With the Crew's big win yesterday, we are now officially the bottom of the barrel. I guess we can take credit for giving the crew confidence to go out and win one.... big. Discussion Point - what's it going to take to turn this ship around? Our present course isn't working at all.
Better service from the wings. That spreads out the field more and gives Cancela more room. As soon as possible, get Kamler out of the back and on to the wing. Service from Franchino has been worthless all season. Ralston hasn't been that hot either, though he did have a decent game vs Mutts.
I can't argue with you when you point out that we are bottom of the table. However, I think we have already turned things around. Our Defense was a real problem in the first two matches. In addition our staring lineup was in constant flux due to injuries. The first order of business (in "turning things around") was to sjore up the defense which we seem to have done. We also were having problems holding the ball in the midfield which it seems has also been solved by going to a 3-5-2 based on the players available. One thing that's still not working as well as it should is scoring. We are getting chances but our Forwards are in a funk. The 3-5-2 seems to show promice of creating even more chances and it's just a matter of time until our offense starts clicking. This is a good side. It's not a bottom of the table side by any means. We have struggled out of the startung gate but in the past few matches we have looked solid and we will start racking up points sooner rather than later.
Well said, I was thinking about this as well. One of the best things to happen once we get the injured back is getting Kam back on the other wing. Someone on the NY thread mentioned that Ralston would have someone on him (or a couple of someones) very quickly after he touched the ball. This was due to having no fear of the ball being sent in from the other wing ... Kamler should help with that. God, we're in last place.
We may be in last place but we are only 4 points away from top of the conference. No need to panic yet. As for the wingers, this is a major problem. There are two things that play into this problem. 1) Wingers aren't getting the ball. The lack of crosses has resulted in Twellman not getting his usual goals. The defenders can easily defend Twellman because Twellman isn't the type of forward that can create by himself. 2) When the wingers do get the ball, its too late. Often the pass is too slow or the play is slowly shifting to that side of the field. A few times Dempsey and Joseph would make a nice quick pass to the opposite field and guess what..... WE HAD A SCORING OPPURTUNITY! Now when Cancela moved the ball to the winger, he would dribble over then lay off a square pass. What happened then you ask? The winger was either stuffed or moved the ball back to Cancela or the defense, ending the attack. The Revolution are a slow team, we all know that. But you don't need too much speed to get 3 or 4 quick passes and a scoring oppurtunity. The wingers don't need to pinch in and the C-mids need to look up to see which winger has the better option. We can all complain about Twellman not scoring and how we should sit him til he gets his act together but its not 100% his fault. He's not a Joe-Max Moore. He's Twellman who scored 23 goals off of 19 assists by Ralston (well not really but you get my drift).
I'm not quite sure what season everyone has been watching.... A review is in order... 1.) We lost our #1 sweeper/defender before the3 season began. 2.) In our first two games we gave up 3 goals a game. That is last place/relegation material. 3.) Then we lost our other central defender. 4.) Our backline was now anchored by two of the four starting midfielders. 5.) Those two were replaced by a rookie (albeit a good one) and a fullback. 6.) Our best goal scorer has one goal, although at least two or three chances in most games. 7.) We are now giving up less than a goal a game since our first two. 8.) We ain't scoring but we are in the midst of switching to a 3-5-2. 9.) Is it any surprise that in an improved league with a beatup team in flux that we are in last place at the moment? 10.) We'll see but things should dramatically improve. We aren't as good as we thought we were going to be but we aren't chopped meat either. JIM DOW
The Revs have only lost once in the last 6 games. A win Saturday and a loss by Columbus (hosting SJ) puts us in third place. A team tied for first in our division (Chicago) is 0-3 at home, being outscored 8-1 in those 3 games! Columbus had only scored 3 goals in their first 6 games, and broke out for 3 more yesterday. I have a good feeling about the "Freddy" game being the Revs breakout game.
I think Jim and George have got it about right. Give them time. We have a game in hand against Chicago and two against DCU. Can we play a few more games before we start wringing our hands?
Wow, I agree with JMMUSA8 and it's not April 1. The defense is mediocre at best, and unlike Jim Dow, I don't think that Carlos Llamosa would make that much difference now because he was already on the downslope and headed to the glue factory. Cancela, Twellman, Moore and Ralston - a talented quartet - have yet to produce much of anything. That can't go on much longer. One concern is that Cancela doesn't appear to be too concerned by his diminished play, but that may not be true. It took opposing MLS coaches all season to figure out Noonan. Now that they have, he's struggling. He doesn't have much speed, and that hurts his partnership with Twellman. Things will get better if the more talented players step up and start producing even close to what they are capable of doing. Things will get better, but this team is still a long way from being a serious contender.
Big Frank: Carlitos may be glue factory bound but his abilities still provided a healthy dollop of that material to the team as a whole. After all, when players started to be moved about is when the various balances began to switch. Better defense, yes, at this point Kamler/Joseph is a better pairing than Llamosa/Pierce but then there is are a pair of holes in the midfield. Enter Avery John, then the 3-5-2 and we'll see.... But the fact is, Llamosa was a linchpin and when he went down, changes started to happen, some good, some less so. JIM DOW
I would have to agree with the general consensus here. The other way to look at it is this: if at the beginning of the season, you were told that Carlos, JMM and Rusty would be out and that Adin Brown would be missing two games before Memorial Day, but you would still be only 4 points out of first, would you have taken it?? Plus, we have shown some good stretches of ball control, patience and build up. Over the years when watching games I have counted the number of passes that we are able to string together. In years past 5 was a BIG number, nowadays 10 to 15 is not uncommon (not common enough perhaps, but not rare.) That is a good sign. Likewise we always seem to spend a large part of the season leading the league in both goals for and goals against. We nipped the goals against issue after the second game, which is much quicker than we typically do that. That gives us the chance to do just a little better offensively and make a huge impact on the results.
My apologies. I was dyslexic on the Metros game (3-0 Fire win). Chicago is 1-2 at home, with 4 GF, 5 GA. Interestingly enough, the Revs are 1-1-1 at home, also with 4 GF and 5 GA.