At some point teams with Money are going to start raiding the Revs...but, for now, I'm drinking Kool Aid by the stein.
Yep, I agree. Considering Rowe, Caldwell, and Neumann (and presumably Gonsalves and Alston when they're back to full health) are all in the mix to start, it's a positive, not a negative, that they're monopolizing the sub spots. The other guys are going to have to play out of their minds (and indeed, hopefully they do) to sneak in.
I watched the MLS Live broadcast. I never thought I'd say this, but I'll take Paul Mariner over Heather Mitts - as a color commentator, that is. Philly announcers kept whining about what might have been if only Wenger had scored that early header in the fourth minute.
Once again, we give up a huge chance in the first few minutes, and our GK has to make a great save. Have to start off games stronger defensively. On the other end of the ball, I really felt we could have had 10 last night. Great game play all around, and even more credit to Heaps. One negative ... the last 10 minutes, they backed off. I hate that nonsense. This isn't U-6 soccer, there's no mercy rule, and these goals do count in the tie-breakers. Corners with no one in the box, free kicks with no one in the box. Disappointing.
Given recent trends towards being proactive about moves within MLS, I can see Burns taking steps to retain more than the number of players we can protect. I think we'll still lose someone, but I don't think it will be a major piece or one of the young players.
Solid win last night - any time you put up 5 on the road its impressive. Just need to get tighter in the back, which is an ongoing concern. The first goal was a screamer, third a weak pen but the second should never have happened. Can't give them gilt edge chances to take an early lead. Also, Heaps needs to use more of his subs to keep guys fresh. But it was really an impressive win, well done revs.
Watched and also on DVR. This one will be on a loop on my TV this week. Also have high praise for Mariner. Best analyst I've heard here.
Horrendous? It wasn't even bad -- he cleared it out of the box and no one closed fast enough on the shooter, who hit a world class strike. Sometimes the other guys make great plays -- goals like that are gonna happen, and it doesn't mean anyone did anything horrendous. The second and third goals were defensive break-downs, and those could be a concern. Two thoughts, though: (1) I think goals two and three both came after Dorman was off the field (just saying), and (2) if your biggest problem is not knowing how to play with a four goal lead, then you're in pretty good shape.
The only nit I can pick is that I would have subbed Davies in for Mullins at the end. Try to keep some of the rust off. Mullins has done well. But I doubt he can go 90 a game for the remainder of the season.
Totally agree on the first point. If it takes a GOTW contender to beat us, then sure, well played by the other guys. I'm still concerned that our lack of the ability to possess is going to cost us. We won't always have that kind of cushion and we need to be able to frustrate teams when we have a late one goal lead. Counter attack teams need to be able to switch to a possession team in an instant if they want to grab a cup or two. We haven't shown that skill set yet. The upside is I think it's just because we haven't had the right mind set to do it yet, not because we lack the skill.
This is a bit random, but I noticed when Caldwell was subbed on, he immediately untucked his nicely tucked shirt the moment he got on the field. I saw Rowe do the same. Is a tucked shirt a requirement to get on or something? I thought it was funny, at least.
I've noticed this too, and did some digging. FIFA doesn't mention anything about tucking in your shirt in the official LOTG. But referees are taught to enforce this unofficial rule. From what I can gather, it seems to stem mostly from youth soccer, where I guess we want the kiddos to learn to tuck in the shirt. Also, Professional jersey in the modern game are cut to fit the body better, unlike the old days where the jersey was more baggy. So I think we have come to point where we have Referees who grew up being told to tuck in the shirt, who learned at Referee school to enforce this rule, but no center referee really cares at the professional level. Players may have preferred to tuck in the baggy shirt in the past, but now they are made to not be so baggy. With that said, it is explicitly the 4th officials job to make sure a player's equipment is in accordance with the LOTG. Do you have shin gaurds? No Jewlery? The correct colored shirt? Is that shirt tucked in (unofficial rule)? So the 4th official makes them tuck it in, then they enter, untuck, and the center ref doesn't care.
