Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in New England — the mighty Revs have been shut out (Again)
– A reinterpretation of Ernest Thayer’s original poem
The New England Revolution Enigma; or Dude have you seen my Defense?
The 2015 season for New England was set up to be a statement of how far the Revolution have come, and how they are going to make an indelible mark on the league for years to come. Through two games they have been shut out 5-0, by the perennially powerful Sounders and by a team who has just played its 2nd ever game together. There are plenty of questions and plenty of answers to those questions as to why the season has started out as lowly as it has.
Where is the Defense?
The Revolution may have only lost one starter from last year but it is looking more and more like it lost the screw that held the entire defense together. Andrew Farrell and Jose Goncalves have not melded yet, and while this is only Game 2, there is cause for concern. Farrell at times looks lost between anting to mark a man, cover the space or figure out what to communicate to his wing defenders. Alston and Tierney more often than not struggled to stay on their marks or in position. Chris Tierney would advance too far ahead only to get caught in a counter and would leisurely jog back to defense. Next week New England plays Montreal so the game should have a higher probability of being a success, but they will be without Goncalves (who was lost on a red card on a very poor call by the one and only Mark Geiger) and the Revs will have to dig deep to find a defense that can hold. Robert Kraft, the teams owner opened his wallet to get Jermaine Jones this year, but he is the only DP. Imagine if they signed two or even one defender as a DP? This would change the outlook considerable. As of now they need to wait until Jermaine Jones is back and when Lee Nguyen can play a full 90.
With Nguyen they still can’t win
Lee Nguyen returned from a nagging groin injury and played well up in his attacking midfield position. However, and I will credit this to the earliness of the season, the team did not link up overall near well enough. Juan Agudelo looked very strong at times but his 9-month layoff from competitive soccer still shows; he will shake the rust off soon. Mind you, New England did near dominate the first half. When they are on, the link up play between everyone on the Revolution produces incredible excitement. The more the link up play happens, the more confident the team gets on the ball and that’s when they get really dangerous. That play never happened enough for the team to enter the danger zone and NYCFC ended up taking the fans enthusiasm in the 2nd half to lift them to their first ever victory.
Blame the field!
Yesterday was the inaugural home game for NYCFC at Yankee Stadium. While New England can cry about many things regarding the field (incredibly narrow, thick grass that slows the ball down, odd patches of grass over the baseball infield that run near the corner box and a weird field orientation that leaves the fans near 30 yards away) it didn’t determine the game. NYCFC also had to play on the same conditions. Could you argue 2 or 3 of Revs best chances might have been thwarted due to field conditions? Yes, but the same goes for David Villa’s near wonder-strike and Adam Nemec’s poor shot in the box that were likely botched do to the playing surface.
The day overall was brilliant for soccer. It may have been a little blustery, but 43,500 fans showed up ready for action. NYCFC fans may need to learn some cheers and a unified way of chanting for their team, (is it NYCFC? just NYC? Do we throw a Yeah! after NYCFC?) but if the attendance stays anywhere near the same as it was on Sunday, it will make for a very loud environment all season long. New England fans did roll deep, and had about 300-500 supporters in the stands cheering loud and proud. This is the beginning of a true Boston / NY Rivalry, likely to be bigger than the Red Bull / Revolution rivalry.
The game, at the end of the day was fascinating. Mix Diskerud and David Villa are a strong partnership and understand this is a sport but also entertainment. The endless flicks, deft touched and ankle-breaking moves on display was something else.
Jermaine Jones is still a couple weeks away, Jose Goncalves is suspended a game, and Jay Heaps still refuses to play a 2nd striker. While all is not glory and sunshine-filled, The Revolution know adversity. An accurate determination of this season cannot be made until Jermaine has a couple games under his belt and the true starting lineups are tested. For now, any talk of Dynasty can fall to the wayside. New England is the 2nd youngest team in the MLS, and once they start winning, they will be one of the more dangerous teams in the league. Here is hoping they don’t dig too deep a hole that they will not be able to get out of.
For now, the Revs are just hoping for their first goal and points, and look towards Montreal to see if they can make that happen.
