Saturday, April 9, 2016

Revs Draw 1-1 With Toronto, Continue To Be Frustrating

I've said it before and I'll say it again. 1 point is a lot better than no points, but goddamn that doesn't mean the Revs have to draw EVERY game. At this rate they'll have more ties than a dad on Father's Day. The Revs played a great first half. They scored, moved the ball well, held good shape defensively and seemingly had reigning MVP Sebastian Giovinco in their collective back pocket. But it was the visitors to Gillette Stadium that made the halftime adjustments, and the game looked completely different in the second half. Let's get into it...

-First things first. Kelyn Rowe with a great goal: 

Absurd ball in from Je-Vaughn Watson. Right on the button, and Rowe curled his header to the far post. The buildup was even better...

18 passes before the shot, fantastic possession in the final third, and maybe the most underrated part of the whole sequence was Gershon Koffie's possession right before laying it off the Watson. Bringing the ball in and sensing pressure from behind, holding it and creating space while simultaneously sucking in a defender that allowed Watson to bomb up field with a free path and get the cross off clean. Beautiful.

-Speaking of Watson and Koffie, they returned to the starting lineup after missing time  due to their red cards. While those two were added back to the lineup, Juan Agudelo was scratched due to a slight injury sustained in training. With Charlie apparently still not ready to give a lot of minutes, that meant Teal went up top and Kelyn went to the right wing.

-On Bunbury, I love the guy, but his finishing touch is so far gone right now. For example...


Good work from Diego there, but Teal should finish that. I really, really hope Charlie is ready to go next week. We need someone up top who can control the ball and put home those chances.

-Even after being put in a box in the first for the most part, Giovinco Giovinco'd in the second...


Unfortunate deflection off of JoGo didn't help, but we saw another instance of the defense losing focus for like 30 seconds and it costing them.


I mean come on. Farrell just let Giovinco sprint right past him. Be less worried about what happened at the literal other end of the field and worry about your job.

-Femi continues to get minutes. I'm starting to really like this kid. He seems to have a nice burst of energy and helps pick us up at the very end of games.

-Lee and Bradley cancelled each other out for the most part. Just two good midfielders going at it. Though Lee continued to be the center of the Revs attack, and he had a good look early...


Obviously would have been awesome to score that, but props to Irwin on a good save.

-The big talking point. MLS refs continue to be MLS refs. No red cards in this one but the still manage to be huge influences on the outcome. Right before the Giovinco goal there was a non-call of a penalty on Teal, which is what Farrell was focused on...

and then there was one later on...


Are you serious? The first one, I can see where some people would say Teal was already falling, even though I think it was a foul and fairly clear that he was fouled. The second one, I mean Bradley took out Charlie from behind. Some people said he got ball, but to me it looked like more ankle than anything. And then in stoppage time...


At first we thought it was offside, which would have quite literally been impossible since Femi played the ball back to Nguyen form the touchline. But then it was because the ball went out of bounds? There's no conclusive evidence. The angle from in front of the net looks like in bounds, behind the net looks out of bounds. Here's what Heaps thought...
What I don't want to be lost in that play is the great touch from Chris Tierney...


Great call for the ball and sublime touch to head it to a space for Rowe to run to. If he does make that happen, we don't get to argue about a controversial call.

Man of the Match 
Koffie and Watson were both good today, Lee was alright despite being hounded by the United States' captain, and JoGo did a good job with Giovinco, but I'm going with Kelyn Rowe.
He was very involved on the attacking end and helped on with Giovinco given they were on the same wing. He scored a beauty of a header and played in that final ball to Femi before Lee's goal was disallowed. After a down year he looks very hungry and eager so far this season. 

At Orlando next Sunday at 3:30 PM on ESPN. Let's put on a good showing for the national audience against the Lions. They're one point ahead of us in the standing in third place with a game in hand early on. Like us, they are unbeaten at home so far, going 1-0-2 at the Citrus Bowl, same record as the Revs in Foxboro. 

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