We’ll gladly forgive Reggie for his philosophical naïveté and appreciate him for his passion and talent.
Reggie Cannon goes the full 90 as Boavista win 3-0. Looks like he also picked up a yellow late in stoppage time. Boavista (currently 14th) are both 3 points away from the top half of the table, and 3 points away from last place in the table.
Caught the last half hour. Reggie's been solid as a rock, with a couple of key plays in the box. The difference in role between playing RWB for Barcelona and playing RWB for Boa Vista is, um, stark. Reggie spent most of his time violating social distancing rules with his own keeper Huge win for Boavista, moving them from the very bottom of the table to safety for the moment.
Got the assist on the second goal Reggie Cannon ASSIST! He lays the ball off to Paulinho, and he does the rest. It still counts! #USMNT pic.twitter.com/ghPfXkZx12— USMNT Universe (@UsmntU) March 6, 2021
That is certainly an assist. But a perfect reason why the stat can be hard to interpret. You can put a perfect ball at someone's feet and if they don't score then you get no credit in the eyes of the casual observer. This play happens to be an example of the counter... where you do very little and the goal scorer does the rest. I like that the announcers are starting to talk about "chances created" as it is a much better stat for an offensive footballer. But I too wonder whether Reggie's pass would have made the grade w/ that assist? I.e. are all assists chances created?
Just a bit of insight, Reggie did a great job to nulify Rúben Vinagre who is a loanee from Wolverhampton, very likely their best player along with another guy you probably don't know about. Vinagre is considered to be one of the most promising left backs in the world (although Portugal is absolutely stacked on the sides, but still good promise as a comparison - also, I know, trying to quantify potential is not easy). The portuguese left back is very creative and his crosses are deadly. Reggie proved to be an important obstacle. Your compatriot is proving to be very, very reliable on his tackling, anticipation and positioning so far against the most creative in the league. A very atypical season so far with some midtable teams ranked being in the bottom after a rough start (including Famalicão, Jorge Mendes injected good players for a club of that dimension and they are doing very poorly), while some relegation quality teams are in midtable. In the meantime we have Benfica investing 100M into their squad and it's been nothing but horrible so far. FC Porto go from 8 to 80 and Sporting have been showing a mental fortitude that is unusual in that club. The only team I would say have been themselves thus far is Braga, everything else has been unpredictable. Boavista have conquered 7 points in the last 4 matches, if they keep up like this, maintenance is a strong possibility. Next match is against Benfica away. Boavista usually plays well against teams that play open, but I wouldn't bet on anything at this point. This team is inconsistent, but hopefully they will do well. Reggie has the chance to prove himself once again on a big stage.
Starts: 🗒️ 11 INICIAL – LINE UP 🙎🏻♂𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐀! 🏁💪🏼#BoavistaFC #LigaNOS #SLBBFC pic.twitter.com/dIqbl6e3iH— Boavista FC (@boavistaoficial) March 13, 2021
1-0 Benfica at halftime, and I wouldn't hold my breath for a comeback here. Boavista went down a man near the beginning of the match and they've been pinned back ever since with Benfica finally breaking through near the end of the half. Like the rest of his side, Cannon has been struggling to defend against a Benfica side with a man advantage. I think it might have been his man that scored the goal against. It was a low centering cross from inside the box, and the Benfica attacker slipped between Cannon and the CB to finish the opportunity. He also had a small part in the sending off in that he had the ball tackled away from him when he was in the opposition half, and Benfica quickly countered down the wing in the space Cannon had vacated, leading to a DOGSO foul just outside of the box (initially ruled a penalty and a yellow, but later changed to a FK and a red after video review).
Cannon started and played nearly the whole match (subbed out at 90+4) today, a 2-0 win over Belenenses. Boavista jump to 14th in the table.
Boavista currently leading 2-1 at halftime against Rio Ave, with Cannon starting (and not responsible for the goal against). On the other end, from a CONCACAF perspective, Alberth Elis has looked good, combining with Yusupha Njie for both of Boavista's goals.
He's got 5 goals and 5 assists this season, which is a decent tally considering Boavista's struggles. Anyway, this one ends 3-3. Rio Ave managed a last second equalizer in the 93rd minute. I stopped watching after Cannon left the game with Boavista ahead 2-1, but down a man. Cannon played a part in the red card unfortunately. He was unable to stop a Rio Ave player from getting off a cross at the touchline, and a Boavista defender was sent off after being adjudged to have fouled the Rio Ave attacker trying to get on the end of that cross. (Boavista's keeper did save the subsequent penalty though.)
Cannon has struggled with allowing crosses in just by being passive. Too concerned with getting beat, so it happens in a different way. Crushing stoppage time goal allowed by Boavista. It's literally the difference between the teams switching places - Boavista 12th & Rio Ave 15th.
Starts and still in with Boavista up 2-0 late trying to create some distance between them and the relegation zone.
Year zero for the new investor, so it's expected. Cannon, Chidozie, Hamache, Sauer, Alberth Elis, Devenish are rumoured to be leaving in the summer. There might be more.