MATCHDAY GUIDE | Revs at Philadelphia Union (July 16, 2022) By Jeff Lemieux Monday, Jul 11, 2022, 12:46 PM PHI travel to MIA tomorrow night, one of 11 MLS games between tonight and tomorrow night. Revs one of six teams that can rest until Saturday. Revs last trip to Suburu Park was a 1-0 win in September.
Philly won last night in Miami 2-1 and will be hosting us as the first place team in the East this weekend (yes, NYCFC has a game in hand). With last night's results, the Revs have currently fallen to 9th in the East but do have a game in hand on the teams that are in 5th through 7th.
Preview | Three-game road swing continues in Philadelphia as Revs visit 1st-place Union By Jeff Lemieux Friday, Jul 15, 2022, 10:35 AM
Funny - half time stats: Revs 60% possession, 100 more passes than Philly but Philly with 3 shots on goal to Revs 1. Revs win 16 duels vs. Philly's 14,so a battle there. Not watching live, just following online.
If I were Arena, I would bench Kessler for that total act of stupidity. Could you have been more obvious than a total push in the box?
I can't be the only one growing seriously disenchanted with Arena as a coach. As soon as he made that substitution of Maciel for Borrero, and I saw that the Revs were going to just to try to hang on by the skin of their teeth, I felt a sense of foreboding. That tactic just always seems to backfire, particularly for the Revs. Even if, in this instance, it backfired because of two howlers. It just feels unlucky to me, tempting fate, as it were. And then to see him bring on Altidore merely added insult to injury. In what universe does Altidore bring more to the table than, just to throw out a random name, Justin Rennicks? Nothing good EVER happens with Altidore on the field. Such a pity, because that first half was one of the best and most watchable halves of the year -- the Revs were sharp, play was open and end-to-end, there was almost no ticky-tacky fouling. And the buildup on the Revs' goal was as good as anything we've seen this year. Then to throw it all away -- maddening. On the plus side, I've been increasingly impressed with Jon Bell. At the beginning of the year, his distribution was tentative, to put it mildly. But he's improved there tremendously, and he put in a really good defensive performance today (as did Kessler, until.... that.)
4 minutes. Two stupid defensive choices ( Why Petrovich drifting so far out on corner? Why Kessler decking Philly player in the box?). Loss.
And bring on who? Useless Omar? Maybe Farrell (cost us the last game he played). Yes Henry made a mistake but he is still the best we have. Benching Henry would only insure the next game is a loss. He's a smart player and Im sure he realizes what he did wrong. The real problem is the offense. Arena better dress is new star next game. We cannot afford another loss. Switch to a two forward system like we had with Buksa, let Bou play deep (and stay online) and lets see where that takes us. Oh - and STOP wasting minutes on Jozy. It should be obvious he is NEVER going to do anything. Stop putting him in late and making us a man down. HE IS FINISHED, years ago.
I mean that Arena sits newbys around for weeks before he uses them. If this guy is in any kind of shape, we need him ASAP...not weeks from now. He's got a week to practice with the team. He should get some minutes next game. We can't sink any deeper
Heard during the ORL/ATL game yesterday that the Revs lead MLS with number of points dropped after taking a lead (I think it was 26). LAFC have 0 this year. Hopefully the Revs have gotten all their CB brain farts out of their system for the rest of the year. Once this 3-game road trip concludes in Columbus next weekend, the schedule gets a bit easier.
Not picking on you here, but a few things from your post I wanted to respond to. Borrero asked to be pulled off. Right before the play ended, you see him turn back towards the Revs bench and give the sign. If you're saying specifically Maciel, OK, but Borrero was done. Agree that I'd rather have seen Rennicks. But it was Jozy's cross to Boateng at the end where Ema just hit the side netting. That was a glorious ball and deserved a better fate. Completely agree. I started noting this after the Philly home game, we just continue to blow points this year (though I thought it was 24, but could be wrong). It's absolutely maddening. If we had half the points secured, we'd be comfortably in second place. Instead we are in 10th place, and closer to last place in the East than to first. More defensive collapses just continue to occur. And there's not a damn thing being done about it. This season has been an utter disaster so far, plain and simple. Thankfully there's time to right the ship, but they better get going here.[/quote]
Saw this on Twitter. Terrible! Points dropped from winning positions in MLS this season: 1. LAFC - 0 (!!!) 2- Inter Miami - 2 3. NYCFC - 4 ... T-27. FC Cincinnati - 15 T-27. FC Dallas - 15 28. New England Revolution - 24
[/QUOTE] Taking off Borrero wasnt the issue. Putting on Maciel (a DM) instead of say Ema (a winger) is the issue people have.
Nah, it's just a mistake - it happens. The problem is just that the Revs defenders seem to be taking turns lately. The guy was readying to shoot point blank at our keeper and Kessler was on the wrong side and had to do something to disrupt him. In the heat of the moment, you try to be physical and tread the line - he pushed a little too hard and the guy was just enough off-balance that it looked bad. ---- My issues are poor marking on the tying goal and lack of any sustained attack until the final minutes. Our defense is just not good enough to win games - we need to be winning them with our attack, which means scoring more than 1 goal. We played into Philly's press by having Polster and McNamara as our dmids - neither has the boldness or vision to play forward under pressure. We really missed Kaptoum IMO; the worst thing (well, other than turn it over) in the face of a high press is to keep playing it back. It's not rocket-science to find seams and a way forward, but guys like McNamara and Polster are already favoring the back pass with their body position, so there's little threat to pressing more and more. What we should have been doing is what worked so well on our goal - which was as well-worked of a goal as I've seen all season (supposedly every player in our formation was involved). But, that doesn't happen unless we move the ball quickly and cleanly and find lanes to move the ball forward. The press leaves the opponent chasing if you can move the ball quickly and cleanly - we just didn't force them to do that often enough.
That's just it. Kessler had already won position on the ball. He didn't have to do anything, making the push the second most inexplicable play of the weekend. The first was the ATL goalie continuing to setup up his wall after the ref blew the whistle allowing ORL to take the free kick.