The Good, the Bad, and the Wicked Ugly. Red Bulls Rebound and Send the Revolution Running.
The 4-2 score line of the New York Red Bulls beating the New England Revolution does not tell the full story of the match this past Saturday at Red Bull Arena. The Revolution played some of their best soccer of 2024 during this match. Only down 2-1 for much of the game and creating consistent offensive pressure. Maybe that is why this loss hurt so much. Or maybe it’s the blog life fueling my passion. Minutes after the game I wrote in my notes, “We need a new coach. A new roster. A new philosophy. This sucks and nothing is changing. Burn it to the ground.” After a few days of simmering, listening to some postgame press conferences from the team, and reflecting, I will now give a more thoughtful breakdown of my reactions and takeaways from this game. Let’s get into it.
The Good
Goal contributions from all 3 of our Designated Players in this game was a huge positive. In a league dominated by its stars, and each team having only 3 Designated Player spots to pay top dollar and sign those stars, productivity from these players is a must. A goal in two games and now an assist in a third for Tomas Chancalay is great to see. What’s not so great is that he picked up his 5th yellow card and will be suspended for our next game against the Philadelphia Union. Missing a game while in great form hurts the team for sure as we look to build on any bit of positivity. Carles Gil had a goal which gained him his 100th goal contribution for the New England Revolution, an impressive milestone which further solidifies him as a Revolution legend. Coach Caleb Porter cited the assist from Chancalay to the header goal from Gil was proof of their growing chemistry. Lastly, Giacomo Vrioni netted his second goal of the season and can hopefully continue to build his confidence and get into form. Fans have been questioning if he is the right guy to be striker for this team, while coach Caleb Porter continues to praise Giacomo each week for his efforts.
The Revolution showed they have some fight in them, bouncing back after conceding multiple goals. This game was 2-1 from the 43rd minute until the 84th minute. And frankly, the handball resulting in the penalty kick goal to go up 2-1 before half for the Red Bulls was incredibly soft. To add insult to injury, giving Kessler the yellow card. I guess a handball is a handball, but that was soft and an unfortunate way to go down in a game we had control of. With inexcusable mistakes leading to goals at the start and end of the game, the Revolution looked strong otherwise. They showed success in Caleb Porter’s desired style of play. I still question why we have our outside backs so key to our attack, but I did see the vision at times despite not having our ideal men on the pitch. Andrew Farrell, besides some defensive mishaps, looked quite strong offensively at Right Back. Nick Lima struggled on the left side, but with Ryan Spaulding out last minute with illness, Revs were forced to adapt. Despite it all, the boys showed heart. Along with some dysfunction we can touch on later. But heart nonetheless.
The Revolution have found a consistent Goalkeeper who fits their style of play in Aljaz Ivacic. In his postgame press conference coach Caleb Porter commented that Ivacic is here to be our starter. That is why we signed him. He’s a great Goalkeeper. He’s composed, good with the ball at his feet, and helps us play out the back. Despite having a rotation of goalies thus far this season, Caleb Porter expressed that is not how he likes to do things. For better or worse, the Revolution can expect to see some consistency in the back at Goalkeeper. After being spoiled with keepers like Matt Turner and Djordje Petrovic, Ivacic may not be seen in that caliber. Ivacic provides some hope and stability to a struggling defense for the New England Revolution.
The Bad
Giving up an early goal was worst case scenario. Putting ourselves behind early and letting one of the top players of the opposing team get into form quick (Lewis Morgan who I identified as my #1 player to watch coming into this game) is a recipe for many more losses. We are not good enough to be going down early. We are not Inter Miami. We can’t spot the other team a goal, or even two in the example of Miami’s latest game against CF Montreal, and expect to come back. Not consistently. We fought hard when behind, and a team largely lacking heart this season showed desire to win.
The Revs came out the strongest they have all year and still managed to quickly squander that by falling asleep and letting in an early goal. I don’t blame Farrell even though he was the one chasing Morgan down. The whole backline was asleep, watched the ball go over head, and we were down a goal before we even knew what happened. I say “we” like I’m on the team. Lewis Morgan and Emil Forsberg were alive early and combining in the box and at times looked very dangerous. The Revs can’t be letting the opposing team’s stars get hot early.
Players playing out of position and a strategy that does not put the personnel on the field in the best place to succeed ultimately hurts the team. Granted, this problem is greatly out of our hands and is a function of injuries and illness. Ryan Spaulding was a planned starter all week for Left Back, but was a last second scratch due to illness. This forced Nick Lima over to the left side instead of Right Back, and moved Farrell from left bench to Right Back. So Lima, a right footed Right Back, was now in charge of creating our offense up the left wing with his nonexistent left foot. And veteran Center Back Andrew Farrell (Revolution’s all-time leader in appearances, starts, and minutes) oversaw the Right Back. Which he did a great job offensively in my opinion, besides some lackluster crosses (despite one becoming our first goal). But left much to be desired defensively, whether it was his fault or, he was in the area for a few goals against.
In his press conference after the win against Chicago Caleb Porter expressed his tactics of getting outside backs high, getting wingers inside, and creating numerical superiority in the other teams third. However, this strategy all falls apart when the outside backs are not who the team would ideally be starting barring injuries and illness. This results in many offensive opportunities where rather than a talented back like Dejuan Jones or Brandon Bye who are both injured, or maybe a winger like Chancalay making a play, instead it’s Nick Lima or Andrew Farrell with the ball at their feet at our most dangerous moments to attack. Leaving us squandering chances and exposed on defense.
