2024 Concacaf Champions Cup [R]

A few random thoughts.

Another mostly easy and comfortable match. I continue to be pleased at the depth we can roll out at certain positions. Good to see Kessler back.

I'm going to give Vrioni a little credit. I thought the way he played in the second half in terms of his effort, he looked like a guy that knows he has a lot to answer for and something to prove. I also thought he got hosed on the yellow card this time.

Also, Esmir...my hopes get higher every time I watch him play right now.

Nice to advance. Always good to avoid a Joe Public repeat.

 

I wonder what the Panamanians thought of the whole experience. Was it worth it for them? They played hard, but were clearly outclassed.

 

so was it 3 or 4? The Revs site has it 3-0 but they list 4 goals. Was one VAR-ed off?

 

3-0. Boateng had a goal disallowed by VAR. The pass from Farrell to Lima (Lima passed to Vrioni who would had the assist) was ruled offside. It looked inconclusive by the TV angle, which would lead me to say the call on the field (onside) was not a clear & obvious error.

 

Thanks -- the Boateng goal at 82 is still showing on the Revs site. . .

 

The Revs were good tonight. Pretty much everyone who played. Nice bounce-back game by Vrioni. That yellow on him was weak. I'm really looking forward to a season of watching Esmir. He looked dangerous every time he touched the ball and he works well with Vrioni and Chancalay. Nice to see Kessler back in action too.

The only point of concern is that Carles got taken off at half time apparently due to a sore achilles. Hopefully just a precautionary measure.

 

I don't mind the cold as long as I'm not cold. Last night I dressed for it and was not cold. It was a total blast being there. Time for all supporters to take this team seriously and show up, no matter the weather! So much fun!

 

As a note they showed the actual offside lines drawn on the video board in stadium so I think he was objectively offside. It was very close though.

 

A few random thoughts:

Vrioni went down easy in the box, it wasn't a penalty nor was it a yellow card for diving. Two minutes after Vrioni's yellow, Jones gets mugged trying to quickly get the ball back in play. That's a yellow card, but no call.

I was impressed by how well they played as a team. They passed and moved the ball around as a team much better than they did last year. It wasn't just a 2 man team, they would get 4, 5, or 6 players involved around the box. That should help the Revs' scoring ability this year.

I have to give Vrioni credit for his 2 assists (var has got to go). For someone who's under pressure, at least from the Big Soccer group, to score. He's looking up and picking out a teammate, instead of blasting away at the goal from a bad angle gets an attaboy.

I agree with everybody....Esmir is one talented soon to be 19yr old.

 

I tried to pay attention to Vrioni and watch the runs he was making. He was constantly trying to get behind the defense only to have the player with the ball hold it too long or turn and go the other way. Some of his runs were not greats but he made many dangerous runs that were not rewarded.

 

I also get the sense that this is a guy the other teams know they have to mark tightly. When he's clicking he seems he can be a handful... I was so disappointed by his DC game, but I'm over it now and I'm back in the "give him a serious chance to shine" camp.

 

I'll be honest. I only caught highlights of the first leg ,and I know nothing about the quality of opponent, but regardless I found it refreshing to see a game in which the Revs thoroughly dominate. Throughout the night it just felt like goals were 'inevitable' instead of 'hopeful'.

A couple notes......

1.) The Vrioni yellow card was complete BS.
2.) Esmir - very pleased with his progression thus far. Honestly, we saw flashes of brilliance in his first few games off the bench two years ago. I thought there was going to be a big leap last year, but maybe this is the year.
3.) We are showing some good depth thus far. It should be even better when Borrero and Bye come back.

 

I just went back and viewed the highlights again. Vrioni had a part in 3 of the 4 goals (counting Ema's). Primary assist on Ema and Kaye and a secondary assist on Nacho's goal with a nice little lay-off touch to Carles. I would say that is a pretty good night.

 

Re VAR I've been watching an entire season (Leicester City in the Championship) without it and the game is so much better that way.

Even with it, calls still get blown left and right, you get ridiculous delays and worse than that, some really pretty goals get wiped away because of something stupid like an arm being over the imaginary line.

It just needs to go away - permanently - at all levels.

 

It looked to me like the defender (mis)played it with his head - he got enough of it that I wouldn't call it incidental, so I think Lima should have been on-side - the ball came from an opponent.

That wind was pretty brutal. I've been to colder games, but I was pretty d@#! cold last night - even with lots of layers. I stood through the last 10 minutes just to get some feeling back in my toes.

He's going to have a breakout year if he stays healthy.

In his first appearance this year, I thought Esmir looked noticeably bigger and stronger (great to be a teenager!). Last night I got a first look at Buck in person this year - he's gotten bigger and stronger over the offseason as well - he's a man now. You can see why Premier League teams are interested; he's not going to be physically overmatched.

I think Vrioni overall played an excellent, very unselfish game - he played an important part in every goal, especially the one called back. He did have one excellent scoring chance that he flubbed pretty badly - that should have been the one to get the monkey off his back (folks in my section were ragging him, calling him a 'stiff'. Well, he was a stiff with 3 assists).

I think part of Vrioni's problem now is that Chancalay is making aggressive runs into the prime scoring slots, so Vrioni has to look for an alternate run - and Chancalay is ending up with the better chances. Not a problem for the team, but it limits the number of good looks Vrioni is getting.

But, as we get into the MLS season, I think Chancalay is going to be drawing a lot of attention ...

 

I was wondering about that too. The VAR crew had to have ruled it was incidental, but the defender made a play on it. Too much going against the replay elements on that one - call on the field should have stood.

Good to read that observation about Buck. I think you or someone else made the exact same point at the start of the 2023 season, so he's had two years now of good growth (and I'm sure he's growing throughout the seasons, but can focus more on it during the offseason).

 

Not sure how that gets decided. There's definitely a little push in the back, but it also looks like Vrioni goes down too easily.

Generally, a ruling for simulation is a lot more blatant than that. If that's the standard, we'll be seeing lots of cards.

That said, I'll be pretty surprised if it's rescinded - and this is a pretty big deal in what should be a tough series.

 

I'm watching Philly versus Pachuca. It's been a pretty good match so far, and I'm led to reflect that Philadelphia is the anti-Revolution. They've had great organizational stability for years, and you can see it in the teams they put on the field. I'm impressed by their ability to hold onto players like Wagner and Carranza, who were definitely drawing interest from elsewhere.