P/I/P, MiB Round of 16: Revs vs PHI, 7/25/2020 10:30pm [R]

This was a pretty frustrating Philly side to go against - they kept the Revs pretty confined most of the game.

Lets take it a bit easy on Taj Buchanon - the kid has hardly played at all. I think he showed flashes.

OTOH, Bunbury doesn't get that benefit. He added nothing in this game, nor the rest of the tournament.

I don't like Bou playing creator in Gil's absence. He got almost no chances and he was peppering the goal with shots when Gil played. I'm a little surprised that Diego didn't get a chance to build on his last game at AM. He wasn't great in that one, but these things take time.

Tough to pick on Bye for a moment's hesitation - he's been so good in this tournament, give Santos credit. He looked dangerous throughout.

Agree that we seemed to be missing some 'juice'. Seemed to me that the defenders were pretty frustrated trying to find transition passes to get us on the attack - and wingers seemed to get penned in, time after time. I think Zahibo's lack of pace - and missed passes - were tough to overcome.

In retrospect, I would have liked more quickness on the field, with Jones, Caldwell and Fagundez.

 

This roster is very very Jekyll and Hyde - game to game, players appear and disappear; they can excel one night, then are atrocious next time out.

For this game -

• Zahibo - very engaged (which in turn meant more focus and less chance for mental errors), a lot of good ball movement, very few turnovers
• Farrell - a very stay-at-home calming presence in the middle of the defense. Managed to curtail his normal inclination to be over-ambitious, and that helped him look good.

[Funny, these 2 above are players not usually ever on my "I Think They Did Well" list]​

• Buettner looked good, I think he's very much an upgrade on left D given the carousel of crap over last few seasons. (Put a real fast wing mid in front of him on left side, and that to me seems like a good pairing.

On the other side of the coin (again, mostly comments about this game only)-

• Penilla - in this game especially he reminded me SO MUCH of that U10 player we all coached at one point - who has a 10-year-old-brain but who is a little physically ahead of his peers and so he thinks that means he is "better" than everyone.

>> Which results in hogging the ball, running into crowds of defenders, and because he thinks he's so good, he's TOO good to play defense. (He literally stopped running back on defense at points in this game, even when the Revs were outnumbered.)
​

I'm running out of patience for him to perform at least as well as a DeLorean. There seems to be very little value proposition for him to get minutes on the field.​

 

My feelings exactly. Teal and Tajon playing the role of track athletes in soccer uniforms didnt help much either.

WRT Bou, I agree he isn't a creator. The guy who is (and isn't named Gil) is Buksa. He has a good touch and good workmate to be a target man, but instead them is trying to play him in behind. Let Bou/Penilla/others play off him

 

Brandon Bye makes SBI's all-tournament team (well deserved, IMO). Turner and Bou get honorable mention.

 

I don't know if it helps/hurts the Revs more than anyone else, but I don't buy the it's the same for everyone line.

The reality is, it affects everyone differently. I said early on that my observation was that small, quick players were thriving in the conditions. Big players are going to struggle in excessive heat, particularly at the positions that require the most mileage/full-on sprinting.

I *suspect* that central/northern Euro players would have a tougher time. Players from much of Latin America have played in conditions like this all their lives.

Older players are going to struggle more.

I think Arena tried to include a fair number of 'quick', lighter players in the lineup, but balanced that with some size too.

I also think Zahibo is a tantalizing prospect for Arena (just like he's been for every coach here), but I don't think he was a good addition here. I thought Rowe/Caldwell established an effective and cohesive harrying game which produced turnovers and fueled a lot of our attack in the first round. We lost that when Zahibo replaced Caldwell - and Rowe wore himself out trying to do that alone.

I would say our finishing is struggling. The last game we didn't produce a lot of chances, but in every other game we did - we just didn't finish often enough.

 

Rowe and Caldwell are just not good enough to qualify as mediocre midfielders. Both are slow. Both find opponents to be more viable targets for their passes than is acceptable. They may well be nice guys, but they are not getting any better under improved coaching. Maybe after a few seasons in USL they might improve their games, but I don't think so.

 

They are both in their late 20's -- neither is likely to get better (both are victims of Jay Heaps' coaching). I've actually been a bit surprised by how well Rowe has adapted to the #8 role.

 

My guess is that we will see a Rowe Polster pairing when or if there is a season after the Tournament.

 

I wasn't saying it was better/worse for the Revs - it was really a generic statement.

No real excuses for the Revs (other than the fact that THE most critical player for them was lost to injury). They just didn't get it done - the didn't put DCU away when they had the chance to, they didn't convert their chances against Toronto and they failed to seriously threaten Philadelphia.

I hear the 'same conditions for everyone', 'it's a level playing field' kind of statements all the time. Just look at the NBA bubble - the Celtics are disadvantaged because they have the best home crowd in basketball normally. Other factors may play to their advantage.

The covid-opt-outs are taking the biggest toll on the Patriots (at the moment, I expect that to level out more by the deadline for declaring).

Whenever the conditions change, either intentionally or not, it benefits some teams and hurts others.

 

Im beginning to feel a lot better about the Revs after seeing how we played opponents vs how they played after us. Latest example.....Philly. We out played them and only lost on a single goal. Meanwhile, Sporting KC, who was heavily favored, got thumped 3-1. I feel good that Philly could only get one on us while they managed 3 on KC.
I think our defense is in good shape but am still concerned about lack of depth for AM. Gil is fine but who knows how he'll hold up on our crappy turf. Arena needs a plan B at that position and should be looking to sign somebody experienced that can do it. Diego is not the one and there is nobody else. We also could use another CF. A fast one.

 

Actually field turf is easier on foot problems than grass, as it has uniform cushioning, no divots or bumps and no turf that can come loose when digging in to it.

Yes, we definitely need a backup AM. I wouldn't say %100 that Diego can't do it, but he's got a lot to prove at this point (and I think it's mostly mental).

We have fast CFs - they haven't gotten anything done for us - except on those rare stretches where Bunbury catches fire.

 

I am much happier with Buksa leading the line than any other CF the revs have used since Twellman.

I know speed can be a weapon, but I much prefer actually being able to control the ball to some of the sprinting into defenders/keepers/boundary lines that the fast guys regularly do.

Finally, although I don't think Buksa is fast I also struggle to call him slow. Caicedo was slow. Buksa just doesn't have breakaway speed. But "hoof balls over the top and chase" isn't the tactic I want to see the revs employ, so breakaway speed shouldn't be that crucial. What will be is timing, the ability to separate from a defender during the right window of time to score goals. Buksa has show he can do some of that. It just hasn't paid off yet (largely due to non Carles Gil players being unable to get him the ball in dangerous spots)