Armchair Analyst: All 24 MLS teams in review | Week 22 analysis August 5, 2019, 12:47AM EDT Matthew Doyle
Revolution concede LAFC were "better team," but blame themselves in loss August 3, 2019, 11:59PM EDT Jason York
Revs still in 6th place on PPG. Six of their final ten games are on the road, including 2 on the west coast.
1) this was a great game to watch - a real gem for MLS. Yes, LAFC brought most of the skill, but the Revs played a very effective and dangerous counter game. 2) while LAFC gave a lesson in possession, ball-control and attacking football, with a couple of breaks, the Revs could easily have come out with a tie or even a win. 3) in the long run, losing the streak should eliminate any thoughts that they are good enough now - but the performance should be encouraging enough to believe they aren't that far off with being able to compete with anyone. The gave up an early flukey goal and a second clincher when they were pressing for the equalizer and physically starting to wear down (Caicedo-uno), but they had a lot of dangerous counters all game. They lost because they couldn't finish those chances, but I think the tension of the game and pressure from LAFC had an influence on that. I was sitting behind Bradley and he was definitely very nervous about all the chances the Revs were getting. I doubt that he was that happy with his club after the game.
Lots of credit to Turner in this one, as he kept that score from being a lot worse than 2-0. This was exactly what I was afraid of after the last match, too many giveaways in our own end, and LAFC will punish you. But as rkupp and others have mentioned, that was still an entertaining game. Usually after a loss, I'm upset because I hate the Revs losing. But this one, no real complaints. We played the best team in the league, so losing wasn't all that surprising. I felt we did hold our own. Onward and Upward.
Overall a fun game and decent performance against the class of the league. I came away more pleased with the performance of the defense than the attack. In the back, Turner was a beast and Rossi and Vela were kept well below superhuman status (lucky golazo notwithstanding). Caicedo and Agudelo deserve a lot of credit for this in addition to the back line. The drop off when Zahibo replace Caicedo was telling. Up front, it looked like there was an effort to play as quickly as Bruce wanted and the press required, but the accuracy and speed of thought wasn’t quite there. Both Gil and Bou seemed a little off their game. I thought Teal did fine with his holdup play and harassing the LAFC defenders when they had the ball, but, oh my, the finishing on that breakaway! Penilla’s physicality and speed got him into good positions, but, like Teal, his shooting and passing were way off. It will be interesting to see whether they all learned their lesson and if a week of practicing at the quicker one touch pace can have them ready for Seattle.
Just watched the game on tape delay.... agree with general sentiment on the board -- beaten by a better team, but no giving up or rolling over. We need to be much more clinical in the final third and Teal was not the only culprit - Penilla and Bou both missed chances that deserved better. One comment, and I have not looked for this in other games, or even thought about general defensive strategy, BUT I started to try and notice when LA matched us with offensive players to our defensive players inside our 20 yard line (or the box.) There were easily 5 or 6 times that LA was either 4 on 5, 5 on 5 in our box and once when they outnumbered us. Those are situations that I would think any team would be happy to have. That, to me, needs to get fixed, especially against a team with LAFC's firepower. The defenders (and Turner) scrambled like crazy, but eventually you are going to pay and we did.
Arena noncommittal on summer signings as Revolution ponder path to playoffs August 5, 2019, 12:08PM EDT Jason York