{"id":35366,"date":"2015-06-03T08:56:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T12:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=35366"},"modified":"2015-06-03T08:56:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T12:56:22","slug":"technically-speaking-nevla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=35366","title":{"rendered":"Technically Speaking: #NEvLA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

Welcome back to another edition of \u201cTechnically Speaking,\u201d where our very own resident coach and former pro Rick Sewall takes a deeper look into the Revolution\u2019s latest performance.<\/p>\n

Have any questions you\u2019d like Rick to address? Feel free to ask away in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s game, Jay Heaps said he was particularly frustrated by his team\u2019s form after the first 12 minutes. What did you see from the Revs after the 12-minute mark that probably gave Heaps fits?<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick:<\/strong> Teal Bunbury scored for the Revs early, following nifty passes from Juan\u00a0Agudelo to Scott Caldwell, and Caldwell to Bunbury. But from about the 12th minute to the 50th minute, the Revs\u2019 possession game took a vacation, and statistics clearly show this. During this period the Revs could not complete four consecutive passes, and indeed completed three in a row only three times. This failure resulted in part from aggressive play by the Galaxy forwards, and in part, from some pretty good possession play in the Galaxy\u2019s own right, all of which was rewarded by two well-deserved goals in the 18th and 27th minutes.<\/p>\n

Galaxy pressure also caused some sloppy play for the Revs – poor marking in the penalty area, London Woodberry getting easily beaten down the Galaxy left flank, a botched back pass to Bobby Shuttleworth which could easily have resulted in a goal, and even a foul throw by Diego Fagundez.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t blame coach Heaps one bit for being disturbed by this slapdash performance. Thankfully, the team recovered when, around the 50th minute, they strung together nine passes. From then on, the game was played on a fairly even basis.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s match was the fifth straight game in which the Revolution have blown a lead. What do you think could be the root of the problem?<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick:<\/strong> Bobby Shuttleworth has played very consistently this year, so this means that the field players will take most of the heat for this problem \u2013 the forwards for not scoring for bigger leads and the defenders for allowing the opposition to score and tie. This is a hard question to answer, as by one interpretation the blowing of the lead could be a defensive problem, by another an offensive one. Whatever the root cause, the easier way to remedy it is to beef up the defense \u2013 because, as they say in soccer, it is easier to destroy than to create.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Revs\u2019 present back four, I worry about left and right back. Woodberry and Tierney are both fine offensively, but their defense can cause problems. They just aren\u2019t fast enough. Tierney has adjusted pretty well to this deficiency by learning to lay off the forward by a step or step and a half, deterring him from beating him to the outside. Woodberry still has this lesson to learn and falls too often into overcommitting.<\/p>\n

What do you think prevented both sides from getting the go-ahead goal during the second half?<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick:<\/strong> The combination of the artificial turf and the heavy rain obviously had something to do with it, but I think the main problem for both teams was that they were missing key players: Tierney, Lee Nguyen, and Jermaine\u00a0Jones for the Revs; Robbie Keane for the Galaxy. These are all experienced players who could have made the difference playing under difficult conditions. Still, both keepers had to make very good saves to prevent more scoring.<\/p>\n

While Diego Fagundez was able to hit a great free kick through, he seemed to get lost during many stretches of the match. What does he need to do better in order to return the player we saw two years ago?<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick:<\/strong> I would have liked to see more from Diego in this game, because he was subbing in at offensive mid for the red-carded Lee Nguyen, and I suspect that may actually be his best position. On the wing, he lacks the moves and acceleration to beat a man toward the end line. But he\u2019s got good ability to pass the ball, which suits him to a center mid position. Yet he was not awfully effective there in this game:<\/p>\n

\u2022 He was unnecessarily dispossessed at least a couple of times. Knowing where defenders are is critical to keep this from happening.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If were him, I would have played deeper in this game, especially when the team was struggling. I would have positioned myself closer to the ball, and passed as quickly as possible to a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If I were him, I would also watch films of Carlos Valderrama, a player who had rock-solid technique with the inside and outside of both feet and unusually good field vision and awareness, virtues which made him an outstanding one-touch player. Diego may not become another Carlos (very few players will) but watching him play could help his development.<\/p>\n

One last point: In Diego\u2019s first year with the Revs, I was excited to see him execute an absolutely proper instep shot, something I have not seen from him since. I hope he remembers this technique, and works on it.<\/p>\n

What stood out the most to you about Sunday\u2019s match?<\/em><\/p>\n

Rick: The nearly 40-minute lapse from the Revs\u00a0in the first half and into the second half\u00a0was strange, and easily could have resulted in a Galaxy win. At least they bounced back. And the fact that they did points up one of their best qualities as a team \u2013 that they so often to have it in them to overcome adversity. They just don\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

Gyasi Zardes was Man of the Match. He put in an excellent effort.<\/p>\n

Playing in a rainstorm, and on artificial turf, makes the game too much of a dogfight. A proper soccer stadium for the Revs is getting more and more imperative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our resident coach and former pro Rick Sewall gives his insight about the Revs performance vs. LA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":35367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[891,170,49,1274,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Jose-11.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35370,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366\/revisions\/35370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}