The revs welcome Toronto FC to Foxboro on Saturday 4/9. Kick off is at 4pm. TFC is playing their first 8 on the road to accomodate renovations to BMO Field. They have had a similarly mediocre start to the year as the revs, registering a road win over RB and a draw at NYC, followed by losses at SKC and Colorado. Coming into this match, will the revs find their scoring touch or will the misery continue? Will Watson start or will Heaps stick with Woodberry? Excited for this match and an opportunity to hopefully pick up a solid home win.
New England Revolution v Toronto FC Gilette Stadium (4:00pm ET) REF: EDVIN JURISEVIC AR1: Peter Manikowski AR2: Danny Thornberry 4TH: Mark Kadlecik
Don't know how many saw game or replay or highlights of TFC in Dallas, but Toronto lost a man to a red card after about 15 minutes and played pretty effectively with 10 for a long period, against an FCD squad that to my eyes has some real menace in attack. If Toronto shows the same discipline they did after going down a man, they could be tough to get goals against.
Can't say how much I want to see Lee and Charley and others stuff Mikey and Antiscore. I hope Farrell has great game shutting down their attack
Nope, Complete dive. The only one I thought was possible a penalty was Davis at the end of the game. I didn't get to see a different angle shot, just quickly the original angled shot; so it's tough to say.
Yeah on this matter I was willing to run my positivism on fumes and see what would unfold in the early part of the season, but those fumes ran out in this match. Also out of gas: my patience w/Rowe (despite the finish). Tolerable result. But only just.
Second straight game with an interesting occurrence with our attendance Home games 2 and 3 were higher attended than the same number home games last year. Home games 2 and 3 were significantly lower in attendance than the games that first had NYR and TFC visit last year.
Fantastic goal from Rowe and really a good game from him overall. Davies added so much when he entered the game compared to Bunbury up top. The difference was night and day. That said, Bunbury should have won an obvious PK. Horrible refereeing decision. Tough that they go down the field and score a fluky goal. Goncalves got a block on the ball and it just deflected it away from Shuttleworth. Did Giovinco outrun Koffie or did Koffie stop running for some reason to chase Giovinco? Davies also should have won a PK. Bradley just barges in to him from behind and knocks him over while a teammate takes over the ball. In no universe is that not called a foul anywhere else on the field. I haven't found a slowmo replay of whether Femi's pass was after the ball had crossed the line. Credit the Revs, they kept pushing and pushing and were very close to scoring the winner twice in injury time - once through what should have been a PK and once with the disallowed goal. So that's now 4 points gone that I'm blaming referees. Two points from the Dynamo game and two points from this game.
1st PK shout, maybe, maybe not, 2nd PK shout probably, but where the he!! was the offside on the stoppage time goal that was called back? There was a defender standing on the goal line and the keeper was behind the ball.
Tough result to take after having some really good spells of play. Koffie was an absolute boss in midfield. He made a couple of poor and very dangerous giveaways, but I love his confidence and quick touches under pressure. Pretty sold on he and Caldwell in the middle. Farrell really steps it up when an attacker like Giovinco comes to town. Questions still come up about his overall development and positioning as a CB, but he is a very good man marker against pace. Thought Woodbury has looked solid, but it's fun to watch JeVaughn gallop forward. Pinpoint cross for Rowe. We've come quite a ways from having to deal with the weakness of Jeremy Hall at RB (love the guy!). Teal Teal Teal... his strengths and faults are worth the price of admission at times. Makes good runs and is honestly one of the toughest in the league for a defender, particularly CBs, to mark...seriously, he's a pest when he gets behind. That touch and finishing can be absolutely cringeworthy, however. Love having him on the team for that versatility and work rate, but man he's a trip! Think the team's getting it going. We're gonna need the MF and wings to score (lookin at you Lee!), and Heaps will have to tinker with the front 3 over the course of the season. That will be his challenge, as inconsistency is rampant in the finishing department.
For what it's worth, per the broadcast the call wasn't offside, it was over the endline. Apparently the linesman claimed the ball crossed over before Femi chipped it back to where it was knocked in. From the replay, very hard to tell, but it wasn't an unreasonable read of the situation. We weren't robbed on that play, at least.
