I was pleasantly surprised by Zahibo. Only two fouls against him, looked good shielding the ball, good ball skills. Poor passing, but hopefully that will improve as he figures out where Caldwell is checking. And honestly, nobody really had a good passing night except ironically for Delamea who was 11/11. Fagundez had a shockingly bad night I thought, even before the red card. Hopefully that's an aberration - he's looked good in the middle before. but the real story is how many bizarre coaching decisions Friedel made. The lineup was really bizarre. Turner wasn't horrible but starting him was a huge risk. Knighton is proven in these situations. Maybe the thought is to season Turner so we can trade Knighton or Cropper? I don't understand Rowe on the bench at all. Rowe is one of our best offensive players and is also very good defensively, and can execute a high press. I don't understand taking Penilla off instead of either Fagundez or Bunbury. Penilla was our best goal-threat in preseason and was looking good in his limited time. Fagundez was already looking pretty poor on the night. I don't understand why Nemeth stays on the bench when we need to score goals, and instead we bring in an untested rookie in Bye (who looked fine, but missed his chance). I don't understand why we were playing a high defensive line when we had ten men (due to a centerback being caught out by a ball over the top!), and our centerback on a yellow. I'd say that I hope Friedel learns from this, but really these are basic coaching decisions that Friedel seems to have gotten wrong.
I guess I was being too optimistic. Revs easily could have had 3 red cards by half time (Anibaba's yank on Accam in the box would have been DOGSO if Accam hadn't managed to stay on his feet). Fortunately, the Comcast outage prevented me from being able to watch the second half.
So I didn't see the game as I was enjoying life in Islamorada for a few day however I did see some lowlights of the game. Not sure if Nemeth and Rowe may still be having issues with injuries or Brad is just not impressed but I can't understand Bunbury and Agudelo start over either of them. Agudelo is washed up at at 25 and Bunbury is all show and very little substance. Sure he is fast but so was Khano Smith and they get about the same ROI. So next week they go with a backline of something like Farrell, Anibaba, Samoyao and Somi or Segbers, Farrell, Anibaba and Somi against Colorado. We will watch this patchwork backline as the FO failed to address a backline that was arguably the worst in the league. The fix? Draft two players that played mostly Mid in college and try to convert them to Right backs to replace or push Farrell (a guy they almost let get) draft a CB in the third round, sign a journey man Defender and sign a replacement for Tierney that plays like Tierney. So far Farrell is still the starter, Somi looks like a younger Tierney and Dielna and Delemea still look like they are on different pages. Folks this is going to be a long freaking year
Early ejection proves costly for Revs in season-opening loss to Philadelphia March 3, 2018, 11:34PM EST Jeff Lemieux Recap: Revs drop season opener in Philadelphia, 2-0 March 4, 2018, 12:22AM EST revolutionsoccer.net
Postgame Quotes: Revolution vs. Philadelphia Union | March 3 March 4, 2018, 12:43PM EST revolutionsoccer.net On Matt Turner’s performance in net…