P/I/P Match 26: Revs vs STL, Sat 9/7/24 7:30p [R]

Yeah, they are playing a team at the bottom end of the West at home in a must-win situation. There are enough question marks in the remaining games (need to take points on the road) that winning games like this are an absolute must.

 

Another trip to the monitor, another ref deciding to ignore the video assistant’s recommendation to give the Revs a penalty. It’s a joke at this point.

 

The penalty no-call, Nacho not being allowed to enter the game, this, that, whatever - there's always plenty to complain about, and we certainly haven't gotten many breaks this season.

But this team just shows again and again that they're worse than the sum of their parts.

Again, we go limp after getting a lead. And it didn't even seem like we parked the bus. The players just came out flat. A little rain throw them off? The fans exiting fans hurt their morale? Who knows- it doesn't take much with this group.

I got off the "Porter out" train after that winning streak, and I'm not jumping on again yet. I guess, for the sake of trying to get some continuity, we gotta give the guy a chance. But something about this team just looks so heartless and so unlikeable. The startup lineup was fine. They're just...rudderless. And not much fun.

 

If St. Louis imposed that bunker like second half that is a piece of fairly negative information.

If the players “just came out flat” in the second half that is a piece of negative information.

If Porter actually chose to park the bus that is yet another piece of negative information.

All in all it really seems to just be negative the last two games.

But hey, they still “have a game” in hand. So, of course, everything will be fine. Playoffs here we come.

 

I highly recommend watching Porter's press conference. It's quite... revealing.

While I agree that the subbing rule is ridiculous, his claim that the Revs played really well is absurd. Outside of a 20 minute stretch in the first half, we were pretty consistently outplayed.

And for anyone wondering why the team looks whiny and petulant on the field, it's pretty clear that it comes from the top.

 

100% agree. From Gil’s press conf it was clear that Porter has been doing the “woe is us” act in the locker room for much of the season.

 

All the stuff with the ref aside, I thought they played OK. I just didn't like that Ivacic had to make so many saves in the 2nd half. I'd have to watch a replay to give a reason why, but my first reaction is not good enough from Polster and Yusuf can't get on the pitch soon enough.

I thougth they played good enough to get 3 points. Not allowing Nacho in the game was just baffling. I believe Porter when he said Langoni was hurting a bit. It looked to me like he was due to come out.

The positives to me were Langoni, Sands and Miller. Ivacic as well.

 

The officials and rules aren't the reason the Revs spent most of the game in the second half under consistent pressure. There's no excuse for not being able to maintain more control over the game playing at home with the lead. We should have been pinning them back trying to put the game away. That's what good teams do.

That said - the substitution rule is just stupid. What's the point in the age of endless stoppage time? As for the penalty, my biggest problem with it is this - if the ref had blown the whistle in real time and called it a penalty, I have a hard time conceiving that any VAR official would have called down and said it needed to be reviewed and the call potentially overturned. In my mind, that makes it a fairly ridiculous non-call. Still, none of that changes that the Revs were pretty uninspired for most of the night.

 

Having a team play a man down for an indeterminate length of time is absurd. Just card the player coming off like the refs are supposed to.

 

I watched the US men play before the Revs' game....SSDG. During the pathetic US game, I commented to my wife, it's like watching the Revs. Oh look, we won the possession game by passing it between the CBs and Goalie. No threat whatsoever on the opponents' goal.

My other comment on the game, wtf is this substitution rule? I didn't know about it and have never seen it called before. If you want to play a different game than the rest of the world and are worried about time wasting, then stop the clock. It's what they do in high school soccer.

 

I get the same feeling watching these guys play that I got watching the Pats game yesterday - from the Bengals standpoint. It just wasn't happening for them yesterday - same as it's just not happening for the Revs this season. I think it's the Curse of Clint Peay - he's the thread linking this outfit to last year's debacle.

 

And it was enforced against a player who just joined the league and was likely unaware of the rule. So that's probably on the coaching staff.

But it's still a stupid way to enforce the rule. Especially when there's already a penalty in the rule book, carding the player. It's also inconsistent, unless they start penalizing on field time wasting by removing the player from the field for 1 minute plus the time to the next stoppage.

 

I have to say one thing I'm not fond of with Porter is he often makes excuses and rarely points the finger at the guy in charge - i.e. himself. I would imagine over time that could start to rub players the wrong way. In general people who make excuses all the time usually aren't very successful.

I give him the benefit of the doubt because he's been a winning manager in MLS, but stuff like that raises a flag or two - at least with me.

 

A lot of things could have been different, but 1) Langoni didn't take that long (4 seconds extra, seriously?), 2) he clearly picked up the pace when reminded to, 3) do we really want this called like basketball, where there's basically a stop-watch for advancing the ball to the front-court, hitting the rim, etc.?, and 4) was this anywhere close to typical enforcement?

And, when was the last time a goalie protecting a lead released the ball in 6 seconds? If the league is really serious about time-wasting, why do they allow the much more frequent goal kicks to take 30 seconds+?

I read that Messi was called for it earlier this season (and complained about it), but I don't recall ever seeing it called since the rule was instituted - and I absolutely don't believe that every sub has gotten off the field in 10 seconds, far from it.

Then the penalty non-call - clearly his arm is not in a natural position. I watched the replay numerous times, trying to see what he was doing with that arm - and it's clear that he was using it to clear Nacho away from a loose ball while facing him. And that should be a penalty in itself. Nacho is trying to play the ball and the defender just rides him right off, without even attempting to play the ball - and not by legally shielding or with a legal shoulder charge.

Between the call and non-call, you start to wonder if this ref has an issue with the Revs/Porter. Gil alluded to as much in the press conference. It will be interesting to see what the league does/says. Obviously Porter will get a big fine and, I expect, a suspension as well. Arena got one for less. But, the league needs to own up it's referee's mistakes - though I don't expect them to.

 

It was more than a little rain - it was pouring for a significant time, then lightened up, then increased again - and got windy. In short, the weather kept changing and had a significant effect in the 2nd half.

 

Porter is delusional if he thinks the team "played well" and "are gonna win a lot of games if we play like this every time."

True, there were some good stretches, especially the second part of the first half, but we came out totally flat at the start, and they were taking the game to us. They finally woke up after the Kessler (of all people!) goal, and they could have had more than the 2 goals after that. But in the second half, they totally dominated. Yes it was raining pretty hard, but they managed to attack pretty easily. You just knew that goal was coming.

You wouldn't know which team was fighting for their playoff lives and which one was playing out the string. So it's better than losing, which we easily could have, given the way VAR has often played out, but not getting the full 3 here makes it all the more difficult the rest of the way.

One positive is that Sands looks like a good pickup.