Should be a good-sized crowd for the home opener for two reasons..... 1.) The weather (great for this time of year) 2.) Many people who purchased tickets to the Messi game did it by buying a package that includes the home opener.
And as of now, the rain is supposed to stop early in the morning. As of last night, it had been expected during the tailgate.
Two games in, 0 pts. Better effort in the 2nd half zero to show for it. This could be a long first half of the season until Borrero and Bye return. They will add something but probably not enough
My hope is that management is prioritizing the CCC over early-season league play, and that these lineups are not what we will see as we get deeper into the season. That said, the fact that Onalfo didn’t think it was important to add a striker in the offseason is terrifying.
One the one hand, as currently constructed, they should've/could've scored five goals today and taken all 3 points, they created the chances to do it. On the other hand, the poor roster construction as far as our striker options are concerned is a major problem we need to solve, 100%. I'm still pretty even keel about the team right now, but let's see where they are once we hit five games in to the league season and what happens with the Alajuelense series.
I see that Apple has gone back to forcing the score down my throat well before I can navigate to the replay…
Attack so ... static. Lots of time for the defense to set up and snuff out predictable plays. Esmir so great... GIl so great... Chancalay so great... blah blah blah. Where is the dynamic spark (Bou!)? I look to Porter to figure it out. C'mon! The pieces are there!
I think a proper center forward would solve most of this. The team can generate chances, but there’s no cold-blooded killer to bang them in. It’s pretty alarming that no one thought it was worth going out and getting a half-decent CF in the off-season. Parachute Buksa into this team and they’re a real serious contender. Also, this is neither here nor there, but it seemed like the team was struggling to adapt to the windy conditions. It felt like there were several attacks that died because balls in the air either held up too long or moved unpredictably. I was at the game (and at the end of the field opposite the fort), so I didn’t get a good look live, but after seeing videos online, I also have no idea how the Revs don’t get awarded a penalty on VAR after the ref went to the monitor in the first half. The team is in a weird spot, too, where they’re not gonna win Champions League (or whatever it’s called now), but they might make it deep enough into the tournament that it completely ruins any shot they have at a successful league campaign. If I were more pragmatic I’d probably be rooting for Alajuelense in this upcoming series. That and for the Krafts to go bankrupt.
I managed to watch the replay without a spoiler today on a smart TV - but it felt like a miracle. First of all, you have to open settings in the Apple TV app, scroll down, and switch the "show sports scores" option to off. Still, they fill the MLS Season Pass homepage with videos that show goals and highlights (as I'm sure you've noticed - how idiotic, eh?). But I managed to avoid them by shielding my eyes and scrolling downward. "Past Matches" is the second row from bottom, and the bottom row is future matches, so there are no spoilers. And from there, you can select the game and scroll down to "watch replays" without seeing the score. The key is to shield your eyes while scrolling down to "Past Matches" on the Season Pass homepage. Ridiculous that you have to do that, but at least it kind of works...
Regarding the game, I'll agree with everyone that the lack of a #9 killed us today. As a fan, it's frustrating to see such an obviously weak part of the depth chart remain unaddressed. One positive note: VAR was FAST today. If we're going to have the darn thing, and I'd rather we didn't, it at least needs to avoid disrupting the game. Those guys today had it figured out. (And as for the Esmir penalty review, I thought the TFC defender got an awful lot of the ball. There's no way that was a "clear and obvious" error, so I think the ref did the right thing by taking a quick look and then getting on with it - even if it went against us.) In general, I thought the ref did alright - with the exception of falling for an awful Bernardeschi dive somewhere around the 80th minute.
I will go check this setting (again). I set this last year. Why would it reset? Is it a per device setting or account setting (I assumed the latter)? The only explanation that seems to make sense is that I have a new smart TV.
