Nashville thrashed Dallas last night, 3-0 (with American football lines on the field). https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2020-10-20-nashville-sc-vs-fc-dallas/recap Revs get an extra day's rest by comparison.
Unlikely he will be available for Friday's game, but: Trade: Nashville SC acquire Handwalla Bwana from Seattle Sounders for Jimmy Medranda October 21, 2020 12:02PM EDT Tom Bogert
Three observations from Nashville SC's win over FC Dallas October 21, 2020 12:37AM EDT Pardeep Cattry
MATCHDAY GUIDE | New England Revolution at Nashville SC | October 23, 2020 Elizabeth Pehota Nashville is undefeated (4-0-3) in their last seven home games, and only 4 points behind the Revs in the Eastern Conference table, with a game in hand.
Nashville is a really, really good defensive team -- maybe the best in MLS. But for most of the season, their defense was SO good they even kept their own offense from scoring. But that seems to have changed recently. So on paper, you'd favor the Revs over this expansion squad made up of MLS retreads -- but in the real world, maybe not. The saving grace for the Revs is that they're playing in Nashville. 1-0 for the Revolution, anyone?
1-0 for the Revolution unfortunately I think is unlikely. Revs’ offensive finishing repeatedly has been incoherent.
Revs struggle to score against good D, like Philly (only 2 goals in 4 games, both by Buchanan). If the Revs take advantage of a favorable bounce, that is possible. I think another 0-0 draw is more likely. Both Nashville and the Revs have played four 0-0 draws this year (including one against each other).
I think we'll score - we've definitely been on the upswing in terms of attacking time, possession, attacking positions, shots and quality chances. We were pretty unlucky (and Blake-bit) not to score more in the last one - echoing Arena's post-game comment. We seem to have figured out how to work the ball through midfield much better lately - and once in the attacking end, we've gotten better at sustaining the attacks.
If Arena starts Caldwell and Tommy Mac together... we lose and dont score. That duo cannot move the ball forward and they pull too many back to help them..... leaving us weak on attack. I want to see one of them plus Diego to give us a chance
I'd be surprised if he plays, but it is still a good sign. Nashville 🔜🛫#NERevs pic.twitter.com/pJjKB5ejIj— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) October 23, 2020
My ideal starting midfield feels like Polster with Rowe. I think Diego has played well of late and probably deserves to start somewhere in MF, but isn't going to displace Lee. Tommy has looked generally good since arriving as well. Maybe it should be Polster Diego to start, especially against a Nashville team that likes to sit back and defend.
Im thinking he gets a few minutes near the end. My biggest question is how Arena gets Gil and Lee on the field together once he's fit?
So much possession and clever passing, but no attacking result. What, what does that say?!?!?!? Now Nashville scores off an uncovered corner!!!!???!!!
Good reply after conceding - nice finish from Buksa. Disappointing to not be more dangerous with so much possession. Most important takeaway from the game - Carles Gil looked fit. Three games left before playoffs. Hopefully Bou gets back and we can get a chance to put the best XI out there. Too bad Penilla went down right when he was starting to play better.
Please, let us never see Gil and Nguyen in the game together, again. Our midfield had owned the middle third until the sub. Gil should not have come on tonight -- foot injury recovery and a slippery muddy pitch -- Sh!tty coaching decision. Buksa with a great individual effort to score the goal, but also on closing down defenders to limit passing options. Shame on the offensive players, though also. You can't dwell on the ball with ten men behind the ball. None of them showed the sense of urgency needed or the one-touch skill needed to break a bunker until after Nashville scored. The offense seemed to want to get the ball wide and hit really poor crosses into a box where only Teal stood a chance to head the ball in, versus three or four big defenders. Three of the four corners were taken short. All three ended up with us having possession around the midfield circle. That's the NBA equivalent of taking your free throws from center court. There wasn't a good camera angle, but Dax's yellow could have been red -- I thought it was studs into the plant foot by two footing the tackle. Highly likely that McNamara is injured and it was a classic reckless challenge.
