Should be a good indicator whether the home win vs SJ was a new coach bonus or whether Lapper is able to get results with this group on a more consistent basis. If course with Arena taking over it won't matter a lot in the longer term but given they won in Foxboro after a travel nightmare, I'd like some instant gratification.
Given all of the uncharacteristically good news lately, it is probably too much to expect a win today. It is great to be feeling optimistic again though.
Depends which Montreal show up on their dat they are one of the best in the league when they are off their easily one of the lackluster teams
All I can say is that Bruce is watching and forming opinions. Taking the day off may seal your fate!!!
Oh wow. We are all so jaded: this is comment #6 and the match has been over for hours. I guess one of a few sunny nice days will account for that, given the matinée game. Honestly, I have watched very little of the team this year after seeing how poor they looked early on. This is the first match I have watched live in probably two months (on TV I mean, not in person. Haven't been to Foxboro in years now). A fair enough goalless draw. Whatevs. While there are shortcomings all over the pitch, lord do they need a finisher. If they had a lazy-but-does-what's-needed / me-first striker type, they would be more of a threat. Granted you can't be a champion with that kind of player, but you could at least make the MLS playoffs.....
I thought Lapper got almost everything right today. Montreal was aggressively attacking Castillo on the left and he was an obvious liability, so he made a quick sub. His replacement, Jones, was a bright spot on the pitch. His 2nd sub, Fagundez, was invisible for his hour on the pitch. His replacement was Buchanon, who I thought picked up a knock vs Chelsea, pushed Agudelo inside and made the Revs attack even more threatening. The only issue was a lack of a scorer, like say JFC. Bunbury is great at punishing teams that try to play a high back line, but when a team sits back he doesnt really offer much attacking threat. He added to his "shot that went out for a throw in" total tonight when what the team needed was someone unafraid to take a shot
I’m pretty sure Lapper will get offers for a coaching position as soon as someone else is sacked in the year
Got a feeling Arena will want for of a "yes" man as an assistant. I think Lapper would be too much of a challenge for him. A Dave Sarachan type (but not Dave). I dont think many helped their case last night. Some hurt themselves. I think Teal's days are numbered. He's not a CF and is not what Arena wants. Others as well. I see a massive purge coming ASAP Guess Ill have to work on changing my picture here lol
Agree that Lapper made good decisions with his subs. A point away and a clean sheet (Thank you Jalil!) against a team that beat us 3-0 at home is very welcome. That said, the match was a serious throwback to MLS 1.0. Jones was our most threatening player by channeling Jamar Beasley and running very fast. OK, more skilled than Jamar, but mostly fast. The pitch was appalling and made clean play by both teams a challenge, but the quality of passing was atrocious. The Revs weren't winning second balls which isn't going to play well with Da Bruce. If passing was bad, finishing was worse. Teal hasn't endangered as many spectators as Khano did, but he may be approaching his shots for throw-ins numbers.
I would think it would be harder to have a shot go out by way of the touchline than the goal line, but Teal manages to make it look easy. Yesterday's was amazing... he was 3 feet from the goal! Gil is way better than anyone on the roster... when finding another DP or 2 I've wondered if he is the #1 DP to build around, or would he actually be a better complement to a star? It's hard to make an assessment given the lack of talent on the roster. He's obviously talented, but how would he look on roster like Seattle, Toronto, or Atlanta?
4pts under Lapper!!!! OUT of the Basement! Bruce was right, we can only go up from here! Watched the game last night. While 1pt on the road is always good, neither team were impressive. Diego is definitely in a rut. You can sense the tension and frustration when he was subbed. I thought he was going to throw something
Maybe Diego needs to figure out where his game disappeared to? He is not the player he once was and he may not fit into da Bruce's plans if he doesnt figure it out? I wonder if he who shall not be named would have stayed if the recent changes had happened last year? His stock at LAFC has slipped since his injury.
They do - Juan Fernando Caicedo. He didn't play in this match as Lapper started Bunbury instead. You're right though, this match was begging for a Kei Kamara type to bag one and take the 3 pts.
Diego was pissy when he was taken off so maybe there's more to this story. If you have a bad attitude AND you aren't producing, you should not get minutes.
I was shocked when we weren't behind after the first half. We were a shambles defensively. If Montreal had a finisher, we could have been down 3 at the half. Much better in the second half. Lapper seems to not have any confidence in JFC for some reason. Fun game to be at though, gorgeous day for it.
Not sure what is going on here but really JFC has been the only person scoring from the run of play the past few games. Not sure why the hot foot was cast a side for Teal
Field looked horrible on TV. Jones for Castillo was a great coaching move and almost paid off fantastically with Jones' 80 yard run. How he had the oxygen left in his brain to pull off a nutmeg at full speed after that run was incredible. Evan Bush stopped what would have been a goal-of-the-season nominee. Anibaba MOTM, Jones #2. Gil was also pretty effective. Interesting to see that we got zero shots, blocked shots or key passes from the right side of the field. We must have been targeting Brault-Guillard and avoiding Lovitz. That key pass from Gil in our own half was what set Jones up on his run. The time on the pass was 36:11, the shot was 13 seconds later from the 6-yd box.
When was the last time we saw a sub come in the game and immediately make an impact? I could probably count on both hands going back to the start of the Heaps era it has been so infrequent. You have limited subs to use, and the past 2 coaches seemed to have so little tactical acumen that the idea of bringing on Player X for a lackluster Player Y because he saw a way to change the flow of the game has been a totally foreign concept.
Can I say that since we are in rebuilding mode, give Jones and Buchanan the starting jobs? I'm not impressed with Castillo - felt Rowe was a better left back than Castillo. Buchanan offers more already than Diego or Teal. Looking forward to the garage sale.
DeJuan Jones makes the bench: Team of the Week presented by Audi: Chris Wondolowski wows in Week 12 May 20, 2019, 3:09PM EDT Alicia Rodriguez
Rowe wasn't a better left back than anyone in the league but I agree with you on starting the rookies.
On the bright side, maybe they are a little more talented than they've shown over the past few weeks/months. On the down side, if they are more talented, then that means the roster is infested with guys who laid down on their coach and every single one of them needs to go.