P/I/P: Revs @ Philly, 3/3

It’s hard to disagree. The team once again went through the same dreary off-season process of releasing a bunch of players and replacing them with fewer players of lesser to, maybe, equal ability.

But, on these boards, you can’t call a spade a spade until around August when the MLS pre-season is over. So...

“Hey, it’s just one game, they’ll gel soon and THEN you’ll see,” he said with a total lack of conviction.

 

Couldnt have made it worse. Maybe we would have had a chance at a goal. Diego in that role won't get it done. He's an outside player

 

Vegas has 4 teams will the longest odds to win the MLS Cup: DC, Minn, NE, and Philly. Our first game is against a fellow bottom feeder. Well that gives us an opportunity to show what we got and separate ourselves from the other bottom feeders. Ha ha ha...just kidding.

Here are my thoughts after the game.
First game of the season and both of our center backs get red carded. Dielna should thank the ref for allowing him to play as long as he did. We were lucky that Sapong can't score or the score would have been much worse. The 2 best players on the Revs (IMHO) are Kelyn and Lee; neither of which started, with Rowe making a token appearance with 15 minutes to go. Not that those 2 would have changed the game, but we would have looked better. Our mid-field is non-existent(see previous sentence), to go along with our weak defense. We created very few chances on goal, I realize we played down, but we were playing a fellow bottom feeder. What is this team going to look like against the better teams in the league.

On the positive side, I'm going to keep in mind that the Bruins started their season off by looking like they weren't going to win a game. I can hope that the Revs pull the same turn around. I'm worried that Friedel made some poor decisions and I hope that is not a sign of things to come.

 

Welcome to Revolution Soccer Freidel. Did Burns forget to tell you that your job will be to turn chicken S4it into chicken soup? To weave straw into gold? Maybe now you know? The fool in the stands (also my icon) won't give you the players needed to succeed and when the heat gets to be too much, he'll throw you under the bus for failing. Don't think for a minute you're above that.. ask Heaps or Nicol

If you want to survive this s4it show, start pushing for better players. If Burns can't/won't do it, go around him. You are MAYBE a .500 team with this team... maybe..... and in the end, it's him or you. He'll survive and you wont

Second piece of advice - get Rowe, Nemeth and Lee on the field. Juan as a loan forward won't cut it, Rowe seems to add a lot in games and Teal will choke most of the time. Nemeth.. I think he's valuable but not sure where he fits. Lee is the key missing piece. Start him next week at home.

 

I think Billy Martin said "You have thoroughbreds and mules; no matter how many times you kick a mule in the ass iit isn't going to win the Kentucky Derby."

Nguyen and Rowe are our thoroughbreds but instead we trotted out Bunbury and Caldwell. I'm sure they hustled in preseason and have a better attitude but you need to play your most talented players

Other thoughts

1. The defense needs a lot of work. the CBs are slow and both Farrell and Somi kept getting beat to the endline. At

2. Turner's distribution is terrible. His goal kicks consistently were short of halfway and one only got about 4 feet off the ground and could have been a disaster. In the second half they had him passing short, mostly to Dielna.

3. I thought this was going to be the year when Aguedelo finally started converting his chances

 

I've got no problem if Friedel considers Turner his #1. I'll defer to his expertise on the subject. However, they should move Cropper if he's not the #1. He's surely got trade value. Sticking him on the bench is a waste of an asset.

 

Dear Coach Friedel,

Some of these newer players are not good enough to be on your team:

Dielna was a giveaway machine last year, and his passing tonight was worse.
Zahibo was supposed to be our midfield general, but every time he got the ball, the play died!
Somi was out of position repeatedly, and beaten over the top and on the dribble.

And older retreads like these from the bargain bin:
Bunbury is all effort and no payoff: how do you not know this?
Anibaba looked totally lost, and a step behind at critical times.

Without a central midfielder like Nguyen or the rumored Central American to hold the ball, we were overrun, and our defense was repeatedly disorganized and overmatched.

You may have tried to fit these players into some system in preseason, but it did not work. My guess is that they are not as good as you thought, you are not a good enough judge of quality, and you were naive that you could fit them into whatever system you intended.

This is all a clear mark of an inexperienced coach working with a mediocre support staff. They actually look worse since you took over.

That was a painful game to watch because it was all so predictable... Sad.

-Brian

 

The Revs don't have that sort of forward on the team. While Bunbury's finishing is lacking, he at least creates chances for himself. Though Teal's most effective coming off the wing or as the support striker, which allows him to space to run past defenders.

