Sunday, March 6, 2016

Quick Draw In Texas: Revs Claw Back In Houston, Draw 3-3 On Opening Day

Roller coaster started early this year with a tie down in Houston. Diego Fagundez got it started early with a wonderful strike that Brad Feldman described as a "screamer" on the broadcast. 

Sensational goal to start off what hopes to be a promising season for the Uruguayan-born, Leominster-raised Diego, who had somewhat of a down year last time around. The Dynamo tied it right before the break form Christian Maidana, and early in the 2nd half they made it 2-1 from Andrew Wenger (Wenger's just continue to ruin my soccer life, don't they). Luckily the Revs answered right back with Charlie Davies.

With under 15 minutes to go in the game, Houston seemed to find the winner.

Perfect dummy from Boniek that opened the strike from Giles Barnes.

And then came the barrage, that you can watch in full HERE since both MLS' video player and Blogspot suck with embedding video.

I don't know whether to chalk that up to Houston's inept defense and inability to actually clear the ball, or the Revs persistence and attitude. Probably both. But what a way for Daigo-Son to grab his first Revs regular season goal. Just a back and forth contest that seemed to follow the path of this Opening Day 2016.

Other Takeaways

-The refs were horrible this game. Maidana's goal came after Lee Nguyen was dragged down in the box, which came after Charlie and Kelyn Rowe were both knocked down. Teal Bunbury received a questionable yellow card. Diego took an elbow to the face that went uncalled. And while the calls seemed to favor the home team, officiating was poor all around. Soft calls followed by no-calls and vice versa. Good to see MLS refs didn't change over the offseason.

-Gershon Koffie and Je-Vaughn Watson both looked good in their debuts. Koffie patrolled the midfield well and Watson was super active along the right flank.

-The lineup seemed a little suspect to me when it came out. Watson got the start just two days after being acquired, over guys like Jordan McCrary, Darrius Barnes and London Woodberry who have been in camp form the jump. The midfield combo of Koffie and Kelyn was also interesting form Jay Heaps. Scotty Caldwell was the teams MVP last season, and is turning into a star at the DM position. I thought we'd see him protecting the backline with either Koffie or Rowe playing box-to-box next to him. Just so much depth and guys who need to get playing time that someone has to sit.

-Speaking of that backline, it could use some work. Goncalves and Farrell with Shuttleworth in goal were shaky. Farrell loves to bomb forward,which he was doing a lot of when he played as a right back, and he loves to get on the ground in slide tackles. Not great when you play in the center. I think it'll just take some time to get the regular season gears in motion, but if things stay shaky beyond, say, three games from now, I wouldn't be surprised to see Heaps experiment with his center backs, possibly playing Sambinha or Barnes there.

Man Of The Match
If you asked me to set it in stone before the equalizer, I'd have said Gershon Koffie. I though he was solid today in his debut. But then stoppage time happened, so opening day goes to Diego Fagundez. A spectacular goal and game tying assist at the death will do that. Home opener March 12th against DC United, let's roll. #PipeItUp

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)