Well, that was bound to happen. This is my official reminder to not get too high on this team. Flying too close to the sun with wings made of a 4-game unbeaten run on the year and an 11-game game run unbeaten at home. Undefeated FC Dallas came to Fortress Foxboro and showed why they've yet to lose this season.
Dallas is still without standout goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez and midfield stalwart Kellyn Acosta, but they still have Oscar Pareja at the helm, and for that reason they will always be a threat. He's considered one of the best head coaches in the league for a reason, and it showed tonight.
The Revs controlled the style of play early with their press, as we've seen for weeks now. They maintained a good amount of pressure that forced Dallas to go with the long ball a bit more than they would normally like to as they're another "build for the back" squad. Where Pareja comes into play is that Dallas was able to adjust very fast and make it an even game. Like, it was 50-50 the whole way. Each team had their chances that were either wasted or snuffed out by the goalies.
The Revs were particularly sloppy in the final third. That final pass just wasn't there, a few good chances were easy saves in the end, more than one shot ended up in the stands. Wilfried Zahibo especially loves blasting shots from 20 miles out and putting them out of Gillette and onto the roof of Splitsville.
There's something about Gillette Stadium that just makes teams play bend-don't-break defense. The Patriots mastered it, but the Revs this season have shown they are just fine playing that way as well. The problem comes when you do break and also don't have Tom Brady at the ready to engineer a game winning drive. Teal had his chances, Scotty had a nice chance, Diego biffed a chance. One of the common threads form this game is that a lot of good chances came from mid-range shots near the edge of the box or just a few feet inside of it. Especially when you're relatively open, you have to finish in that area. It's doubly true when you play a very good team that you know will capitalize on on your one mistake.
And that's just what Dallas did.
For 99% of the game, the Revs did a good job pushing most of Dallas' attacks out wide. Matt Turner notably came off his line once to force the attack back out and allowed his defenders to get back into position. It only took one mishit to change the game.
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) April 15, 2018Andre Farrell can't clear the cross, it falls to Roland Lamah who plays it into the box, and Jacori Hayes makes the run across the goal and sneaks his way into space to finish it. Farrell and Somi had been putting in work all game long but it just didn't break their way. Farrell had this, Somi had a few head-scratching passes after working hard to get good looks. The effort outweighed the final result for those two.
The Revs thought they had a chance to tie it up with a penalty shot, but the ref decided this was not a penalty on Nemeth.
Which would be very consistent with how the game was called. Not a lot of whistles as the players were allowed to just duke it out. The only two problems with that: 1) Nemeth gets called for a foul just before that when he whiffed on a shot and made contact with a defender, and 2) That was a foul in the box and should have been a penalty. I actually can kinda see not getting that call on the road, but at home thats a penalty.#NERevs wanted a penalty in stoppage time for a challenge by Hedges on Nemeth, but Grajeda wasn't interested. #FCDallas #NEvFCD #NEvDAL pic.twitter.com/AOXjDUlu9k— Jason Foster (@JogaBonito_USA) April 15, 2018
And so, FC Dallas came in and broke the streak to the tune of 1-0. I guess we at least can be thankful that it was at least exciting. Last season this game would have been worse than just pouring bleach directly onto your cornea. Friedel at least has the boys playing aggressive, attacking football.
Other notes:
-Kelyn Rowe misses the 18 after apparently picking up a slight knock yesterday during training. The word is that its not considered too serious and that he'll be monitored over the next few days. Hoping this was just precautionary and wont be a lingering injury.
Man of the Match
The Cult Leader had a great game. Not much he could do on the goal, and aside from that it was another strong showing for the kid. He made some nice saves and damn near got a shot off at the end. The bright spot just keeps getting brighter. Join Us, Won't You?
Away to Columbus in one week's time. Get back on the horse and get an away win. Let's see how the team bounces back after a frustrating night and heading into a tough environment.
Revs 0-1 DALLAS
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