kamara, not only battle for those, but win more than his share. And, the same thing happened with Femi - all of a sudden we were fighting for all the balls that Diego conceded. I think Diego's got to up his game to stay in this lineup. Being small isn't an excuse for not getting stuck in - he's offering very little resistance if the ball isn't in his possession. I don't think Femi can keep up that level of effort for 90 minutes, so I'm not sure he should be starting, but, wow, does he make things happen!
Hey, not sure if anyone else mentioned it, but VS Chicago, there was a Kraft sighting. His Magesty and descendant were both there. Wonder if it had to do more with wanting to check out their new player investment.
Beat me to it! I remembered this while mowing the lawn and thinking last evening. Never got online until now. But yeah. It was nice to see them giving the high-fives after the scoring.
I thought I spotted Bob Kraft on the field at StubHub after the LA match. I was a little far away to say for sure.
It was nice but also tempered by the assumption that they were only there out of curiosity to see Kamara, just as they were when J.J. joined the team. To me, 2014 was the last Krafty sighting.
Not bad for a player we picked up deep in the draft. I know those 2nd round and below picked mostly fail to be anything but practice fodder but they are always worth a serious triel and ever once in awhile a gem like this kid pops to the surface. His life is a great story and breakout as a useful sub with an upside makes it even more exciting. Exciting
The thing what has me perplexed is why he's even a sub. We seem way more dangerous when he's out there!
His skill set is far more suited to being a sub. He's an all energy kind of player, who can come in and wreak havoc, which I don't think he could do for a full 90, or even 75. I also would say he's more of a hustle guy than a skill guy, perfect for the role of late game sub to come in and create problems for the opposition.
Hopefully he will evolve over time into a more complete player. I'm thinking there haven't been too many guys who have done that. Most of the good young players who have made a mark (Fagundez, Caldwell, Farrell, and even going back as far as Dempsey) were already pretty accomplished when they arrived. In 5 years time, it would be nice to see him be a good MLS player, rather than the next Nyassi who never got past that "project" level.
I agree, but I think that's really a function of him coming from four years playing NCAA rules soccer, which is enough to make it hard to build up to a full 90 minute performance. I don't remember any Revs player besides Farrell who was able to slot in and start immediately after college and go a full 90, and I feel like that's more because defenders don't get hot-subbed in and out of games in college as often as attacking players. I think once Femi has had more than a half of a season in MLS, he'll be able to go deeper into games. I also think that NCAA needs to change their rules to give American college players a chance in MLS. Ridiculous that players have to play three to four years in college under a completely different set of rules, and then their only shot at a pro career comes from a league that is increasingly less dependent on the draft even occurring. Have any post-college players in MLS had an impact for their teams beyond Femi, Jordan Morris and Rosenberry in 2016? Maybe Vincent, if the Fire didn't suck? Most of them are riding the bench like McCrary.
Beat me to it. He's just learning his trade. He didn't come out of a semi-pro environment like a D1 school or an academy. We don't know yet what'kind of a soccer brain he has, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
I do think that the NCAA should change some rules, I wish they'd have D1 go to more limited subbing, with no re-entry, along with the movement about getting the D1 season to be both fall and spring. But I'd also point out that it's people who go pro via other means also have to go through a process of getting used to go up to the next level, this is not something that is exclusive to kids who came through American colleges. It's rare to see someone coming from a lower level, be it youth team to full team or lower tier to upper tier, to just walk into the team and start. There have been plenty of guys in the past couple of decades who've played college soccer here, and gone on to have pro careers elsewhere, other than MLS.