Much different game than the DCU game, but same (0 points) result. How many times have we seen Turner or Petrovic steal a point (or 3) for us? I feel like that's what Sean Johnson did to us yesterday. Gil's curl into the top corner that Johnson just managed to push over the bar, and then Polster's blast. The Revs had 49% possession in the first half and ended the game with 60%, which means they had about 71% in the 2nd half. They completely controlled the 2nd half, but had nothing to show for it. Outshot TOR 22:8, with 6:2 advantage in SOG. On the other side, I feel like Farrell gave Insigne way too much space on his chip goal, and Bye wouldn't have done that. No way to prove it though. Timing on Woods injury couldn't have been worse. Hopefully he can play Wednesday.
Corners 11-0, passes 640-371, Shots 22-8, SOG 6-1. All the stats show one picture only .. except for the most important stat of all. Watching us take the corners was slightly comical because it appeared that TFC had 5 players that were taller than anyone on our side. I think we only got one shot from those 11 corners. Johnson made a couple of fantastic saves, so credit to him. But just another frustrating loss in front of a good crowd. And whatever that absolutely atrocious pregame thing with Scotty "throwing" the tea ... please never do that again. It was so dumb.
Recap | Revs draw crowd of 29,293 to home opener, but suffer 1-0 loss to Toronto FC revolutionsoccer.net Sunday, Mar 3, 2024, 07:03 PM 29,293? That has to be a Revs record for the month of March, at least in Gillette. Last year, the Revs had 2 home games in March, and the combined attendance for both was less than yesterday's. Edit: I guess I should have read the article I posted:
regarding the quote above: due to the construction of the new stadium, the 2002 home opener wasn't until May 11th.
Here's the questionable call. Is this a penalty? #NERevs pic.twitter.com/FrYkHoxl4e— Seth (@SethMan31) March 3, 2024
Didn't see the match but I saw the stats and it looks like the Revs kind of dominated, save for a moment of brilliance by Insigne. Regarding the lack of striker I think it's best to take a long term view. New manager, brought in relatively late (there's no reason Porter couldn't have been hired in November) so he still needs to figure out what he has. Striker is obviously a key position so best not to commit to someone who may not fit the way Porter decides he ultimately wants to play. I also think the rest of the roster is auditioning for the new manager so it's bound to be rocky to start the season. Hopefully this improves over time and I'm going to be the optimist and put my faith in Porter being a good manager with the assumption that he'll figure this out eventually. If we want to blame anyone place it on the same ogranization that fouled up the Arena situation. We're still paying the price for that.
The ref decided that the defender poked the ball away before stepping on his foot. Probably didn't hurt that he was yelling into the ref's ear "I got the ball first, I got the ball first" constantly while the ref was watching the replay. You could hear it on the broadcast.
In my book Farrell could not close him down because he was numbers down and getting no help from Esmir. This was a problem throughout the first half (I did not pay as much attention in the second half when they were on the other side of the field). Farrell was very often put in a tough situation dealing with 2-3 guys without help. Esmir did not track back well at all. Buck did not always get over there to help out either. If porter wanted Esmir to push the attack, giving up some of his defensive coverage, then Buck should have been instructed to fill that space to prevent getting into the situation Farrell found himself in on the goal. If Farrell closes Insigne down he would have just laid it off to the other guy who was more central for a better angled shot. I don't know if this is Esmir being to slow to get back or if Buck is not covering him or if Porter is not instructing them well enough. Whatever it is it needs to be fixed.
As the dad of a keeper, I pay attention closely to their actions. Am I the only one that cringes at the delay Ravas has when he is on the ball? He seems to be slow to respond, instead of a quick lay off/ one touch to safety when the opponent is almost on him, he plays games with the ball, then passes. I would like to see Hitchcock work with him to learn one touch distribution. He is tall, and as others have mentioned, his height should help stop some of those mistakes that lead to goals. Keeper is not the top spot we need, I am starting to give up on Vironi, time to consider cutting him, take the loss and bring in someone who can at least be a poacher, Vironi has many of the skills when attacking and moving the ball, its his last touch that seems to always fail. The only thought would be to change to a 4-4-2, and try two forwards, any two of Chancalay, Veroni, Wood or even Esmir?