Not the best of recent performances, but another three road points. We didn’t look particularly troubled by them, but we did let them hang around way too long. Nice to see the Tony Delamea of a few years ago.
Good result puts Revs above the line tied with MTL with a game in hand and better goal differential. We made it harder than it should have been, but it’s good to still get three points rather than find a way to lose. I know it was against bottom feeders, but two clean sheets in a row is encouraging.
• I have only sympathy for the players who had to play 90' in borderline unsafe conditions, but that game was ugly. You will say good teams win ugly games on the road, but that one was hard to watch. • The players who brought it were Turner, Gil, Farrell, Bye, and Delamea. That's pretty much it. Diego was fair at best as the #8. Bunbury had two decent chances and fluffed both. Castillo was OK, but didn't affect the game. Zahibo was gassed by the half. Peniila has no left foot, and passed poorly. Bou looked miserable. • Loved that kid Amaya for Cincinnati. Their keeper had a tough start, but did well later on. • Montreal, Toronto, and Orlando all lost. Cue "Movin' on up".
3 points on the road is always a good thing especially when teams above you lose and you move into the playoff picture for the first time this year. Only issue I had last night was the finished was terrible. Penilla should have had at least 2, same with Bunbury. Pretty much finished with Castillo. Rather have Jones and deal with rookie mistakes than to watch a season Vet/former USMNT team player play wreckless for 90. Big Shout out to Gil for getting me 58 fantasy league points!
We should have had more goals, but props to the Cincinnati keeper for a couple excellent saves — especially the ball tipped over the net from Teal. Agree totally on Castillo. He dives in like a U14 but doesn’t have the recovery speed when he gets juked. A couple of the best Cincinnati opportunities were all on him. Bye and Jones are a better pairing. Those fouls we gave up in the final third are going to kill us against LAFC. We must have given them half a dozen good looks. Can you imagine Carlos Vela blowing that many set piece opportunities? Meanwhile, nice to be in the playoff zone. Have we won more road games in this streak than all of the prior two years together?
Man, that was nice. I find this whole being substantially better than the other team thing very pleasing.
Its good to win and in that heat, can't really complain. Maybe these games should be played after sunset when it cools down. I do not like Teal in the middle. He needs about 3-5 chances to convert one. He's better at outside positions. Where was Juan? I didnt hear anything and he wasnt even on the bench. Did he pick up a knock? Finally my only complaint (so far) on Arena is his inability to develop young players. Rennicks and Jones need minutes to develop..... even if only a few at the end. Not sure it will happen with Arena for Rennicks or Buchanan. Bou didnt have a great game...Ill say heat
Per the commentators, he was hurt in training. No details. I thought Diego was a weak link defensively as the eight giving away multiple dangerous free kicks. Hopefully, Juan is OK. He’s been surprisingly good in that role.
They said Juan picked up a knock in training on Friday, hence his absence. I'm liking Jones quite a bit, and would also like to see him get more minutes. I rank him over Castillo at this point.
I don't understand selecting Diego over Caldwell for that position. Diego looked lost and committed many unneeded fouls around the box.
I agree with the other commenters that despite a 2-0 win, it felt like the game could have been controlled better. It also could have been 5-0 if Teal has a better finishing day. Highlight performers were defiitely Gil, Bye, and Turner. I like Farrell and Delamea too. Teal gets points from me for taking the ball off the cinci keeper, and getng robbed by the refs. Only complaint was I thought we'd see more rotation. I get trying to integrate Bou with the other starters, but by the end of the game I really feel we should have seen Rennicks and Buchannon. We even had an unused sub! Might say more about how Bruce feels about them (compared with Jones who he rates at least a little) than anything else
Teal's never going to be an accurate finisher, but he gets a lot of chances. Even when he misses, he's making the defense account for him, which opens holes for others as the game progresses.
Re: MLS Standings — Is the current tie-breaking procedure a change? I don’t recall wins being worth more than goal difference, but we’ve been so far out of the playoffs I hadn’t been paying close attention.
For some reason I'm thinking it's head-to-head, then GD head-to-head. We lost and drew with Montreal, so that doesn't work, and we lost to Toronto early in the season, so we have to beat them by a greater margin to win that tie-breaker. Since we beat RBNY already, that's good for us, should it come to that.
According to the MLS web site: The team awarded the highest position in the MLS standings will be the team with the greatest number of points (three points for a win, one point for a tie, zero points for a loss). In the event that two or more teams finish the regular season with an equal number of points, the following system will be used to break the tie: 1. Total number of wins 2. Goal Differential (GD) 3. Goals For (GF) 4. Fewest Disciplinary Points* 5. Away Goals Differential 6. Away Goal For 7. Home Goals Differential 8. Home Goal For 9. Coin Toss (tie of two clubs) or Drawing of Lots (tie of three or more clubs) When two or more teams are tied in the standings on points, the above tiebreakers will be used until one team ranks ahead of the other(s)
That is what I saw on the MLS site and was surprised. I didn’t recall “wins” as a criterion, let alone the first tie breaker. I was wondering if that was new. It was also surprising that head to head isn’t there at all. Hence my question about whether this was new. Sadly, we Revs fans probably haven’t been paying close attention for several years.
2017 and 2018 we combined to win 3 road matches. We're at 3 on this streak. The last time we had more than 3 road wins in a season was 2015, with 5.
I think Diego started because Arena is trying to restore his confidence. Unfortunately he didn't take advantage of the chance to build on his last game. - can't believe Bunbury is taking heat for near misses - anyone notice what his scoring record is over the last month or so? - Penilla seems to work better coming off the bench. - this was a coming-down-to-earth game for Bou. Still, he helped take some heat off Gil. - loved how Gil was on his toes as Bou's ball trickled back to him. I have no doubt that Agudelo would have been on his heels in that situation. - Delemea's goal was a beautiful 'training ground' goal, as Mariner would put it. Watched it on replay a bunch of times - and you can see that the whole play was completely scripted and worked to perfection. There's a bubble that all the attackers stay clear of, until the right time, when Delemea makes his run just as the cross is dropped into the pocket. - shockingly bad (wrong) call on Bunbury stealing the ball for Cincy's keeper.
I agree with all of this. I'd also just add a very general comment. 3 months ago, I would watch this Revs team win 1-0 and walk away thinking to myself that they were a terrible team, are boring to watch, and got lucky to win. Now I watch the Arena version of the team and, even when they are clearly having an off night, I walk away thinking they are a very good team, are fun to watch, and were unlucky not to win by more. In other words, they now pass "the eye test". Kudos to Arena - it's amazing what 3 months has done to my interest in this team.
I'm not sure Arena will get the Coach of the Year award. Bradley with LAFC and Almeyda with San Jose have strong cases. But there should be a special Lazarus Award for what Bruce has done for the Revs.