{"id":47200,"date":"2023-07-03T12:27:08","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=47200"},"modified":"2023-07-03T12:27:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T16:27:08","slug":"revolution-players-feel-heat-cincinnati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/07\/03\/revolution-players-feel-heat-cincinnati\/","title":{"rendered":"The Revolution Players \u201cCertainly Felt the Heat in the Second Half\u201d of 2-2 Draw with FC Cincinnati"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First versus second was the obvious choice for MLS matches to watch this weekend and it didn\u2019t fail to deliver. FC Cincinnati hosted New England and by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/17\/bruce-arena-fumes-var-revs-columbus\/\" target=\"_self\">Bruce Arena<\/a>\u2019s own admission, his Revolution players \u201ccertainly felt the heat in the second half\u201d. Despite underperforming, the visitors left Ohio with a point in hand.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Revolution Players Struggle at TQL Stadium<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Points Shared in Top of the Table Clash<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A couple of months ago it was the New England Revolution who led the way in MLS. Now FC Cincinnati are the team to beat, they are six points ahead of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/09\/joe-willis-earns-point-nashville-sc\/\" target=\"_self\">Nashville<\/a> who have played a game more. Ahead of this fixture, Bruce Arena labelled Cinci as \u201cthe best team in the conference to date\u201d and it\u2019s not hard to see why.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the game, Arena backed this up whilst also pointing out the errors made by his Revolution players. He claimed that it was \u201ca hard-fought game\u201d and that it was against a \u201cvery good opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">55&#39; | BADJI BRACE!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CINvNE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CINvNE<\/a> 2-2 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w1eHFpgWlQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/w1eHFpgWlQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FC Cincinnati (@fccincinnati) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fccincinnati\/status\/1675307455285436417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Dominique Badji came to the fore in the absence of Brandon Vazquez, who was busy scoring for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/07\/03\/jesus-ferreira-hat-trick-usmnt-gold-cup\/\" target=\"_self\">USMNT<\/a>. Badji netted something of a hat-trick, scoring twice at the correct end whilst also being in the wrong place at the wrong time for an own goal.<\/p>\n<p>Defender Dave Romney was full of praise for the difference maker. \u201cDom is a great forward. I played with him in Nashville for two years. Really good guy. Very good at stretching the game and is just completely direct. That&#8217;s what they tried to do\u2026 I think his style of play suits them really well and he had two great finishes for them. Hats off to Badji.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/08\/exclusive-interview-dave-romney-revs\/\" target=\"_self\">Exclusive Interview: Dave Romney Talks Going From LA to Nashville to New England and More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Poor Performances from a Number of Revolution Players<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As was previously mentioned, it was far from a solid performance from the Revolution players. The conditions were tough at TQL Stadium, as was confirmed by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/08\/exclusive-interview-dave-romney-revs\/\" target=\"_self\">Romney<\/a>. \u201cIt was extremely muggy and hot, and everybody was just trying to survive out there. We battled and we fought hard, that&#8217;s a positive to take away. I don&#8217;t think we were good enough at keeping the ball in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>Arena outlined that those on the field \u201ccertainly felt the heat in the second half\u201d. One huge challenge that comes with playing in Major League Soccer is the various climates and conditions that teams encounter. From the scorching heat to driving rain and blizzards, you have to be prepared for anything.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Not us being the first to take a point home with us from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TQLStadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TQLStadium<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1YPbzQq54Z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1YPbzQq54Z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; New England Revolution (@NERevolution) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NERevolution\/status\/1675328942331314176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>There were a number of lapses in judgment where Revolution players in particular made silly mistakes. Romney owned up to his part in this and he did give the ball away needlessly. \u201cJust a bad turnover in the first half that led to one of their chances. Then on the second goal, I just wasn\u2019t good enough on Badji and couldn&#8217;t get a block. Just couple plays here and there that I wish I had back, but I don&#8217;t know too many guys who played well tonight. I never want to have an off night so it definitely wasn&#8217;t good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It would be easy enough to focus on the negatives but at the end of the day, it is a very valuable point. In Arena\u2019s words, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2022\/10\/10\/djordje-petrovic-press-conference\/\" target=\"_self\">Djordje Petrovic<\/a> \u201cmade a couple of big saves\u201d and overall, \u201cIt\u2019s good to get the point, I can\u2019t argue that. I guess I\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d Next up for the Revs is a meeting with the New York Red Bulls, another Eastern Conference rival.<\/p>\n<p>Featured image credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports, taken July 1, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First versus second was the obvious choice for MLS matches to watch this weekend and it didn\u2019t fail to deliver. FC Cincinnati hosted New England and by Bruce Arena\u2019s own admission, his Revolution players \u201ccertainly felt the heat in the second half\u201d. Despite underperforming, the visitors left Ohio with a point in hand. Revolution Players [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3891,"featured_media":47201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2524,11],"tags":[115,1742,253,5237,4961,4284],"class_list":["post-47200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fc-cincinnati","category-revolution","tag-bruce-arena","tag-dave-romney","tag-dominique-badji","tag-jamie-rooke","tag-pat-noonan","tag-tql-stadium"],"modified_by":"Jamie Rooke","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}