When I saw the back four brad rolled out I knew this was not going to be good. Somi, perhaps the worse game of the year Farrell in the middle equals disaster Annibaba showed why this is his 4th team in 5 years Bye was the only one that looked halfway decent but he cannot depend on speed alone
only good thing that came out of this game was that I added Quintero to my fantasy roster at the last minute
Not a good way to being a stretch of five road games out of the next six. First back to back losses of the season. Two wins in their last 10 games (2-3-5). The schedule gets even harder in September, so they can't afford to be dropping points this month...
After Anibaba's screw up, all I could think of (after I stopped laughing at the mistake) was Bob's assertion about him yesterday. Anyway, I'll preface this by saying I'm not done with Friedel. But ... Halftime of the DC win, he says this is one of the worst halves of soccer we've played this year. After the game against Seattle, he says it was a horrid and boring game. No need to say anything about blowing the LA game. Halftime against Minnesota he says we played badly. At some point, it's gotta go beyond saying the "right" things, and actually show something on the field. Summer tradition is alive and well.
Shuttleworth made 2 key saves but plenty of gaffes too and Minnesota was very average looking outside of Quintero. And based on the eye-test, Revs played better and should have won that game. But they didn't. That is not great - but I will wait till the game Saturday against NY to really say WTF. A good team can lose a one-off, but we are clearly trending in the wrong direction. NY will have back the 4 internationals that were not there the last time. Revs get players back too - so both teams will not have any excuses. I think that will be a really interesting game. On a positive good to see Angking as a healthy sub. Now how will Friedel develop him - since Heriavux has gotten only 24 minutes and he was being touted by Friedel as the #2 CM ahead of Lee. And speaking of Friedel... I have similar observations. Friedel has been angry lately - in broadcast interviews, on the sidelines. I was being a little tongue in cheek when I said Friedel should go back to wearing suits. But in thinking about it - early in the season he was wearing the suits, looked calm on the sidelines, looked in control....and this is when the team was playing well. I am wondering if the "shine" of the new coach is starting to wear off. I wonder if the pressure is starting to crank up on Friedel. The honeymoon is over and now you are in the middle of a real season. How is that changing how he approaches the games, how he is communicating to players? How is that affecting the players, how are they responding? Seeing the NY game will be a very good indicator. Seeing if Friedel can actually get upgrades into the team during this window because Friedel is forward thinking on the roster upgrades needed - and can integrate them. Gotta see this stuff happening before we can all agree it is SSDD. And AB-SO-LUTELY wonder if Mariner will AB-SO-LUTELY acknowledge that the Revs AB-SO-LUTELY have played magnificently and need to get 3 points. AB-SO-LUTELY.
Well, he had been playing well! Oy. Sad to say, it seems so. They seem to be regressing back to the typical Revs team that always seemed to find a way to shoot themselves - whether it's taking stupid red cards, getting outsmarted by savvier players, dumb fouls, giving up pk's, etc., etc. The confidence and poise they showed earlier seems to be missing now. Hopefully it will return with the 3 guys who were out yesterday. Caicedo and Penilla seem pretty indispensable at the moment, while the reshuffling of the defenders doesn't seem to make much difference. A lot of work still to be done.
This is the primary difference between the KADs and the NNNs. For the NNNs, we need to see this stuff happening before we can all agree it is NOT SSDD...
For all of Friedel's talk about how the charter flight negates home field advantage, the Revs have now collected a total of one point from two charter flights (VAN and MIN).
Anibaba had a shocker all game, not just his 5th minute mistake. He was rattled after that, and routinely booted the ball rather than making a pass, etc. 2 really bad games in a row from him. Zahibo looked really slow all game. Maybe he was ill? And his attempted tackle at the top of the box before Quintero's goal... Positives - I thought Agudelo, Rowe, Caldwell, Diego and Farrell actually had decent games. I thought it was interesting that, without Penilla, Friedel puts Diego in Penilla's spot on the left wing rather than keeping him as a #10. Rowe spent a lot of time on the left side as well and put in some really good crosses, but didn't seem to do as much when he was in the middle of the field. If Anibaba doesn't gift Minnesota a goal in minute # 5, we had a much better chance to win this game, and not just because of the one goal, but because of the game state. Instead, Minnesota can sit back and bunker, and the whole league knows that we really struggle to break down a bunker.