That was another fun one for us. As I said in the game, I thought Nguyen was just immense, he has been the guy that just makes the team go. There are so many times where he gets the ball in small spaces and finds a way to get out of pressure by finding a teammate and starting an attack, rather than just kicking it long, I feel like a saw him do that a bunch of times where he made himself an outlet for a teammate, received the ball in our own half as Philly was pressing to win it back and a give away would have been dangerous. I'm not as worried about them sitting back in the last 10 minutes, it's not great, but it happens to teams everywhere, seems kind of a human nature thing. They should strive to not let it happen, but not a huge concern for me. I'm quite happy with Mullins, as is everybody here, he is getting the job done, and seems like the only guy on the roster who can play that position like it needs to be played, the fact that we haven't seen much of Imbongo and Davies (whose distribution didn't impress me in his fleeting appearance there), so we'll have to assume they aren't doing the job in training if they've been passed by a rookie. I do think we need more depth there though, not only because he is a rookie and you can't really depend on rookies to be consistent, I'm not saying it can't happen happen, but it's not something one should plan on in general. Also, him being so successful is in a sense somewhat of a concern in terms of possibly becoming a targeted player by opposing defenses. Being a lone guy up top, and a rookie who is scoring, I worry that some of the defenders with less than cultured feet might just choose to use their feet for kicking Mullins, and I worry that things won't work as well with the other forward options we have. I have a similar worry for Dorman and what cover we have for him, not because I worry as much about him getting targeted/hacked, more for missing games due to the occasional yellow card suspension one is likely to get playing that position, and because he's not a young buck. Diego seems to be back in form, which is obviously great to see. It is never going to be a GOTW candidate, but I thought his goal was very impressive, just because it wasn't really a clean ball to him, it got caught behind him or in his feet and he was kind of in traffic, yet he was able to get the ball out smoothly and shoot it into a very small window. So glad he's back. I do have to say, Teirney played well offensively, but I'm still not sold on him as a starting defender. It's not just hte 2nd goal Philly scored, where it sure seemed like the scorer was his responsibility, yet he was totally out of position, but there are at least 2 times where he just stepped too hard at a player advancing with the ball, and got left in the dust, once in the first half on the sideline where he swung and missed, but Diego was there to track the guy down, and another time in the 2nd half I think, near the half line, where he just stepped as the ball was passed to someone, and the guy ran right by him as he was stepping forward. For a guy who's been in the league so long, he just seems to make way too many mental errors in positioning and tackling. I'm hoping Alston is back soon, and can do a better job. Credit to Heaps, the team didn't actually look that great in the first 2 wins of this 4 game stretch, they seemed more like holding on and finding a way to win late, but he seems to have gotten them working well in the past 2, and without 2 key players to boot, who I'm guessing will be back soon. Did every body remember to take a drink when Brad mentioned the "gel" word in pregame? Perhaps he mentioned it other times and I missed it, if so, I'll have to drink for those.
I believe the rule is that it has to be tucked in when you enter the field, but if it happens to come untucked in the run of play, they don't care. I honestly think the untucked thing is something that comes more from current fashion tastes. I grew up tucking my shirt in, and find it more comfortable, but I know kids I coach say they think it's not comfortable and looks funny, in regular life or in sports, and some people, like my girlfriend who is a few years younger than me, think it's funny I like to tuck shirts in. For me, I see 20somethings do things like wear sweaters with their untucked shirt tails sticking out under the sweaters, and apparently that's acceptable these days, but for me it's ridiculous. I only turned 40 a few years ago, but man do I feel old
Watching the Philly game again on replay. Enjoying it all over again. This time without nervous tension!
I'm in your age group, and my brother told me to never tuck in shirts about 6-7th grade, still don't not as comfortable.
The team has won 4 in a row and scored 10 goals in the last 2 games. I come on here and I'm still reading negative posts. I guess I should not be surprised.
Did the same. Great way to end the weekend. The good news about letting their foot off the gas is that it gives Heaps something to focus on this week to keep the team on task. If it had ended 6 or 7-1, which was realistic at minute 65, it would have been tough for the young guys not to feel a little too good about themselves. Now, they can enjoy the result and the goals but still realize that it doesn't take much for the other team to kick them in the butt if they relax.