The Revolution had a busy week as they hosted the Houston Dynamo Wednesday night and then traveled to New Jersey to take on the rival Red Bulls on Saturday. The Revolution were able to gain a point in both matches as they begin to show some progress but also some vulnerabilities.
Last Wednesday night the Houston Dynamo visited Gillette Stadium. They brought their league-leading marksman, Brad Davis, and a host of towering options to receive his crosses. While neither the Dynamo and the Revs have achieved at levels similar to their past glories, both have been focused on reloading this season. Houston still has Brian Ching from their championship years. This year they tried to add Koke and when that didn’t work out they brought in Carlos Costly.
If Houston’s combination of Brad Davis and any number of six foot plus aerial options can get close they will threaten to score. New England did well to push from the start and earned a goal before 5 minutes had ticked over. Ryan Cochrane scored against his former team, which had to feel good as he has recently missed a few chances in front of the goal. his game also featured more evidence of Caraglio’s industry and power as he held the ball against pressure allowing his teammates to join him in attack. The Revs looked to have held off the Dynamo despite slowly retreating in the face of those aerial attacks.
After the 90th minute, though, Houston finally broke through for a goal. The goal came from a Brad Davis corner and was bundled in by Bobby Boswell. Matt Reis had made seven saves to preserve New England’s lead, a spectacular display by our veteran goal keeper. Reis was unmanned moments later, however, when Adam Moffat shouldered Pat Phelan in the last few seconds. hat evening the referee issued two additional cards: the second yellow to Adam Moffat would see him suspended for a game and a red card to Reis for his arguments on the field after that play. Despite working their game plan of scoring early and first to concentrate on conservatively containing Houston, the Revs were undone in the end.
Saturday night the New York Red Bulls came to New England and did the same thing as Houston. When the Revs visited NYRB it took a bit of Henry brilliance to pull out a 2-1 win. The New England fans who hoped to see Henry were disappointed as he and his team did not bring him to play on our synthetic turf field. In this game the combination play of Lindepere and Dane Richards threatened New England. Richards has always been fast and Lindepere is simply high quality. Richards bounced around our defensive line all night drawing offsides as he attempted to slip behind them and attack keeper Bobby Shuttlesworth. In the second half he broke through for two goals.
The Revs had again executed their game plan in the first half. Behind the power on the ball of Milton Caraglio the Revs went into halftime up 2-0 only to succumb to their opposition’s strengths late in the game. In Caraglio, the Revs finally seem to have found a striker whose role could become as important game-to-game as Taylor Twellman did in the past. I went out and tried his right-footed pull across his body for an immediate left footed shot in my back yard. It is still early in his tenure at the the Revs, but Caraglio’s presence in these two games has provided a dependable presence at the top. In football successful teams need at a minimum a strong “spine” up the center of their line up. From Reis through Soares to Benny and Shalrie the Revs have had a solid beginning of a spine that missed an attacked in front of goal. Caraglio looks like he can fill that role. His presence also seems to have settled the formation into a 4-4-2 with Benny and Shalrie smack in the middle of the park. I was not aware of Benny’s defensive work rate before he arrived in New England, though in this 4-4-2 formation he has latched onto the box-to-box role with zeal. I am glad that we finally have a forward who can hold his and Shalrie’s incisive passes to bring support players into the attack.
This season’s focal point, winning deep into the playoffs hunting for a cup might be slipping out of reach already. We are not mathematically eliminated yet, though the team has been talking about “must-win” games and “no excuses” for at least a week already. Invoking “playoff game” status with more than a month left to play is a sure sign of a season a disappointment. The pieces added and subtracted last season and this one describe a rebuilding team. Those two goals: building a quality team and competing for contention seem to be consecutive steps rather than two endeavors that can be accomplished simultaneously. The Revs can score and they can defend. What they haven’t done yet with this formation and essential line up choices is win. To change the conversation the Revs will have to step up another level, shifting from simply scoring against the opposition to dominating the opposition.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
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