Nice finish by Rowe but I'd still trade him....One nice header does not offset the giveaways and other negative influence he has on the Attack Lee - wtf. Where's your Mojo gone. You HAVE to take this team over and try to score. Nobody else is going to do it (maybe Diego). Please attack and please shoot more. Robbed on the early chance... goalie got lucky and I couldnt tell if that one you had in was really out or not Teal - I just dont know what to do with you. Solid player but somethings not right Davies - has to start up top over Teal or Juan but we also need to sign another top forward Heaps - I will never see what he sees nor do I understand his love affair with Rowe. He pulls Caldwell for Daigo...what was that going to do?... we cant score. Then he pulls Diego who was basically not seeing the ball but is a Hell of a lot better than Rowe, while he leaves Capt. Turnover on. Why? Finally Teal for somebody. No problem with this one. I said preseason we looked like a 50% team. We're not losing but also are not scoring enough to win many. We also lose our drive until its too late. Where was the team we saw in the last 10 minutes during the whole middle of the game? Coasting Antiscore - LMAO but glad you're such an overrated choke artist. That was a sitter you missed. Keep your eyes open next time...maybe you'll finish Front Office - get off yur asses and get better players. We do not have enough talent to do any better than we are and get rid of that crappy turf. It sux MLS - Get refs that will call things. Two clear PKs not given....we end up tied. The first was clearly a trip. Second -Bradley clearly just mowed Charley down from behind... no call. While we're at it...the little Italian tripped then cried for a PK. Nobody touched him. Where was his card for faking?
are teams playing Lee differently? He is playing so tentative this year. The ball just won't come off his feet quick enough and he is killing the flow of attack. I feel like we have left 4 points on the field against DC and TFC, both were very winnable games. The glass half full view is that it looks like almost every team in the East is struggling in the early weeks.
Thanks. Watched my DVR of the game this morning -- Brad was equally confused until the last replay. There's actually a clip at the end of Lee talking to the AR and the AR giving the "international one-inch" signal (and Lee appearing to agree). Glad to have the answer, as I was racking my brain for what interpretation of the offside rule might have applied -- for instance was the keeper ahead of the play, making the last defender the only defender goal-side?
I'm not upset (okay, a little) that the Revs goal was disallowed, BUT... I have no clue what Brad and Paul were talking about when they claim the replay is "clearly" out of bounds. The best angle on that replay is so skewed, it's simply just impossible to tell. One would need an NFL-style goal-line cam to have anywhere near the resolution to be able to discern if the ball went out. So, the Revs homer announcers are giving the AR massive benefit of the doubt that seems entirely unjustified. This consensus that the ball was out is the all the more frustrating, because the replays (from my perspective)--clearly show two things: 1) the AR was not in a position to make the call. One of the replays shows him running toward the end line, but still about 4-5 yards away and craning his neck to make the call. 2) Even if he were in position to make the call, Femi--not a small man--is entirely screening his view. So the AR guessed. It doesn't mean that it was the sole crucial factor in why we dropped points. Far from it. But let's not pretend that the ball was conclusively out. It just wasn't.
Some random thoughts: Long Trail Double Bag is back at the stadium!!! Had freebie cat 3 seats -- seemed like about 10 times as many people walking in the aisle, blocking my view. Giovinco is really that good. That said, how in the world did a guy who's 5 foot nothing beat out two defenders on the goal? MLS has been really bad for Michael Bradley -- he was almost a non-factor last night. Ditto for Altidore.
• Back on my hobby horse - Men in Blazers interviewed Bournemouth's Eddie Howe, who made a point of saying that one of the reasons they spent big money for a forward was that having a forward who was a constant threat to score takes a load of pressure off the D. Davies, Bunbury and (at this point is his still young career) Agudelo are journeymen -decent, competent players, but not remotely game-changers. Revolution are going to catch fire at some point this year, and eventually will lose t again. If we have any hopes of going deep into the off-season, we need an All-Star/top 5 in the league forward. Where is that DP, Mike? • I'm really impressed with the fluidity and cohesion of the team. The transition game has been solid. That said, the tactics in the final third are not together. Rowe and Fagundez are often trying to force things that aren't there, and because they are often double-teamed, cough up the ball. Bunbury does OK on the touchline, but is not a back-to-goal player. In fact, he's not a forward at all. Davies is OK, but should be the 3rd forward coming off the bench. Nguyen is still a good player, but gets no oxygen in the final third, and must be the most kicked player in MLS. • Very pleased with the defense. One of Farrell's best games. Koffie is huge - becoming my new favorite player. • Pens are sometimes given, sometimes not. What killed me about the first non-pen was that Koffie was hacked down right before Bunbury. The foul on Koffie was straightforward. Play should have been stopped for one of those two fouls . The fact that Koffie was on the ground was what allowed TFC to break.
This describes exactly what I saw on the replays... ...leaving him to make his best guess. Which, when combined with the two non-called PKs, had the net potential effect of a minus-3 goal differential for the Revs. That's a LOT of "reffing effect" applied to direct goal scoring opportunities. That magnitude of impact by refs does end up swinging the outcome of the game, regardless of how well you think the Revs did, or did not, play.