P/I/P Revs @ Chicago Fire, Sat 6/8, 8:30pm [R]

Looking for a lineup similar to the NYRB match. Hope the team comes out with the same intensity that they did to beat the Red Bulls' B+ team

 

It's the same lineup as against RB. Agree regarding intensity. An early goal would do wonders for the confidence of the revs going forward. Rowe wasn't very good in the holding role last week as he gave the ball away too much. I'm hoping he has a better game tonight. would be a great game for Nemeth to get on the score sheet finally.

 

Dielna yellow means he will miss next week. Hope Dielna isnt too banged up with that head wound. Revs direly need healthy defenders.

 

Say goodnight, Revs. Persistent incoherence on attack.

 

Diego pressures goalie on the goal line for a bouncing ball, wins ball and gets between ball and goalie, passes across goal, Teal buries it. Odd play. Opportunistic, but Diego created the opportunity.

1-1 83 minute.

 

Revs definitely left 2 pts on the table tonight. With better finishing and passing in the final third this would have been a convincing 3 or 4-1 revs win. But it was overall a very strong road performance and encouraging to see.

 

Lots of effort... a little luck on the goal. Still, Chicago is below us in the standings so we should expect to win. The biggest problem with the Revs remains the attack. Teal works hard but isn't enough long term. Not saying he should go but we need more options. We did have more good chances late and seemed to be in better shape. Still couldn't finish though

I think that unless we get some real help, it will be a string of mixed results going forward.

 

The two other attackers making runs (Agudelo and Diego?) appeared to be unhappy that Penilla did not look up and send a square pass sideways in their direction, at the very end there. It is good that Penilla has confidence, and we have seen him score on those before, but really. He also seemed reluctant to switch to his right foot on some of his other runs.

 

18 shots with a third on goal is a positive sign for the offense. The revs absolutely dominated the last 20 minutes. Very encouraging to see a road performance like that. While they didn't get the winner, it was a matter of a few poor decisions in the final thirs, last ditch defense or a great save by their keeper. On other nights the revs win this game going away.

 

I hate to be the negative Nancy here, but I thought that was one of the most unwatchable football matches I've seen in a long time. As said above, I appreciated the tenacity - the will to play all 90'. There were great saves by both keepers. Caicedo was great (again), and Agudelo looked good in his short stint. That's about as positive as I can be.

So, the Fire approach to playing BF's Revs was to give them a taste of their own high-pressing medicine. This was not improved by Stott swallowing his whistle. None of the Revs could deal with it. The passing out of the back, and in the middle third was mostly awful, with the exception of Caicedo. The triangle of Rowe-Fagundez-Nemeth was not working. Penilla of all people was having a hard time finding the net.

Note to BF: When you have to bring on Zahibo to create more offence, your roster is missing an important piece.

Fire seemed to poop out in the final 15-20 minutes, letting Revolution back in, so we won the conditioning battle.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. The effort and the game plan were great, but the player quality is sufficiently lacking that the Rev's didnt win. Need players to have a better 1st touch, better ball control, better composure in the final 3rd (decision making and technique). Everybody ran their butts off though, and just bringing 100% for the whole game will put the team in every game they play

 

After much consideration, I decided to not travel from SF to Chicago for this match which I usually do every year. The one time I decide not to go and I could have out numbered the Fire supporters 1 - 0. There must have been a protest of some sort, both the Harlem End and 101 was empty and quite, and the capo stands vacant for 90 minutes.

 

They said on the telecast the organized SGs were protesting because one of the groups had it's tickets revoked. Not sure of all the details.

 

Disappointing to not get a win here. I thought we were the better team, but not enough quality chances.

I thought the refereeing was atrocious and you could see the players started 'taking it into their own hands' after a while. I don't think Stott ever established what is a foul and what isn't in the players' minds.

I think we defended quite well and kept Steinschweiger in check mostly, but being the superstar he is, he sniffed his chance and summoned the excellence needed to make the play.

I still pretty much feel the same way as before this game: we need 6-7 points from this 3-game stretch to feel good about our standing. We can make a statement on Wednesday that we didn't quite make in this one. I think it's very good that they are staying out on the road, so travel won't be a factor in that they should be in the bay-area with plenty of time to get rested/acclimated.

Unfortunate to lose Dielna - I thought the yellow was pretty harsh - it looked worse than it really was. I think MLS referees have a tough time distinguishing hard tackles with reckless ones (duh).

 

That was an ugly game probably due to a combination of terrible reffing by Stott and Revs-Fire history.

I actually thought we created plenty of chances. Eighteen shots with six on target is pretty good when you think about the shots that were just on the wrong side of the post and were at least as threatening as some of the ones on target. I thought Penilla had one of his weakest attacking games. His decisions weren't up to his usual (shooting rather than passing to open players) and his shots were off target in situations where he usually at least forces a save.

Teal is showing some of his early promise. He is very fast without the ball and is strong in the box and pressing. As someone said in an earlier thread, his success comes from getting into good positions for easy shots rather than trying to take on players with skills that he only has in his dreams. He blew past defenders a few times with the kind of ease that forces a team to game plan against him. That's a good thing.

I disagree about the Zahibo sub. One of his strengths is the long diagonal ball. He isn't JJ, but he is better than anyone else at that pass. It's a good play to break a press, especially when our front line is so much faster than the D. He made a couple of those passes to good effect even though they didn't lead us to scores.

Meanwhile, Farrell looked awful going forward. He seems to think he has an inner Messi but, in reality, seems to be channeling Darren Sawatzky. We were fortunate that most of his turnovers came in the attacking areas, but I worry that he'll make the same mistake trying to get the ball out of the back and we'll be screwed.

 

I thought we started to look dangerous when Agudelo got on the field.

I though a good sub would have been Bye for Farrell. Farrell had a really poor game, especially attacking. I wonder if the only reason Farrell stayed on the field was because Friedel was worried about Katai beating Bye.

 

Armchair Analyst: The whole weekend in review from MLS Week 15
June 10, 2018, 5:01PM EDT
Matthew Doyle

 

Couldn't agree more with this! I think this was the first time ever that I shut the Rev's off and went to bed. The game was such a dog. But I think last year we would have lost it. It was a pleasant surprise to wake up and see that they had equalized. To see Diego keep pressing against the keeper and not give up so he could dish the ball to Teal is a testament to Friedel's coaching style and I'm sure we will grab points this year in more places than when Jay was skipper.

 

He's gonna ruin his good looks.