We do a great job of possessing the ball but do absolutely nothing with it. I’ll quote Hayden Bird who wrote this article where he pulled a great stat that sums up exactly what we are all witnessing this season. “The Revolution churned out 572 completed passes—New England’s second highest total of the season—against just 228 from New York (a percentage disparity of 67-33). Yet of those hundreds of passes, 262 (45.8%) were made by Kessler, Arreaga, and Kaye.” In my game notes as I watch I’m constantly noting Mark Anthony Kaye passing backwards, rarely if ever looking to spring us into attack. Coach Caleb Porter in the postgame press conference after the Red Bulls loss was sure to praise both Matt Polster and Mark Anthony Kaye for their great work helping us build out the back and create advantage building up and breaking the Red Bulls pressure. However, I’m not quite sure I agree.
Based on Hayden Bird’s stat and my own eyeballs I can confidently say Kaye doesn’t help us create much offense. I’ll credit Polster for some good hard tackling. I made note of a good tackle in the box around 25 minutes into the game. Kaye covers a lot of ground and does some good possession. But, as many others have noted, having a talented youth player like Noel Buck sitting on the bench while experienced guys like Polster and Kaye who we know what they are capable of, doesn’t make sense. Caleb Porter continues to praise our two Center Defensive Mids, so more Polster and Kaye to come.
The Wicked Ugly
The defensive effort shown in this game cannot be accepted moving forward. We can make excuses all we want regarding injuries and illness as described above and even described in past blogs, but excuses won’t win us games. And at this point, we need to start winning some games if we want to even pretend we have any chance of turning this season into something. In his postgame press conference Caleb Porter references numerous times that we ‘conceded some goals we can’t concede’ and was obviously not happy with particularly the first and last goal scored. Placing little to no blame on Ivacic, Caleb puts the blame on the defense. And so do I. Breakaways and wide open shots from inside the box give the keeper little chance to make a stop. Andrew Farrell looked slow and out of place at Right Back. Henry Kessler has a knack for finding himself planted in the box flailing a leg to try and make a deflection but ultimately looking silly such as on New York’s third goal in the 84th minute by Elias Manoel. Pull up the game to 83:48 to see the examples of Andrew Farrell’s lack of speed leading to Henry Kessler doing the splits in the box as the Red Bulls extend their lead to two goals after we outplayed them the majority of the game. Pain.
The finishing and decision making in the attacking third needs to improve. We looked surprised sometimes when we actually started creating offense. Players like Vrioni are shocked to find the ball at their feet and often have no plan. Esmir Bajraktarevic is a great young talent, getting starts at the Right Wing as just a 19 year old. Unfortunately, he did not deliver in this game. He had a few chances in the attacking third where he could have played Vrioni on a run breaking toward goal. Opting for a more selfish play, unfortunately not making anything of it. Coach Caleb Porter even making comment of it in his postgame presser. An example around the 30th minute had the commentator remarking something to the effect, ‘with a struggling number 9 like Vrioni, I’d be taking chances to get him going and feed him the ball.’ Unfortunately, we squandered our chances to feed Vrioni. And unfortunately again, when Vrioni does get his opportunities they’ve often come up short. Such as his shot into the side netting on what ended up being an offsides opportunity. With 2 goals in his last 20 MLS games, improved productivity is a must from Vrioni if he hopes to remain the Revs starting striker past the summer transfer window.
At times the Revolution looked disorganized and dysfunctional. Caleb Pongratz on twitter reported Nick Lima and Caleb Porter getting into words as Porter coached up Lima from the sideline. Lima told Porter “let me do my f***ing job.” I’m not sure Lima had a leg to stand on with his argument, certainly not his left foot. His play was pretty poor. I’ll give him some credit for filling in on a side he doesn’t typically play at the last minute. Other than that, unfortunately not much credit to give. Again, I’ll cite Caleb Porter explaining our tactics of wanting our outside backs getting up field and serving crosses so our wingers can create numbers inside. However, I just see this as Lima and Farrell having our biggest chances on attack, and not being skillful enough to take advantage. Farrell had a chance in the box, Lima was constantly in the other teams box and not covering on defense. Our strategy of getting our outside backs forward in my eyes is just a recipe for being exposed in the back while Nick Lima jogs back on defense. Been seeing it since the Atlanta United game as he trailed Giorgos Giakoumakis back giving him an easy goal. But I guess that’s why we have guys like Polster and Kaye who don’t do much offensively, but instead cover our backs who are playing forward. But again… why not get offensive guys to play offensive and defensive to play defense? Last few points on our dysfunction. At one point around 71:34 in the game Vrioni and Gil collided, and soon after Arreaga was yelling at Kessler. Dysfunction and disagreement all up and down the pitch. Then I made note that by the 72nd minute we had an attack play in the box but it’s Nick Lima in there! So he’s not back on defense. And that is when moments later Henry Kessler stopped the opposing attack with a literal football tackle. A whole lot of madness in a short time. Moments like that make me unsure when Mark Anthony Kaye says “this is a team that loves each other” in his postgame presser. I hope he’s right and these guys can band together and improve. Sometimes it looks like a field full of players who don’t want to be there.
If you’ve read this far, you’re amazing. Enjoy a few storylines from across the league, and I’ll talk to you soon.
1. Lucho Acosta carries FC Cincinnati to a victory over the Columbus Crew in the Hell is Real rivalry match for bragging rights of Ohio.
2. Rojas showing he's as important as anyone down in Miami as they extend their win streak to 5 games.
3. Hattrick for Benteke, all 3 headers, helps propel DC United to a win over Atlanta United.
4. Chicho Arrango with 2 goals, making it 11 on year, tied for the top of the Golden Boot race with Benteke and Suarez.
5. Ruidiaz continues to score beautiful goals for the Seattle Sounders.
God Bless. Go Revs.
