I thought Joseph was awful, so awful it was nearly comical. And I am not talking about his giveaways. His movement was slow, late, and lazy. Yeah he tried a bit at the end to get us something in attack, but there is no way this team can carry him in midfield anymore. Feilhaber, Rowe, and Nguyen need to be moved closer together to work as a unit. They are the only ones out there playing the same game. Brettschnieder is a bad version of Schwalski. Cardenas may or may not work out wide but he is certainly not a forward. Simms seemed lost. The defense was too patchwork to judge at this point. Jury is out on them. I'd like to see Feilhaber playing in Joseph's spot.
I said it several times last night and I'll say it again. Shalrie is done at this level as a CM or a CDM. It's too easy to pressure him into a bad pass.
The team has some talent in the midfield. Nguyen surprised me. And we haven't seen White yet. I also consider Cardenas a midfielder. Obviously, the roster is unbalanced. As someone up thread mentioned, maybe put Shalrie up top? I need to see several performances like this from him before i start calling for his retirement. Lozano>Cochrane...based on one game. The going concern for the last few years has been the forward situation. Forwards who score goals are a valuable commodity. You rarely find them in the bargain bin. They cost money.
First off, I assure you Dr. Kenneth Noisewater is not his real name. Ask him about the octagon. (Props if you understand the reference). Brettschneider - 4.5 Cardenas - 5 Feilhaber - 5.5 Joseph - 4 Simms - 5.5 Rowe - 5 Soares - 4.5 McCarthy - 5.5 Lozano - 5 Alston - 5 Reis - 6 Nguyen - 6.5 Guy - N/A Polak - N/A That's my moderate take on it. - Brettschneider I felt did hold the ball well at some points, but obviously should have never been put in this position. He wasn't receiving great service (except for his whiff) and the team has been given no chance to build chemistry. - Revs played very compact in the midfield last night. I think Rowe and Feilhaber are giving into their CM tendencies a little too much. Taking out Shalrie or Simms and introducing Nguyen on the wing could alleviate that problem. - Shalrie may deserve the bench, but it won't happen. Heaps won't bench his DP. - I thought Simms was very tidy last night defensively and kept possession well at times. I was pleasantly surprised. - Soares is not a left back. The depth at this point is embarrassing. - Honestly, if we can't compete with a Rafael Baca/Sam Cronin midfield, my prediction of 35-39 points will end up closer to 26-30. - McCarthy was also surprisingly adequate, and Cardenas showed flashes.
I think if you were expecting the first game of the season to be a thing of beauty, you were setting your hopes too high. The first half was pretty sketchy, for both teams -- but no surprise about that. The second half was better, at least for the Revs. I swear, if they had brought Fagundez on about the 65th minute, they could have come out of San Jose with a point. In fact, ignoring the first half, most of the men in the new white shirts were at least okay last night. But they're not going to do well under any circumstances with the void in the middle of the park. Shalrie just looked heavy-legged and groggy last night. Surprising, since he seemed rejuvenated in preseason. If he can find himself, and if we can put a halfway-acceptable striker (Sene) up top, I think we're okay-ish. And I think Polak is our new left back. After all, who else have we got for the spot?
Three final thoughts on the game, statistical analysis, and player ratings. Had about 24 hours to digest the game, and it looks like this.
I didn't think so but one shouldn't pass up an opportunity for a spirited play on words when the other option is to continue to discuss your teams very bad showing the night before.
I had to look it up, but having done so, I love the name. It's odd that for many years, we didn't have anyone who could call themselves an attacking CM, and now we have arguably 4 (KR, BF, LN and FC). Clearly the downside is that we haven't got any out and out wingers, but does that have to be a problem? Couldn't there be a system in which they all played and freely interchanged behind a #9?
Yeah, that's a problem with the surface. Its been that way consistently. My only guess is the ground is pretty hard, so when they wet the grass to help the ball skip, players aren't getting the traction from the subsurface they need, so lots of slipping. New stadium should solve that problem. The biggest thing for everyone to remember after game one in a new season is nobody knows how the changes teams make in the offseason are going to upset the balance of power. It could be the revs just lost to a good side on the road, or it could have been 2 mediocre to bad teams out there. It takes about 10 games to start to get an idea of how the league is shaking out, and even then teams can go in the tank or take off after that.
I didn't watch much of the Revs preseason so this was basically my introduction to the new changes. I think that was Shalrie's worst performance as a Rev by a large margin. I don't believe that will reflect his normal performance going forward. They may need to further restrict his role if there are repeats. Heaps certainly got tested in this game both with respect to the playing style and his key vet having a horrible game. I'd like to know what Jay said at half time and afterwards to Shalrie and the team. I actually thought the game boiled down to our stars not performing as well as theirs. Shalrie directly caused the first goal and had so many bad turnovers and did little on the positive side. Benny improved after a slow first 15 minutes, but didn't take advantage of his relatively few opportunities, and did not get in a good position for the first opportunity he had. In the end, Wondo did what they paid him to and that was the difference. I think the non-stars for both teams were about equal in play. The MLS may have discovered a unique form of relegation. Instead of moving teams up and down divisions, they can just move the sucky teams to the East (check out the current standings).
lol Before the season, I said I'd give Heaps 5 games before I started criticizing this past off season. Do I really have to wait?
Based on one game, I didn't see anything positive Lozano brings to the table. He mindlessly hoofed the ball forward, even when he wasn't highly pressured. I can't recall a quality chance he shut down or a moment when he commanded the box. On the other side of the field, Bernardez was putting on a clinic. About the only thing Lozano really did well was deliver yellow-card-worthy fouls. I liked what I saw from McCarthy a lot better.
Sitting in the Nashua Garden on Saturday night, I was pining poetically about all the great players that used to be on this team. Lekic and Caraglio and Zerka. Brett Blakeschneider just felt so woefully confused off the ball, and so willing to give up possession when the ball hit his feet. The very fact that RyGuy was subbed in for Simms as opposed to Deigo shows a huge tactical misunderstanding on Heaps part. That little Firecracker just opens up so much space for the rest of the team, he he can have such a serious impact without ever touching the ball. Put Diego in the middle, clear up some room for Rowe on the wing...Shit! I know nothing about advanced soccer tactics and that still sounds like a 90x better solution than Guy for Simms. Does anyone know if Heaps actually sat through the 45' coaching class?
I don't think Guy instead of Fagundez was a tactical misunderstanding on Heaps' part so much as he's still in "protect Diego" mode like Nicol was. In my opinion, it's time to start giving Diego major minutes now. He's 17 now, he's not going to get significantly bigger than he already is, and he's proven from a pure skill level he's better than most of the team. Either throw him out there or sell him to Europe so we can get another transfer fee we'll never spend, sitting him isn't going to accomplish anything anymore.
Shocking. People sound surprised by this? $$. For some reason, a couple of people will argue this ... but at the end of the day, it always comes down to $ for the Revs. You and I have a very different definition of "a lot of extremely talented players." But other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play? I think you mistake Kraft for someone who cares. I can't wait till the next promotion for Burns. I love that people have no problem whatsoever just throwing crap on the wall and watching it slowly roll down without any repercussions.