uhhhh....? I thought Lee+Gil+Buksa+Manneh is the most dangerous our attack has looked all season. Gil and Lee are seeing completely different angles than everyone else on the field, and I'm excited to see them work their magic together. My big takeaway was That Tommy Mac covered up for a lot of Scotty Caldwell's errors (how many times did he pass to an opponent or out of bounds? 5 times he passed directly to a Nashville player's feet, and twice he just kicked the ball out of bounds un pressured). People were just clowning on him after the revs 1st sub. Its no wonder Scotty is man marking Zimmerman on the Nashville goal and he just gets absolutely demolished on the play.
My point was that Lee and Gil weaken the defense, not that they don't play well together offensively. I thought that Lee excelled for most of the match, and seemed the only hope for us to score until Gil/Buksa came on. If Scotty was man defending Zimmerman on a set piece, that's on Bruce, not Caldwell. That'd be like Patton sending a foot soldier to defend against a Panzer tank (almost a foot taller and 70 pounds heavier). I saw Zimmerman go up over Kessler (who was zonal, not man defending) to score the goal. Agree that Scotty's passing is sporadic -- I have more of an issue with his playing square or back too often.
Scotty has him in the initial scrum, and Zimmerman beats him to every spot before demolishing him in the air. Kessler comes from the 6 to contest the header, but the FK is too far away from him for him to get to it. Its a wonder that once Polster came on the defense seemed to be fine again and the revs spent the last 10 minutes of the match with Nashville firmly pinned in their own end As for defense, something to keep in mind is Nashville spent the first 60 minutes of the game attacking with 2 guys, 3 tops. Even when they had extended possessions in the revs 3rd the might get 5 yellow shirts up the field. By comparison after Dax came on Nashville were routinely sending 4-5 guys up the field. I'd say its much easier for a defense to look good when the team theyre playing against doesnt even pretend to attack.
The Revs ended the game with basically the line up I would like to see them start with going forward. The only change being Buttner in for Manneh, pushing Jones up to left mid. My complaint with BA is that he gets too defensive in his line-ups. We have a good back 4 and keeper, add Polster in at d mid and your defense is fairly solid. That will leave you with a dangerous group on the offensive end that should score a lot of goals; or that the very least keep a lot of pressure on their opponents.
Count me on the pro Lee + Carles lineup. It prevents the opponent from over-committing to Gil. When the extra defender collapsed onto Gil on the right side, Lee was free to send in several tasty through balls into the left channel (that unfortunately Jones mostly didn't do anything with). Maybe they would be exposed against a different opponent but I'm not opposed flat-out. Plus Carles probably not 90 minute-ready for a while anyway.... Yelled out loud on the Buksa finish. Confidence can only help him. Fingers crossed we are done with the injury bug. Looking forward to this last stretch.
- elated that Gil got significant conditioning minutes and came off in good shape - hard to know about the Zimmerman goal, when we don't know what the defensive plan was on that play. That's the kind of transparency you hope for in all sports, but never get with the Revs. - I loved the Gil/Nguyen pairing, but it doesn't help when you need to win the ball back - which the Revs did if they wanted a chance for the win - Yes, Nashville is very good at packing it in and defending, but why? Do they have no ambition at all? In a late-season home game, when they are playing a team in front of them that they potentially could leap-frog, they still weren't willing to go for a win unless if fell into their laps??? That's bad for Nashville, bad for their fans, bad for MLS and bad for the sport. - Büttner started well, but clearly doesn't seem to have the stamina for 90 minutes - his influence started strong, then steadily declined over the course of the game. Good sub by Arena to remedy that. - loved the play by Buksa - creative, nimble, quick, decisive, ... a good pass to him in a quality position, but he basically scored with an individual effort 1v3, leaving the keeper with little chance. - I was thinking in the first half that I wished we had Buksa's hold-up capability for the balls played up to Bunbury - hope McNamara isn't seriously injured - he's someone I always want on the field. I was disappointed that he went off instead of Caldwell, but understand it, with the timing.