Caldwell really struggling to find the game. Agudelo trying to show but he is like a mack truck trying to turn with the ball. Bunbury and Penilla are basically non factors. Lots of disconnect between the Revs. And Friedel said this team was further along than last year after pre-season? At least only 0-1 down.
Well, to give Friedel his due, we are certainly closer to "Blackburn!" now than we were one year ago.........
Full time, ends 1:1. NYRB and Columbus also draw 1:1, leaving TOR all alone at the top of the East so far (5 teams yet to play).
Man, another 75 minutes spent wondering why Juan Agudelo keeps getting on the field. Everytime he touched the ball he gave it away, there is no reason he should be on the field. I liked Gil, and I thought Zahibo looked a little more fit than last season. He might be the answer to the #8 position. Everyone else was up and down. Some were just kind of average all game (Caldwell, Bye, Anibaba) and some were playing on the extremes (Delamea 1st half vs Delamea 2nd half). And for all the ESPN+ problems, thats pretty par for the course for online services (I have experience with NBA league pass). They only give you out of market stuff. So if its a nationally televised game or yqou have a local provider (in this case NBC Boston for the revs) then you wont get the games.
Interesting. I don't get NBCSB either, so I was listening on the radio. When Agudelo, and later Caldwell, were subbed out, Mariner was singing their praises, saying how great they had played all game. Revs-colored glasses, I guess.
Another possibility . . . maybe Mariner knows something about the game and maybe he is right and the Big Soccer analysis is wrong.
Went to the watch party at Gillette. It was in the end zone club. Good time. My thoughts: Back line, Castillo was very active and added significantly to the attack. Made some good defensive plays but also seemed to be mia at times. Anibaba looked like he was chasing the game. Too many long clearances. Delamea was having a tough time with Badji (why can’t we get players like that. He played for the Boston Rams and trained with the REVs during that summer.) His intelligent header created Gil’s goal. I thought Bye played pretty well. Zahibo did win some balls but took a lot of plays off pissing off teammates. I don’t understand why he started in front of Caicedo. Gave the ball away a lot. Caldwell played his standard smart but unobtrusive game. Made some good defensive plays and positioned himself well. Bunbury didn’t add much to he game. Often tried to do too much when better options were available. Panilla like Bunbury seemed invisible in the first half. In the second half he was much more involved and gave Dallas some problems. Gil looks like he is going to be the kind of playmaker that has been missing for a long time. Very composed on the goal and his free kicks were good. Agudelo was Agudelo. Fairly active but not very effective. Fagundez, Caicedo and Jones had no impact on the game. Knighton was good for the most part. Had a couple of questionable decisions but he did come off his line well on multiple occasions. I’ll take a draw. Better than I expected.
I keep wanting to like Caldwell. He seems to know hat he is supposed to do, and he always works his butt off tovbe were he thiks he needs to be. I just wish he was anywhere near skilled enough to be a professional soccer player Something i should also note: for he people who wanted to use ESPN+. If you can trick your internet into thinking you arent currently in the GBA (like by using a VPN) then you wont have to worry about being blacked out due to a local broadcast
Well.....maybe we can see for ourselves. Just a thought. When this game finally comes online to ESPN+, I will study it for myself. Thank you.
This game was a Tale of two halves. When a player gets a 1 on two plus the keeper you should never concede a goal. Bad marking by delemea. Penilla, Juan and bunbury were non factors. At times it seemed Gil was alone. Zahibo had a good game for the most part but seems to take time off. Castillo is wild. Not a fan of his constant slide tackles. I also don't think he connected well with Penilla. 1 point in the road is always good but clearly there is a need to upgrade CB. Anibaba and Delemea are backups in my opinion
On a similar note, the Rapids traded up in the SuperDraft to get local product Andre Shinyashiki. He rewarded them by scoring the tying goal in stoppage time yesterday.
I mentioned in the pre-season thread it looked like Gil wasn't get close enough to the goal to even get shots on goal. Loved to see him score on his Revs debut. That is what a DP should do. And should be great for his confidence.