Probably the best hope the Revs have if they want to convert chances is to play Diego and/or Lee as a false 9.

 

I believe that charging money to watch this alleged team play may well constitute criminal fraud. But Hey! It's worked for them for years. I may not go to games anymore, but I still care enough to wish this travesty might change. If more people instituted their own private boycott might someone upstairs begin to give a sh!t? Nah! It's not going to happen! Wake me when Kraft sells the team to Peoria.

 

I had to sign up for MLS live to watch the game; some glad the first couple of weeks are free!

 

When has Mike Burns ever been one to maximize an asset?

 

Same old, same old. The biggest disappointment to me was that our supposedly 'make you giddy signing' was the first one sacrificed after the red card. You need to sacrifice someone to replace a center back, I get that but Penilla? REALLY?

Our back line is a mess and our midfield couldn't control the ball. I can get that Brad wanted to 'shake things up' a bit in his first game, but it looks like it backfired pretty big. Why was Rowe on the bench to start? (I could care less, to be honest, that Lee is not around yet.)

We don't have a thoroughbred on this team, we have some that are better than others, but no real thoroughbreds that I can see.

 

Exactly. Have never been a fan of Teal for that exact reason. I think he’s a very overrated player. Would much rather seen Nemeth out there as he seems to have potential.

I didn’t like the Friedel signing since the Revs didn’t need another rookie coach. This match validated all my concerns.

 

Good point, yesterday might be a preview of how steep a learning curve Friedel has in front of him (got to allow some wiggle for early season weirdness and road vs. home form). This is too problematic a roster for a callow coach.

 

It seems that for the Revs that Mayan prophecy was true.......

 

Sad is the best way to put it. Just from Brad and Paul's opening attempts to hype things up to the end. Just the same 4-2-3-1 shit sandwich repackaged.

Doesn't take an expert to see defense is an issue. Fullbacks getting torched and failing to cut out services. I thought Delamea and Dielna could be one of the few areas to count on, but Sapong abused them and was relentless.

Remember when we had too many DM's? Well we got rid of all of them (sans Herivaux) to put our eggs in the Wilfried Zahibo basket. Don't even think he's particularly bad...just slow and under-matched to a ball winning role that asks a lot. Liked the little of Herivaux I've seen but I genuinely have no idea where he's at in his development.

Keep in mind Philly was giving a HG teenager his debut at CAM.

Attack looks like a watered down version of last year. At least Lee could hold the ball a little. Without him we're asking an awful lot of Fagundez and Penilla. This attack is begging for a playmaker to setup our speedsters behind the defense.

 

Well, I guess my views are somewhat outliers to the board.

Last year I was advocating for Lee to be a first-off-the-bench player and to give Diego the keys. None of what I saw in this match -- however disappointing -- has changed my mind about that.

Coaching: I guess I am more willing to wait and see. Seems like the GK decision was illness related, yes? If not then I have more concern, as the defense looked disorganized even before Delemea's red and that often ties back to an inexperienced keeper (for any team, not just Revs).

I didn't feel great about this season six weeks ago, and I still don't. But I don't think Lee returning is the answer, and I am willing to wait a half-dozen games to get a clearer sense of what Freidel is or isn't living up to.

Kudos to any of you that made the trip and braved that weather!

 

Im mostly concerned with his player selection and position assignments. No way Rowe doesnt start and whatever game they're playing with Lee needs to end before the next game. Teal is a late game sub at best. I appreciate his work effort and maybe a fresh Teal against a tired defense might produce something. Juan is not fast enough to play a lone forward and if BF insists on that were not going to score many. I think Dielna is a foul waiting for a card and dont see him doing anything but hurting us. Dont think much of Zihibo either.

 

Honestly both teams sucked. Fans of both teams should be getting thier money back. Had we not handed the match to Philly on a silver platter, they would have had a hard time taking it. Had we played a better team we could easily have lost 6 nil (down two men AND about a 2% pass completion rate).

 

My question with Dielna is what's the alternative? Obviously the team can't afford to have him trying to get a red card like last night, but he's still the team's best central defender. I find it shocking they came into this season with such a thin roster at that position. Maybe if they had stellar players they could get away with it, but they've got Dielna, Dellamea and Anibaba.

The guy Dielna seemed to mesh with last season was Anguoa. To his credit, Soehn figured that out. Wonder if Anguoa still would be around if Soehn had been named the permanent manager.