Rewatching the highlights this morning, it feels like the revolution have more good chances that they just arent converting over the lastfew games, while also making at least 1 big defensive gaffe a game. Just watching quintero dribble around 5 defenders, most of whom limply stick out a foot, brings flashbacks to u8's when my coaches yelled at me until i stopped doing that. For the quality of caldwells chances, he put both directly on the keeper, and he was culprit #2 in weakly defending the quintero goal. Its rough when your team only has 3 real, reliable players (caicedo, penilla, and turner) and 2 dont dress. Tougher when it really only has 5 other replacement level or better guys (dielna, zahibo, diego, teal, agudelo), and everyone else is a shaky at best (guys like bye) and a bum at worst (guys like somi). When the majority of the game day 18 would be more appropriately fielded on a mid table usl team there is only so much tactics and rotation a manager can really do. There are open roster spots, and unspent money, and the best players in the league constantly make a show out of how poor the facilities in new england are. Tick Tock
That's pretty much it. I think you nailed it when you talked about consistency. As much as consistency is a mental thing, I'm not sure how much the coach can do. Looking back, I think that consistency was the one thing that changed most noticeably when Jermaine Jones was playing. Bottom line: We need players (plural) who can lead by example. Without that, we continue to fluctuate around the mid-table mean. Play-offs are sort of irrelevant, because the organization is not ready or willing to compete for a championship.
Almost choked on beef jerky when I read this. he had a horrible game. I wonder if he gets benched like Dielna did after his craptasic showing against LA
Constantly bad is still consistent so there is consistency in the FO. I think you and TSB11 are correct. Very rarely does this team seem to put the same effort back to back. I think some people also need to realize that this team is formed with a lot of mediocre "nice to have" type players and lack those players that make you want to say WOW. You remove Diego and Penilla from this team and what is left? A team fighting it out with DC and Toronto for the worst team in the east.
Pretty much agree. We definitely missed Caicedo out there as well. Zahibo can play. Bunbury should come off the bench at 60'. Blow everything else up if needed.
Other teams sign good players, look good on the field and win games. We sign a new coach will no professional coaching experience. He builds a team of mostly cast off's, budget rack players, draft picks and projects. Brad tries to win by pressing. It's working less and less. We have no depth. We lose 3 players and we lose to a fairly bad team. There are few to call upon to replace any losses. Why can't we ever sign players? Others do it. Why is it acceptable to say we "didn't play well" when the truth is we simply dont have the talent to win many. Supporting this team from day 1 is a totally frustrating experience. The same problems have always existed (players) and it never changes. We win a coin toss, get a quality player (JJ) and make the MLS finals twice, Thats what one good player can do but that only happened on a lucky flip. No credit to the FO and when it came time to renew... he couldnt be signed. Common story here. I just don't understand why this is an acceptable team to the Kraft's? and why they are so inept to not see what the problem is... and fix it. You can bet this wouldnt happen with the Pats
Zahibo's a big guy and it looks to me like he needs consistent play to keep his timing and pace. I don't think moving him in and out of the lineup is getting the best out of him. His best play was early in the year when he was starting every game. I also think that Bye's performance in the last two games shows he suffers from lack of playing opportunities. He was totally out of sync in his sub performance against LA, but then clearly better against Minnesota, but probably still far from what he can offer. I think a lot of the Revs problems still come from lack of quality game-like opportunities for guys not playing MLS games (that could also explain why we seem to have regressed during the World Cup break).
Great post and especially your observations on Friedel. He does seem to be angrier and less in control than at the start. Probably saw Heaps from the outside and chuckled "I could do MUCH better than this clown..." Everything looks different from far away right? Secondly, your Mariner thing cracked me up. I used to rely on him to counterbalance Feldman's koolaid fueled observations and proclamations but the past couple years, those two have regressed towards the mean. In fact, sometimes Mariner is just as much, if not more, of a revs homer. It's AB SO LUTELY a strange dichotomy.
Agreed - the pressing seems to have been much more effective early on. The revs are still at or close to the top of the league in midfield turnovers but they don't have the sharp edge in the final third to put those chances away. Penilla is a one trick pony, especially on the road. What worries me even more than lacking talent is there is no plan B. If you go up against a NYRB who also press but have more talent and better defenders, guess what? Shutout. Same with other clubs. Sure they dominated Minnesota statistically but MN had that moment of brilliance from Quintero and 3 points in their pocket. That's all it takes. Te revs don't have that guy. Friedel either needs to reshape the roster with a savvy veteran or two who can adapt and marshall the troops like Schweini did for Chicago last year or change up has formation and approach to the game to be prepared.