Friedel talks after loss - interesting that he says he needed a spark, says people wanted them to make changes and they have made plenty of changes, but happy with players he has, and then does not answer a question at the end of the video. https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/ Can't get the video to imbed.
Not good enough indeed. There are a handful of players on the Rev team that would not start for any other team in MLS. 0.00 of the current Rev players would start on a a good team, including our highest paid player, Mancienne. Watching this game, I was having a flashback to The Truman Show. Every MLS season has the feeling of being pre-scripted, with the Revs playing the role of the forgettable team that the heroes play on their way to the championship. At least Heaps aspired to playing pretty, if losing, football. Friedel's game is equally futile, and brutal to watch.
Honestly, what the heck did they really do this offseason? They traded Rowe for Castillo. I have no problem with this. LB was a huge problem, and Rowe doesn't really fit Friedel's style. Arguably, they should have traded Rowe a lot sooner. The signed Carles Gil. No problem with this, either. Thought he looked good against Dallas; less so against Columbus, but he didn't exactly have a lot of help. They signed JF Caicedo. Hasn't played a minute. That's not really his fault, but for that signing to work, they'll need him to score at a much higher rate than he did in Colombia. We'll see if that happens. They brought in a small army of forwards/wingers from the college ranks. They've all seen some playing time, none were really impressive, and it's folly to count on any of them to make much of a difference. They resigned Juan Agudelo. One of the things I was actually looking forward to this winter was pulling the plug on the Juan Agudelo Experiment. Inconsistent, half the time he plays like he doesn't give two craps if the team wins or loses, and he hasn't been terribly productive in at least two years. And not only did they resign him, they gave him a f^&%ing raise!!!???!?!!! They have to use TAM/GAM to pay down the salary of a guy who wouldn't start for a single playoff team in the league. Let's now discuss what they didn't do... They didn't address the other central midfield position. Zahibo and Caldwell are reserves or spot starters. As the roster stands at the moment, either one or both of them have to play every week. They didn't address the defense in terms of either quality or depth. No worries, though... there's a chance that a kid who can't play for QPR is on his way to save the day. A reminder that both Kendall Waston and Ike Opara were traded this off-season for TAM/GAM. They didn't address the fact that they have three backup goalkeepers on their roster. They didn't cut loose enough dead weight. Gabriel Somi is a waste of money. He's a waste of an international roster slot, and he's a waste of a roster spot. He should have been sold/loaned/traded/waived/bought out/shot into the sun over the winter. I have no idea why he's still here. He's making $450,000. Same thing applies to Zahibo... Marlon Hairston was traded from Colorado to Houston this winter for like $150,000 in allocation money. He makes a third of what Zahibo makes, doesn't take up an international roster spot, and he's probably just as good, if not better than Wilf. He makes even more than Somi. If they had dumped Agudelo, Somi, and Zahibo, they'd have saved $1.5 million in salary, along with two international roster slots. And the team wouldn't be any worse than they are right now. I lost faith in Mike Burns long ago. I want to believe in Brad Friedel, I really do. But it's getting harder and harder with each passing week. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Right at the 45' mark, Castillo intercepts a ball and takes a long-distance shot which goes high and wide. Brad Feldman: "Castillo drives it just over the crossbar". All I could think of was this:
Gil had several long-range blasts into the stands, which prompted me to joke to the folks seated next to me that the Spanish downdrafts would have kept him on target.
Thanks! I stand corrected. In fairness, I think Gil is a good addition, and like Rowe, it would be interesting to see what he could do on a team with more attacking options. Was it just me or did it seem like Penilla was double-teamed for the entire first half? Like last year, nobody bothers covering Bunbury on the wing in the middle third.
Only saw a few minutes of the game however I did manage to see our million dollar center back get toasted on a cross. Then I saw him jogging back on the last goal has she got beat by zardes. This is the play of the highest paid center back in the league aren't you glad he's on our team?
I'm not really concerned with the fact that Mancienne stinks. I simply assume that the Revs have to pay extra to convince good players to come play on turf in a largely empty stadium located in the middle of a shopping center that's 15 miles away from being 15 miles away from civilization. I'm far more concerned with the fact that he seems to suck.
You can tell the Revs offense was anemic just by watching the highlights. Every Revs highlight ended as soon as the Revs got the ball into the final third (or with a shot that wasn't even close to being on goal).
Mancienne had no chance on that first goal, because Zahibo never got goal side of the server and let him drop in his cross with no pressure at all. If Mancienne plays his mark tighter, the guy could cut inside of him. ---------- We desperately need Luis Caicedo back - his energy, his quickness, his enthusiasm. Zahibo does some things well, but just doesn't show that energy or quickness. Caldwell was okay, but nothing exceptional. DMID is our weak point now. I thought the back line played quite well (although Castillo lost possession dribbling through the middle too often). Delamea and Mancienne dealt with the threats for the most part - and did well stepping up to intercept passes and start transitions. Agudelo - yeah, looks a little stronger, working harder to hold possession - but, in the end, we got what we always seem to get from him - no real production. Rennicks looked pretty overwhelmed, but stayed with it and made some good hustle plays. No doubt he'll get a little smarter in dealing with shoulder charges from veteran fullbacks as he gets more p.t.
