P/I/P Match 31: Revs @ HOU, Wed 10/2/24 8:30p ET [R]

We catch a bit of a break with Houston having HH and Dorsey not available. I guess with the Borrero news its definitely going to be a combo of Langoni/Ema/Esmir patrolling the wings. Hoping Esmir starts this one, as it seems he was saved from the start against Nashville for this game.

Predicted HOU lineup from TBM preview email -

Lineup - Clark; Escobar, Micael, Sviatchenko, Steres; Artur, Carrasquilla; Aliyu, Bassi, Kowalczyk; Ponce

Injuries - Herrera will most likely miss another match with his injury. Ponce and Latif Blessing should be back. Lawrence Ennali and Nelson Quinones are out for the season with knee injuries. Starting right back Griffin Dorsey is also out for this match with yellow card accumulation

 

Really good first half even though they didn't score. Yusuf again having a big impact winning ball after ball and pushing the forward. Carles seems to be energized by his presence as he's been more active than I've seen him in a road game for quite a while. Wood isn't exactly dangerous, but he's an upgrade on Vrioni. We're better off with him playing. Esmer looks a bit out of his element on the left vs on the right wing.

 

And of course less than 5 minutes into 2nd half, Polster gives the ball away, 2 passes later Houston scores.

 

Did Latif Blessing just take a break from being good at soccer last year? Why is he killing us now?

And of course the free kick he wins leads to a goal. ******** that guy.

 

A classic Polster giveaway and a collective brain fart defending a free kick (looks like Yusuf was the culprit). Ugh. Couple it with an annoying play by play announcer who loves to scream all the time and it makes for yet another frustrating night of following this franchise. At least they competed tonight.

 

I wish shared your optimism. I see nothing to look forward to for next year. A pretty depressing time to be a Revs fan, especially considering how good we had it just a few short years ago.

 

I agree. We didn't get the result but I like the intensity they showed. Polster making more bonehead plays again to sink us, and Bajraktarevic missing out on two great opportunities for him that were there thanks to his hard working teammates.

It will be a tall task in the offseason to upgrading our team. Every year we try to upgrade but it only seems to bring us closer to the mean. Then the new season comes and the better, more ambitious teams move beyond that. I am not in the get rid of Porter camp.

 

When the club was good, they got one or more high level performances in attack. Between Bou (before he got old), Buksa, Tajon etc they always had a reliable scorer to go with Carles. We don't have that this season. Can Langoni develop into that? Chancalay? Striker to be named (we can only hope). I wouldn't abandon ship on Carles quite yet. I thought he looked fine in the first half especially. I'm just not entirely confident that Porter can take assembles the pieces and get them to play at least to their talent level - let alone above it.

 

The Good: As others have pointed out, they were entertaining to watch last night. They created multiple chances as it seemed like a back and forth game of non-stop action.

The Bad: With all those opportunities during the run of play they still couldn't produce a goal (the goal was a PK). So it's great that they were able to create great chances, but disappointing that they couldn't capitalize. Wood was very unlucky, but most others shot the ball wide (GET IT ON NET, PEOPLE!).

It's also clear to me that right now they lack a player who can score from distance. Houston's first goal came off a 'half chance' from distance. I was thinking.....who provides that kind of distance scoring threat for the Revs. Potentially only Chancalay and he is hurt. We need player(s) who force the defense to defend over a bigger area. Instead, with our team now they can just 'pack it in'.

 

Buck has scored a few screamers from outside the box but is seems either he dropped form or Porter is just not high on him

 

we are just a couple forwards, 2 mids and 3 defenders from having a good team!

 

He is 32 next month. That's not to say he doesn't have a few more years in him but he is certainly not at the same level as he was when he arrived. Not sure if Esmir is the planned replacement but they should be thinking about a world without Gil

 

For reference, Gil is signed through 2026 with a 1 year club option for 2027.

 

Or he's in Southampton.

To me the roster is okay-ish. It's the roster of a mid-table team, not a Wooden Spoon contender. And that, to me, is on Porter. You don't pay a coach good money to come in and make the team less than the sum of its parts.

 

I had a bad feeling when I saw Latif Blessing on the pitch.

 

And he was inches from being a classic Bob Lobel highlight in the "why can't we get players like that" segment.

 

A couple of random thoughts:

This is the real key to why the Revs can't score. Vrioni doesn't have Bou on one side and Tajon on the other. Not that I'm saying Vrioni is as good as Adam. Also it's probably a factor in why Carlos hasn't looked like an MVP. To be top dog in a team sport it sure does help to be surrounded with other quality players.

Polster has risen to the top of my needs-to-go list. Last game against Nashville a two-handed shove in the back of a player took away Romney's goal. What in the world of var do you think you can get away with something like that?? In this last game, bad turnovers turn into goals. And when Carlos is not available Polster wears the captain's armband. smh

My hope is that in the off-season they clean out some of this roster. I kind of agree with @abecedarian in that the current roster is of a mid-table team. I'm giving Porter a get-out-of-jail card for this year, but the card expires on 12-31-2024!

 

Polster gave it away and then incredibly just jogged back to cover and ended up giving too much space. You'd think he'd bust his butt to make up for the giveaway.

I don't agree - we need more/better striker options and I think we need to sort out our central defense, but otherwise I like the roster - I think Langoni will only get better as we work out how to use him and Yussuf brings the class to dmid that Carles has been lacking since he got here.

Then we have young and improving Esmir and Miller - and finally seem to have a healthy Bye.

I think it's mostly about developing the chemistry and communication in training camp that most of our opponents are way ahead of us on.

Me too, but positioning is a big part of the job.

It's because we had a prime chance that was blocked by a defender.