Thank God Nichol's team lost.... Nichol's team plays freakin' bore-ball when it comes to the big games......you know, the big games when there is finally a chance to get some new fans caught up in the excitement of things.... Thank goodness Nichol didn't make it to MLS Cup...or it would have been another snoozer....
Hey, you've been here long enough--you think you would have figured out not to post a result in the title of a thread.
No way did Revs play bore-ball tonight. They just could not get any flow going to the offense against a very strong and determined Chicago team. The Fire brought the attack at home and the Revs were forced to play D for most of the game. I didn't find anything boring about this game. That said, I am glad Chicago won because I think they will help out the attendance and TV ratings a lot more then the Revs would.
I agree that New England does not play boreball. It just looked like it compared to Chicago. There's a difference between not trying to attack, and not being able to.
Well for a portion of the match the Revs played like an Italian team with a 1-0 lead. But it looked for awhile there that their style tonight just might get them a win.
Rev's midfield was completely outclassed IMO. Sharie Joseph is very overrated. Some posters think he is the best MLS. I don't see it.
I thought the problem was in fact the Revs back line being unable to show enough composure to get the ball to their midfield after winning possession. Lots of balls kicked out of bounds and long balls upfield in an attempt to play out of Chicago's pressure from the front. Whereas Bocanegra and Curtin consistently played away from pressure, keeping the fullbacks oragnized and positioned to receive passes and then transferring it to Marsch and Armas and starting the break. All credit to New England for defending well under a lot of pressure and also launching some very dangerous counter attacks that were well handled by the Fire's back line. New England played a very good club team tonight, probably one of the better ones in MLS history, and gave an excellent showing for themselves though coming up a bit short on chances and the scoreline. Congrats to the Revs on a fine season and to the Fire for making the MLS Cup.
You know what's almost as disappointing as the result (at least from my perspective), is that the indifferent fan will only judge the Revs on the basis of this last game - one where New England did not play their best game, but one where Chicago did everything necessary to win. They won't remember that this was the most successful season in Revs history, we led the league in scoring again, Taylor Twellman wasn't a one-hit wonder, young players like Joseph and Noonan stepped up, we finally found a creative central midfielder... but it doesn't really mean much now, does it. Kudos to the Fire, their supporters, and their organization. They're deserved victors and I hope they win the Cup. The Magpie
The Revs didnt play boreball, there was just an inexplicable gap between their midfield and backline that neither could bridge. I saw: - Numerous times Chicago midfielders got into the attack without a NE midfied in sight. - Almost 0 intelligent passes on the ground from the backline to the midfield. - The NE midfield would get in situations where the only option would be to pass back and switch the point of attack and they wouldnt or couldnt play the ball back. - No productive presence in the attack of either outside back. Credit Chicago for playing good pressure defense in the midfield, but the bottom line is that New England should have been able to cope better with it.
I hate to call any team that plays on the counter a "boring" team. The Revs scored enough goals this season to put paid to their rep as purely defensive. However, trying to play on the counter can get pretty ugly pretty quick, which was the case last night. The Revs weren't able to get much possession at midfield at all, so Fabbro and Noonan spent a ton of time very far from goal. If this was by Nicol's design, it probably would be fair to say that they were playing "boreball". That said, they did it well. The Fire had a ton of possession but didn't really threaten that many times. A huge advantage in shots meant little because so many of them were taken off-balance under pressure or from some distance. New England was close to pulling it off... Give them credit for that, even though it wasn't their best game.
They only produced 3 corners the whole game....that's pretty inept... They simply didn't commit to attack....its all well and good to defend a counter strategy, but a average counter game is going to produce very boring ball..which it did... I don't think Nichol learned much from the MLS Cup..part of the issue here is the "spirit" you give you team about the game...if you are giving them the "lets play it tight....let's get a lucky early goal, and try to win off that" vibe, then they'll play that way....of course, I'm not privy to Nichol's conversations....can just go on the performance...hard to believe he encouraged them to "attack and attack again"...
This is correct. They should dump the entire back line and get some guys in there that compliment the rest of their team. They are a great team from midfield forward, but in a game like last night - awful. I am completely tired of Rusty Pierce, Llamosa and Heaps. It's hard to believe Franchino is the class on this team's backline.
Chicago "produced" only three corners last week. What's that got to do with anything? Was that inept then? Not really. Barcelona has been a counter-attacking team not too long ago and, because of the demands of its fans, has to commit to attack. The real problem is that the counter is the only tool available to weaker teams, but there's nothing wrong with the strategy itself. As for the Revs, like I said earlier, it's hard to tell what was intentional (Fabbro playing deep defense?!!) and what was failed tactics. I definitely agree that the result wasn't pretty though, whatever the intention.
Who are you, Paul Gardner? Who cares about corners? Cancela was just awful. Armas did a good job against him, but when Cancela did have an opportunity to create, he simply couldn't get it done. Oh yeah, Fabbro is very slow. I don't think NE was playing for corners. They were going forward, but just couldn't do much defensively.
Re: Thank God Nichol's team lost.... Don't forget they were missing Joe Max Moore, Twellman, and Franchino. That's a pretty good chunk of their salary cap.