P/I/P Revs @ Dallas 7/4

Thanks for this!

 

How can it be apples and oranges when it's virtually the same exact roster? They were a good team with this roster, but now they're a bad team with this roster?

The Parcellian view was that they were a good team because they had a good record - but that would be flawed view, because it didn't take into account the quality and readiness of their depth, which isn't reflected in their record until circumstances come about that force them to rely on it. That's why that quote is overly-simplistic and inadequate (and that doesn't even get into the fact that MLS teams can make significant playoff runs and even win the Cup with a mediocre record).

I think the "trend" model gives a much more informed view of MLS teams. Just about every team has significant up and down periods through the season. The current trend is much more indicative of a team's ability at a point in time than their record. There are plenty of examples - Colorado, which was hopeless early in the season, is actually getting results now. The Revs, clearly the opposite case.

You pull out this sarcasm all the time - as though there is some wall of resistance to criticizing those guys.

I doubt anyone suggested that Heaps was a great coach. And, just because some of us want to acknowledge that Burns has done some things well, by no means inoculates him from criticism.

Why do you find opposing viewpoints so threatening?

Why stop at 2012? We've had summer swoons going well back to when Burns and Heaps were on the field instead of in management.

 

The point Parcells and others are making is that you are only as good as your record shows. If you lose a lot of one-goal games, if you just miss a lot of shots that you should finish, if you make only one defensive blunder all game long and still lose 1-0, at the end of the day, you are not a very good team. Even if there are patches of good play and times when you might have carried the play, if they don't turn into results, then none of this "almost" stuff matters.

If we didn't have injuries, if we didn't have suspensions, if we didn't have to travel for a midweek game, if we didn't have a crappy ref making a horrible call.... Yeah, every team has to deal with those things, and we are no different. No one complained when we were rested and played about 3-4 games against teams who played the Wednesday before, but somehow we didn't manage to take many points from that stretch. That's what hurt us.

At the end of the day, we are only as good as our record, and that ain't very good right now.

Or, as the great philosopher DaMarcus Beasley once said, "Don't gimme that 'luck' sh!t. Luck ain't got nuttin to do with it. They're a last-place team for a reason." Of course, those words came back to bit him in the behind , but his point is 100% valid.

 

We had a good record when we were playing bad teams. We have a bad record now that we're up against good teams. We've beaten San Jose, Colorado, Philly, a very short-handed RSL, RBNY, and Chicago. San Jose is the best of those teams, at 1.47 PPG, currently 8th out of 20. Philly, Colorado and Chicago are 17th, 19th and 20th. RBNY and RSL are 13th and 14th. Our 5 wins/1 draw/0 losses streak from March 28th to May 2nd saw us beat 4 bad teams, beat 1 average team (SJ), and tie one average team (Columbus). Since then, we've only played one bad team (Chicago) and that's been our only win.

So we've actually been pretty consistent, even discounting Jones. Play bad teams, win. Play average teams, usually tie. Play good teams, lose.

 

I had intended to make this point the other day, so I'm glad you brought it up. Our summer swoon history goes back to the start of the team (sort of like talking about the Cubs' drought as if there's commonality between teams decades apart). It's either 1) an odd coincidence, 2) something in the water in Foxboro, or 3) something about the Krafts that causes them to select GM's/coaches who are susceptible to building streaky teams. I'll pick door number three on this one.

The upside (and I hope I can gloat about this come late fall) is that we usually seem to have come out of the bad streak into a great streak toward the end of the season.

 

I never said Heaps was a great coach, but I probably said he did a good job last year. Pretty sure KapeGuy never said it either.

And, FWIW, even exceptional coaches have rough years and sometimes even get fired for it. Sigi, Yallop, Arena, Bradley, ...

 

I wonder if Red Bull regrets pulling the plug on Bruce.

 

He's mediocre at best. He's tactically naive, does not make adjustments to in-game situations and generally does not manage substitutions very well. He was fortunate to be the beneficiary of one Jermaine Jones last year, who pretty much singlehandedly overcame the liabilities of this club.