I have always thought Mancienne was overrated. He totally lost his man on goal one..... was ball watching. Worst part is he made Zardes look good and that's all GB needs to keep him around on the Nats At the risk of being attacked here, I watched "He who shall not be named" play last night and continue to: a) be amazed at how good he is and b) Dont get how little credit he gets for what he provides. He doesnt even shoot anymore but does set up the "names" on his team over and over. Id be a little unhappy playing with them if I was him as they haven't seen a shot they don't like while he is often wide open for a pass that rarely happens. BF says we need a spark? I saw the spark we couldn't hold last night. Maybe he wanted out but if the Kraft's spent any time checking out why nobody wants to play her and the good ones leave when they can, we might have a crowd like both Altalta and LAFC pulled in yesterday. Couple that with other sparks playing in the Atlanta game Jeff L, Parkhurst, We have had good players but Burns drove them away. People dont want to come here and those that do, cant wait to leave. We hire bad players and inexperienced coaches that have no chance in weaving straw into gold. If the Kraft's paid attention to anything thats going on and started passing on where the nearest massage parlor is, maybe we too could have a real team here? We are 1 point above being at the bottom already. Next game just may just do it.
maybe, maybe not but on the second one he was clearly giving half an effort, he was beat and he decided screw it, its stoppage time so who cares
Partially agree but looking at it, a more athletic defender would have been able to jump and make some contact with the ball. Zardes had to lean down to head it Ultimately you get paid for results
I have no idea what makes up the Audi Index, or if it is at all a good indicator of the game or not. Just putting this out there: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...and-revolution-vs-columbus-crew-sc/audi-index Eight of the top 9 scores for the game belonged to Columbus. Only Mancienne (#3) made the top 9 for the Revs. Five Revs players had negative scores.
I agree that goal #1 is 100% on Zahibo. Mancienne makes the right run, at the right time, and most other CB arent getting to that cross either. The team needs to play 2 people who can actually play CM, instead of 0. Maybe 1 of them is Diego? Caicedo has seemed like 1 in the past. Mystery DP#2 damned well better be. Right now they have 0 presence in the center of the park, and thats just unacceptable
And what makes that one so frustrating is that Zahibo could have easily put some pressure on with a little more effort. I also saw a lot of times where defenders (and sometimes midfielders) would play the ball forward and then be walking back to position - as if their job was done. A team that puts the opponent under pressure has everyone ready to move up, interchange, make runs, etc. Thinking your job is to just get the ball up to the next 'line' is so '70's.
Couple more thoughts on the game: - the red-card call on Bye was a joke. Kudos for using replay to straighten it out, but IMO it wasn't even a foul, let alone a yellow. Bye went straight up for the ball, with elbow at his side, the crewer went for the snap-header at chest-level and his follow-through created the contact. In my book, that's one of the 'if you go low, you are putting yourself in danger' calls. Of course, MLS protocol (or referee pride) probably doesn't provide for changing it to a no-call. - Diego's penalty attempt wasn't great (wasn't that bad either), but Steffen made an incredible save on that one. I watched the replay several times and his reaction time is superb. I liked him from the first youth NT game I saw him in - he's the real deal.
I was standing next to an Englishman at the game and he couldn't believe what he was seeing with the VAR. He said that he wasn't aware that MLS had adopted it. When the stupid red was rescinded he got very excited and thought it was "brilliant" and said that's exactly what the Prem needs.
It is hard to get a read on if Friedel has grown as a coach given it is only 2 games. But it does bring to light some questions. The goalkeeper choice is fine - although I do question his plan for the future here. But what of Caldwell and Zahibo? Is C1 really that hurt but does not show up on injury report? Did he have some setback after that last preseason game? Or is Friedel's choice not the one that is actually working - especially since Caldwell subbed out both games? Same with Diego and Bunbury - Bunbury who played as a 9 last year, suddenly moved out to the wing and Diego to bench. I think we all agree that Friedel's decision to go with Agudelo is not a working plan. Granted he recognized and changed his mind at haltime - but what if Diego starts that whole game? At least he got Rennicks serious minutes. Also, without the new C2 available it is hard to see if Friedel's scouting eye is good. Or his plan to use C2 once he is healthy.
24 observations on 24 teams after Week 2 of the 2019 season March 11, 2019, 6:47PM EDT Bobby Warshaw New England Revolution A lot of changes, just none of them working yet...
Caleb Porter throwing some shade on the Revolution (and Friedel I guess) https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/03/13/caleb-porter-looks-forward-more-soccer-game-vs-fc-dallas