Last year, the team did not develop as the season went on and were found out by the rest of the league. This was a decent first game in my eyes. It will be on the manager (mainly) to see that this is not the apex. We'll see.
I doubt this is the apex. The first game of a season is almost never the apex. The critical point is how our apex will compare to the other teams in the league. For they too are almost surely not at their apex right now [except for Toronto. This day is as good as their league standing is ever gonna get]
A mixed bag. Offensively, we seemed like a team of pickup players who had just met. Skills but no coherent plan. There was way too much dribbling into traffic when there were open players in space. Poor spacing so that passes went to Dallas or into touch when there should have been easy options. Gil clearly has skills and seemed to be looking for runs. Too bad his options seemed to be jogging aimlessly. Hopefully, this will improve with more time and games. Defensively, we limited Dallas’s chances better than I expected. The goal was a combination of Delamea being a step slow so he couldn’t cut off the far post and a very good shot. I couldn’t tell if Knighton should have done better, but when the ball comes off the bottom of the post you have to give some credit to the shooter. Otherwise, Knighton wasn’t terribly busy and didn’t have to stand on his head to keep the ball out. Not bad for our first game. Overall, it was nice to see Gil score in his first match and I’ll take the point I didn’t expect.
Put me down in the 'not impressed with Zahibo' crowd. I would really like to know what his pass success rate was. He turned the ball over way more than anyone else I think and at that position, that can't be the case. I also liked Gil, I hope the rest of the team can play up to the mental level -- we had a lot of give and goes, or passes to someone where the passer and receiver were on different pages; usually only off by a step or so, but still not good enough. Castillo was also a bright spot I thought. Reason for some optimism. Not saying they are good enough for the playoffs, but they look like they will be a better team than last year.
With one game done, we see the Revs for what they are: a bad, dull team that relies heavily on fouling, and counts a lucky 1-1 draw as a success. Their starting lineup returned nine of 11 players from last year's unsuccessful squad, and the two new players represent modest upgrades at best. I'm not sold on Carles Gil. I think he's a good notch or two below, say, Higuain or Kaku or Valeri. (Or, perish the thought, Lee Nguyen.) If the new Penilla doesn't set the league on fire, the Revs are in trouble.
Interesting that the opinions are mixed. I actually felt somewhat reassured by this outing. The Friedel Revs of last year had lost their belief by the end of the season. I felt belief in this game. It looked like they had spent the entire off-season working on defensive cohesion, because that's the one thing that looked impressive, and for me, that was more than I expected. The downsides are nothing new. Bunbury may be worthwhile making runs into the box, but he still can't pass or receive the ball. Neither, apparently, can Zahibo, who is a card threat to boot. Not impressed with Bye. The centerbacks have more heart than skill. Caldwell doesn't give the ball away much and covers a ton of ground, but isn't creative. Right now, the only creative player is Gil - Please count me as a fan. I thought Agudelo also looked lively. So surprise! We look like a gritty team that won't score many goals and against good teams, we are going to spend a lot of time in our own end. Please sir, may we have another DP? A scoring threat?
Thanks, didn't know that was available, though it is an 'index' vs. straight pass success. That looks like a HORRID rating for Zahibo....the worst, by far, of anyone on the pitch. I looked at the other seven games from yesterday and only 3 other players ranked lower than Zahibo. That is a HORRID game he had. Interesting that Gil ranked pretty well. I didn't do any comparison to all the other games, but over 500 is a good score. Not great - but very good.
Whoscored has a slightly different opinion. I dont think Zahibo was perfect, but he seemed more lively as part of the press, and actually threatened to play dangerous passes to attackers. He also was loose with the ball, but I liked the improvement from last season. I agree that Bunbury and Agudelo looked bad. Penilla was active (6 tackles, 3 dribbles, 2 shots, 2 key passes), but was loose with his touch. Diego came on and didnt improve things (and why was he the striker?). All of them routinely dribbled into cull de sacs and had the ball taken off them.