Lucky for you, I can't be arsed to go look for one of those "Oh no you DIT-int!" animated gifs. Are you seriously putting a man who never ever coached a team of any kind in the company of those guys, who are the most accomplished American coaches ever?

But fear not, Heaps' job is safe. He'll ride out the grace period from a half-year of good play through 2017 at least. As it is, they fired Nicol 2 years after he had completely checked out, so I don'e expect them to be in any rush to pull the plug on Heaps. even if we sink back to the 2010-11 level.

 

Another Soares update:
American Exports: Viking says defender AJ Soares in line for quick return after suffering concussion
July 6, 2015
Greg Seltzer
MLSsoccer.com

Doesn't look like he'll be returning to Foxboro any time soon...

 

The jury's still out on Heaps. He's improved the club every season to date, but he's got a big challenge in front of him at this point to continue that trend.

 

Revolution can't find an answer for FC Dallas
By Brian O'Connell
espnfc.com

Money quote (bolding mine):

Also, ouch:

 

Heaps knows Revs need to adjust
By Brian O'Connell
espnfc.com

<facepalm>

But Heaps doesn't have a 2nd assistant coach because he just doesn't see the need for one, right KADs?

 

I hope this article is really from the Onion. I don't want to know that a team of professionals, that this is their job, sits down half way thru the season to see what is working and what is not. I coached for 20+ years, as a volunteer, and I sat down after every game and thought about what worked and what didn't; then made adjustments if they were needed. It's soccer, not rocket science!

 

Wow. Just wow.

I have no idea what this quote from Heaps says - it doesn't even make sense: "In Dallas, there weren't many [positive] moments in that game, and I think that was the most disheartening one, and one that we need to correct, and correct quickly."

WTF.

And look at this comment from the author: It has been fairly easy to diagnose the problems the Revolution have encountered this year, especially over the course of their past 11 games.

LOL.

 

Sometimes athletes speak in gibberish, but you'd think that a Dook man who plied his trade in the broadcast booth would better be able to articulate what he means. But this is what I think he meant by that quote:

"In Dallas, we sucked that was the most disheartening. We need to correct, and correct quickly."

OK, your basic "losing coach is not happy with his team after abysmal loss" quote that you'll find anywhere in any sport. The real question is why were they not "evaluating" everything and making adjustments all season long after every game? Did someone tell Burns the transfer window was opening and he just realized that maybe they should think about doing something?

Kinda line the old line from Cheers, when Norm (who is an accountant) walks into the bar. Woody says, "Hey Norm, how 'bout those new tax laws, huh?" Norm says, "What new tax laws?"

 

It can make sense to schedule yourself a sit-down to review all previous games and look at trends, etc. That's the sort of thing you don't really want to do too often or else you don't have consistency in your approach. It's like how people who check how their stocks are doing too often end up buying/selling at the wrong times and make less money than people who only check their stocks quarterly or yearly.

 

Can you imagine a sportswriter penning something like that about Bruce Arena or Jason Kreis? But somehow, it is acceptable here in Revland.

If I have an employee who is too busy to do his actual job, I ask one question: Is he competent?

If he is, then I hire him some additional help.

If he is not, then I fire him and find someone who can do the whole job.

 

Sure, looking at one game and calling something a trend is foolish. However, you should be looking after each game and trying to notice if trends are happening. For example, are we making the same mistake over and over? I think you should be aware of trends developing and trying to minimize the bad ones before half way thru a season.
As for your stock purchase analogy, when someone buys shares of stock; there are 2 decisions; do I sell them or do I hold them? They have no influence over how that company is run. When you are coaching a team there are hundreds of decisions to be made and you have the major influence on how the team is run.

 

What Revs fan used it as an excuse?

What makes you think they aren't doing that also?

It only makes sense that they do regular evaluations after every game, but also try to plan a more in depth process somewhere around mid-season.

 

The last 14 games!!