News: Revs II (USL-L1) 2020 (inaugural) season

Four straight wins for the JV team

Too bad there are no playoffs, the team is really hot right now. If they win out, as of now they have a mathematical chance of making it into the top two for the title game, but far too many things would have to go perfectly for that to happen.

It is also disappointing the season is what it is because there would have been chances (in theory, at least) to see some of these guys get minutes in Open Cup or League settings. I'd really like to see if any of the top performers for Revs II could make any kind of impact at the next level.

 

I think the season set up perfectly for these guys to get minutes in league games. The number of matches in such a short period of time should have been conducive to rotation, in order to ensure a high level of fitness. But, even playing every 3 days Bruce pretty much plays his same 11.

 

Will be curious to see how many other teams follow suit and have their reserve teams leave the USL structure. Was good that Revs finally hopped into L1

 

Revs II played to a 1-1 draw in their last home game on Friday. They have been officially eliminated from postseason contention (the title game between the top two in the table) as Union Omaha defeated Greenville Triumph 2-1 on Sunday. They are eight points out of second place with only six points left up for grabs in their last two games. Still, after a rough start they have shown a lot of improvement, can finish with a winning record and could get as high as third depending on other results. Last two games are against South Georgia and Forward Madison, also eliminated teams who are just jockeying for spots in the final table along with Revs II. Of course, the ultimate sign of success for Revs II will be building legit first team contributors, but it has been a nice bonus to follow this team and watch its progress over the season.

 

Agree, and I think that it's another sign of the overall competence of the current coaching group that they assembled a team from nothing and slowly built it into one of the premier teams in their league.

After their season wraps up, it will be interesting to see if any of them get time with the first team.

 

There was a rumor circulating recently that MLS intends to re-launch its reserve league next year, which I would think means that all teams would drop out of the USL system.

 

I think that is a terrible idea from MLS's perspective. Having them play in real meaningful games gets them a level of match sharpness that a reserve league doesnt provide, and increases the player's attractiveness to teams abroad. The driving force I could see is USL pitching a stink that teams like Seattle basically arent trying to compete and are instead playing essentially a u20 team in what is supposed to be a serious competition

 

That doesn't seem to be the case.

MLS to launch reserves league beginning play in 2021, sources say

 

Money

 

There are most certainly pluses/minuses to each scenario.

I'd like to see more flexibility in moving players between the roster on a day-to-day basis (i.e., if a player didn't get much playing time in a game with one team, he could be added to the game-day roster for the other team). I think that would be more likely with an MLS reserve league.

OTOH, I think there's a lot of value in playing different teams with different styles. An MLS reserve league just feels more in-bred.

 

Taking this down piece by piece.

The flexibility is already there. MLS teams are allowed four-day loans, and I believe it's also allowed up from USL, so in a normal year, the team would be allowed to make the choice as soon as they know.

The MLS reserve league is in-bred and will only lose out on money from ticket sales. Obviously, MLS is currently feeding around 2 million dollars into the USL system which they'd rather funnel through their own channels. I understand it from a business point of view. I don't get it from a world of self-created "training".

At this point, with the Development Academy folding, MLS decided hey, I can do that and created MLS Next so it's completely inbred now.
MLS Next --> MLS Reserves ---> MLS
I find that a bit unnerving, especially if the reserves league fails again.

 

They played better as the season went along; always a good sign IMHO.

 

After all that, the USL League One final was cancelled - as was the USL Championship final - thanks to positive COVID-19 tests.