The post-game quotes from the New England Revolution included Revs’ coach Steve Nicol calling the game, “frustrating,” calling his team, “naive,” and adding, “we’re not getting it done.” There are positives and quotes from Shalrie, Tierney, Arena, Beckham, and Donovan. Here, however, we will dwell for a moment on the negatives and what is lacking from the current New England Revolution squad.
In two games against Los Angeles this season the Revolution have let in two goals and scored one for a total of one single point out of a possible six. Granted, the Galaxy are contenders for MLS Cup, this loss demonstrates how far outside the Revs are from challenging for a championship. The NHL’s Bruins are headed to the finals with a chance to be the fourth Boston based team to win their respective sport in the last ten years. The Revolution are not currently built to win a championship.
On Saturday night David Beckham took the space that our defense left him, lifted his head and looked towards goal, lined up and cracked a hard shot at the net. Lopez nudged it just enough to leave Matt Reis on the wrong foot for the only goal. That is the first of the two moments that will define this game. I hope the second moment doesn’t also define the Revolution’s season. In the 90th minute the Revs had the following sequence of opportunities frustrated. Alston’s cross into the box resulted in a shot saved by De La Garza. The ball was cleared to Nyassi who whipped in another cross to Schilawski who hit the post. Shalrie heads the rebound on goal only for another Los Angeles save. This New England Revolution team cannot score. That could change with more familiarity or additional creative talent. For now (we miss Taylor Twellman), this Revs team is incomplete until they start to produce some goals.
The defense has performed well this month. Starting together for the third straight game has to be a contributing factor to the collectively improved defense. It is hard to score against us, though not impossible. With the addition of Benny Feilhaber, Nicol’s intention to play a possession passing game has been achieved. Dabo hopefully will heal up enough to play and also contribute to that game plan. Benny’s ankle can have all the time it needs to get healthy – we were going to miss him for the Gold Cup anyway. Our defense to midfield link is working for us. Lekic, however, and the forwards in general, have not produced.
The Danish striker, Lekic, spoke earlier this season about creating opportunities as the key to scoring goals. While I agree with him, I want to see more hold up play from him or at least more possession passing. I hope that Mike Burns and Steve Nicol succeed in bringing in a creative attacking player as a marquee signing. Right now we need to score to improve our defensive performance. If we could take the pressure off our defense with some productive offense – a goal, please, then more – we could probably post a winning shut-out.
If you haven’t been keeping track, we failed to score and gave up points to Los Angeles. We also said goodbye to Benny Feilhaber, and with his ankle injury we might not even get to seem him play for the national team this summer. We cannot score and we have to wait for the summer transfer window to even hope of improving the roster. Let’s add in that Shalrie Joseph might accept his call up to compete in the Gold Cup for Grenada. There is plenty missing from the Revolution, not just points on the board, as the summer begins to heat up. New England has been on the cusp but firmly outside of playoff contention so far this season. It looks like something will have to be added to improve this Revs team.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
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