So there's a pivotal revs game tomorrow night and we're just starting to talk about it. Feel the excitement. Revs have crashed back down to earth after their loss in Columbus last Sunday. Given their competition with DC and Montreal who both sit above the red line, this game against SKC is an absolute must win if the revs have any realistic post season aspirations this year. The revs' injury report shows Koffie and Watson are still out. Shuttleworth and McCrary are also on the report, though it's unclear what their status is. For SKC, Olum, Meyers and Mapp are out while Zusi is questionable. My guess is it will probably be a similar lineup as last week but with JoGo and Rowe returning. Hopefully, it's a much better result. SKC has had trouble in Foxboro the last couple years. I predict the revs win 2-1. Now or never guys.
If the Revs don't show up and play with a little desperation for this game, then Heaps has clearly lost the locker room again (first time was before he made the switch to a diamond midfield).
Playoff Scenarios: Who can clinch and be eliminated this weekend? September 30, 2016, 10:50AM EDT MLSsoccer staff
I'm predicting a 1:1 draw. Revs haven't had a tie since Aug 24th in San Jose, and haven't had one at home since April 30th vs ORL. A draw would show they still care, yet still severely damages their fleeting playoff hopes.
That's never a good sign! When's the last time the Revs won, or even played well in front of a larger-than-average crowd?
If Rowe and Goncalves are back, they will be much better. Their absence was the biggest factor in that collapse in colombus.
Last home game had 23K and was a solid 3-1 win. But your larger point stands, historically the Revs do seem to have a tendency to poop their pants in front of larger groups.
Well people get scared away by rain so that should drop the numbers, increasing the likelihood of victory.
I don't think Caldwell has the range to play at the back of the diamond, only Koffie or Watson (on the Revs) have the right skill set. At halftime last week, Berhalter, the Columbus coach, said that against that formation they had to switch sides quickly and attack up the wing. It seemed like Harrison Affal was running up field with the ball all night under zero pressure. I think when a team switches things up it is a surprise at first but the league adapts quickly. With the 4-3-3, KC should be able to play wide With JoGo still out (Barnes again what a disastrous lack of depth we have) I think we lose 2-1 but am holding out hope I am wrong.
Nice team win Even with the poor showing last week it appears the Revs are peaking at the right time They have some time off to get players healthy Could they pull and 2002 type run? The Table in the East is parity personified. Amazing, after over 30 games how tightly packed teams are in the standings
It was a good win last night and a mostly dominating performance by the revs on a solid SKC team. Farrell made me nervous as he was getting skinned over and over in the first half. Diego didn't have a good game and had some questionable decision making with his passing and shooting, but for the most part the attack was clicking. I will admit Rowe has done enough to change my opinion of him the past month or so. He's finally turning into the player the revs thought they were getting in 2012. It's good to see. While the revs still have work to do, they aren't going quietly into the night.
Great win. Just feel like it's too little to late for this team. 4 points behind DC, meaning you pretty much have to win both games. 3 behind Philly. 2 behind Montreal, who has a game in hand (at Orlando, starting at 1 today).
Agreed, great win last night, but it just feels like too little too late. Hard to get enthusiastic about them when we're simply solidifying 7th place.
Make that 5 behind Montreal, meaning that they'd have to lose against Toronto for the last game against us to matter.
The bolded part is the kind of adjustment to the opponent and personnel that coaches whose names are not "Jay Heaps" seem to be able to make. Berhalter saw something in the matchup and figured out a way to make it work for his team. Anyone remember Heaps doing something similar at any point in his time here? Me neither.
I thought a good showing by the Revs and a very good game by Juan. Is it me, or was this the first time Juan played the "playmaker" role while Lee was up top with Kei? I thought that the role suited Juan a LOT. He was great at coming to the ball, receiving and dishing. Very little of the 'try to dribble around three players and lose the ball', or 'hesitate, hesitate, hesitate' lose the opportunity that Lee can be subject to. He's big enough and strong enough to not get knocked off the ball and he kept our attack moving and flowing. I thought that was a nice and welcome adjustment by Jay. Some can say it came too late, others can say it was a good insight by him. Good win by the team, congrats.
Was there and it was a very heavy mist. Good crowd, listed in the box score as 25,280. A very good turnout and they saw a very good game for us.
It wasn't just Berhalter's genius - the fact that the Revs were missing 4 key players was a major factor. --------------------------------------- Nice goals, very good game very much in line with how we've seen them play in all of the victories in this 4/5 streak. They are attacking and putting lots of pressure on opposing defenses - and in the process are keeping pressure off their own back line. I love seeing the wide-ranging, roaming version of Caldwell. He made steals all over, made more assertive attacking passes than I've ever seen and just played a workhorse game covering a ton of territory. Barnes at least defended well, but his distribution was awful. Also thought Woodbury had a very, very good game. Kamara, in particular, was brilliant, getting behind the KC back line over and over again. A goal and two assists - pretty sweet. I think maybe we can put the talk of Kamara not working out here to rest.
For those of you who DVR'd the game - some of the best footage of the year was the 2nd or 3rd replay of the final goal - all from a single camera at ground level on the endline near the corner, all in one long long shot. Great great camera work. It showed a perfect view of Kamara getting around SKC's right back, getting the cross into the box, then it followed the ball to the foot of Agudelo for the goal, then continued on to show Agudelo leaping back to his feat, and continued with his run back out to Kei to celebrate. But the part of the footage that was worth watching 5 or 6 times was seeing the huge Agudelo post-goal intensity - facial expression, pointing at Kei, etc. - as approaching the camera, and Kamara's very real exuberant smile when Juan leapt to him. The players were fully in the moment, all the crap forgotten -- it could have been a rec game, this game, or the World Cup final - the moment transcended the game itself. I weirdly got chills watching it, it was that pure of a soccer moment. It made this fan forget, at least for a moment, all the disappointing things about this team/franchise/business that are far to easy to dwell on.
Gotcha. So I guess we need to give back the 3 points from the Colorado game because, y'know, they were missing some key players so it doesn't count. But let me spell it out. My point wasn't that Berhalter is a "genius" like that guy Alfred Einstein, no he's just a reasonably competent manager who noticed something in the personnel matchups that he could use to his advantage. Kinda like when Heaps decided not to play Tierney in the OC final because of Dallas' speedy wingers, something like that. OK, maybe not the best example. But I'm sure Heaps has done the same thing, but for some reason right now I just can't think of a time...
LOL! Heaps, talking about Zusi coming in at half time, accidentally refers to his advance scout as a "spy"... Video: Jay Heaps Postgame Press Conference | October 1 October 1, 2016, 10:29PM EDT revolutionsoccer.net
I'm not defending Heaps as a tactician, I just don't think Berhalter deserves a whole lot of praise for noticing that Barnes in central defense is a pretty easy target for a decent 1v1 attacker - and that if you stretch the Revs wide, you leave more space for Kamara to dance with him. Even Heaps could figure that out.
For anyone else who was at the game, did you notice the revs were apparently playing "GUE" and not SKC? They fixed it at half time but it cracked me up. We were trying to figure out who GUE was and why it took 45 minutes to fix.