Agudelo has 3g2a as a winger, and 1 goal in one start as a striker. That's good. And nobody else in the nats pool other than Dempsey could score his most recent usmnt goal. His call up is deserved.
Not happy though that he got zero minutes against Holland. Hope JK is splitting minutes around here as a long flight to ride the pine sux. Even Wood played over Juan (of course he is German). We saw enough of Bacon yesterday...did next to nothing. Juan needs minutes next week
Lol, you've never heard that? A certain forward born here but raised in Iceland that resembles Kevin Bacon at times
unluckily for Agudelo, the Germans play defense... he could have got some highlights against the Dutch for sure. Rowe starts over Diego, Dorman over Daigo, no other surprises for the Revs' lineup. Urruti and Gaston are starting for Portland, Adi on the bench. No Valeri (sprained ankle), and Johnson starts for them, only his 2nd start of the year.
Portland feed is on MLS Live, their announcers aren't bad. Nobody on the Revs can stay with Asprilla. He's beaten Tierney, Rowe and Caldwell multiple times so far. Ref's going to eject someone in the 2nd half I bet. Revs looked like crap in the first 10 minutes but then grew into the game a little bit. Heaps switching Teal and Rowe helped. Let's see if I can stay awake until minute 90!
Hope JoGo got a good view of both goals cause he wasnt marking anybody Once again Heaps baffles me. Rowe was sucking wind and he goes 90. Diego had a very good game last outing and nada tonight. I think Davies was still better, even though tired, than the guy Heaps rolled out
Not even here we come, we're already in them! After tonight the revs are 0-2-4 in their last 6, good for 4 points from 18 available. On the bright side, if we go by last year's 8 game winless streak, that means just 2 more games of futility against Chicago and DC before the revs finally get a badly needed win. Or, the streak continues another couple months until JJ comes back and the revs make a furious run up the table. That seems to be their MO.
In Kevin Alston's 10 appearances this year, the Revs have given up 17 goals (record: 2-4-4). 5 of those goals have come after he'd been subbed on for "defensive" purposes (2 in Orlando, 1 vs DC, 2 tonight) while the Revs hadn't given up a goal in the game. The other 12 goals have come in 6 games that he's started. Meanwhile, in the 5 games Alston hasn't played, the Revs have only given up 3 goals (record of 3-0-2). I'm starting to sense a pattern there. And it makes me wonder why he keeps getting brought on as a "defensive" sub.
Having been at the game, have to say I was mystified as to why Alston came in. May I add, Caldwell had a nightmare of a game. Has anyone noticed we have no aerial game?
I think we are officially in a slump. They keep showing Heaps record all the time on TV and he's really no great shakes. I think he has a couple more losses than wins now and that is not acceptable with the roster he has. The team seems to do what ever it's going to do and it doesnt matter if he's there or not. He makes the mostly obvious lineups...maybe one question (Rowe or Diego) then late game subs...more often than not, they hurt us. I see no great leadership, strategy or team management from the bench. With his record, I don't know how he keeps his job? Oh wait...I forgot... Burns. I have the same question about him too For example, we had a serious speed problem last night. Tierney was ineffective on either offense or defense. Rowe... where was Rowe actually playing last night? Ball chaser? Mr. get in the middle and muck it up? I thought he was supposed to be an outside player and yet he was constantly in the middle and jamming things up. He was also way too slow. So why was Diego left on the bench to rot while Rowe played 90? I mostly don't like Rowe's game but every now and then he does something good. I would not be upset if we traded him for a young, and very fast, forward. So why did Caldwell come out for a much slower Diago? I like Diago's possession in the right situation but we were too slow already lastnight and we just got slower with Dorman and Diago in there. And JoGo...OMG what was he doing last night? I am at least partially blaming him for both goals. He seems to forget his job at times and he is NOT a superstar...even though he thinks he is. Charlie - works his butt off but he is not the solution for direct balls, over the top, on turf. He is too short to play that role and the turf won't hold the ball up. We got little service from Tierney (too slow) or Woodbury (bad crosses) last night and we were ineffective with attacking on the ground, thru the middle. Where were the little short ticky tack passes we do at times? Is that gone without Juan? I think we tend to overlook some problems when we win a few. Things like is Heaps the best coach we can get? Our shortage of central defenders or defensive subs. The lack of a good target forward if Charlie went down
Hard for anyone to win when your players aren't performing. In the past six games they get a fire going in the first half and shut off for the second half. That's not coaching (all the time), it's immaturity. Heaps isn't blameless, but the players need to close out games. We're in a slump, but at least this year we look pretty decent during the slump. Last year it felt like the house was burning down, this year is more like watching a kid learn to drive in downtown Boston. They're alright, but frustrating and scary. I don't think we're that far off from a winning team. Need to start Daigo and Diego against Chicago, need Lee to keep up the pace he kept last night and we'll see things start turning around.
• Is Portland the fastest team in MLS? It certainly seemed that way, and watching us get beaten for pace every 2 minutes or so in the first half, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before we conceded. I lost track of the number of times we were caught in possession. And yet we didn't concede until late in the second half. When we did concede, it was a blown marking assignment on the winning goal. A really interesting observation. • We are struggling to retain possession for the past 6 weeks, and as we are a slower team, we need to keep the ball. I agree with the earlier comment that we neither attack nor defend balls in the air effectively. • I note as well that our 3 game win streak was accomplished without JoGo; since 5/16, when JoGo returned to the line-up, we are 0 wins, 3 ties, 2 losses. I'm not saying that JoGo is a bad player. I do think that the connection between the back line and the midfield is a real problem, and that JoGo is part of that problem. • Our best players were Farrell, who is evolving into an elite central defender, Teal Bunbury, who played like a man possessed, and Andy Dorman, who quietly gummed up a lot of the Portland midfield momentum and completed an astonishing 94% of his passes. • We may pull out of this mid-season wilt, and we may not. Seeing (many) other teams being able to pull quality players off the bench week after week reinforces the point that we could use reinforcements.