Player Ratings: New England Revolution at Montreal Impact
- By Sean Donahue
- Updated: July 19, 2012
After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue and Julian Cardillo contributed ratings for the New England Revolution’s 2-1 loss to the Montreal Impact.
Matt Reis – Average Rating: 5 (Sean 5.5, Julian 4.5)
Made a few big saves and was quick off his line to bail out the defense on occasion. Would’ve liked to see him hold onto the ball rather than giving up a corner on a couple occasions, but otherwise not much he could do on the goals. (Sean) … Took too many risks with the ball at his feet and should have guarded his near post better on the second goal. (Julian)
Chris Tierney – Average Rating: 4.25 (Sean 3.5, Julian 5)
A few key passes going forward, but defensively got all the big plays wrong. Harsh or not, Sanna Nyassi was on the wrong side of him and Tierney got his hands up leading to the PK. Also lost Nyassi on his goal and played San Jose onside on a late chance, requiring Reis to bail the defense out. (Sean) … Much better not to get beaten for speed so often, except when he left Nyassi wide open for his goal. (Julian)
A.J. Soares – Average Rating: 4.75 (Sean 5, Julian 4.5)
Battled hard and no major mistakes outside of slipping up on the grass on one key play. (Sean) … Passing out of the back was unimpressive and seemed to lose DiVaio whenever he did something other than shoot. (Julian)
Darrius Barnes – Average: 5.75 (Sean 5.5, Julian 6)
Solid showing considering how little he’s been used this year, but lucky not to be called for a penalty on Davy Arnaud in the box. Only one (chipped) pass off target all night. (Sean) … Looked good next to Soares and got the ball away cleanly when he was under pressure. (Julian)
Kevin Alston – Average Rating: 4.5 (Sean 4.5, Julian 4.5)
Perhaps lacking in awareness a bit in the build-up to the second goal where his header allowed Justin Mapp to get forward in acres of space to line-up his cross. Unable to find anyone with his own crosses going forward. (Sean) … Good job to join in on the attack, except returning to his position was an issue. Completely absent on defending the service of Montreal’s second goal. (Julian)
Kelyn Rowe – Average Rating: 3.75 (Sean 4.5, Julian 3)
Assisted on Nguyen’s goal, but otherwise had a very quiet first half. A bit more active in the second half before being subbed. Some decent passing, though he wasted a long shot when he would’ve been better off passing. (Sean) … Did little for the attack and lost the ball too often with bad touches and poor passes. (Julian)
Clyde Simms – Average Rating: 6.25 (Sean 6, Julian 6.5)
98% passing accuracy and came pretty close with a shot from outside the box. Almost never turned the ball over and Revs clearly took a turn for the worse when he was subbed out. (Sean) … Kept the midfield calm when he was in. Should not have been subbed out. Midfield looked lost without him. (Julian)
Benny Feilhaber – Average Rating: 4.25 (Sean 4.5, Julian 4)
Had trouble finding space for himself and a few wild passes mixed in with some dangerous balls. (Sean) … Not too many passes that connect and struggled to get anything going offensively (Julian)
Ryan Guy – Average Rating: 5 (Sean 5, Julian 5)
Perhaps would’ve been better off staying wide all game. Started the game well providing more from the right than the Revs have seen in a while. Great effort, though end product wasn’t always there. (Sean) … Positioning was good, crossing wasn’t so good. (Julian)
Lee Nguyen – Average Rating: 6.5 (Sean 6.5, Julian 6.5)
One of his best games in a while. Tried to put the offense on his back and shooting – not just the goal – was much, much better than over the weekend. Only fault is he perhaps tried to do too much towards the end. (Sean) … Obviously the key offensive catalyst. Did great on the shot from long range that caused the goal and built up a lot of other encouraging plays. (Julian)
Saer Sene – Average Rating: 4.25 (Sean 4.5, Julian 4)
Positioning, runs – excellent. End product? Not so good. One good move to force a save, but otherwise too hesitant or a step too slow. (Sean) … Aside from forcing one save out of Ricketts, his night was pretty lackluster. Too much time dribbling not enough time getting the ball wide and getting into the box. (Julian)
(sub) Blake Brettschneider – Average Rating: 3.75 (Sean 3, Julian 4.5)
Two great chances and whiffed on both. Finishing has to be better. (Sean) … Good effort to be another body in the box, though he was unable to get on the end of anything. (Julian)
(sub) Sainey Nyassi – Average Rating: 3.5 (Sean 4, Julian 3)
Showed obvious rust off the bench. (Sean) … Passing and crossing were very much off the mark. (Julian)
(sub) Fernando Cardenas – Average Rating: 4.75 (Sean 4.5, Julian 5)
Energy was there, but tried to take on too much himself. (Sean) … Good spark off the bench and good runs into the area. Finishing needed some work. (Julian)
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About Sean Donahue
Sean Donahue serves as an editor and staff writer at New England Soccer Today. He has been covering the New England Revolution since 2002 for various publications. He has covered four MLS Cups, in addition to covering various international matches, including World Cup Qualifying and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. He has done freelance work for the Associated Press and ESPN Boston. Sean co-hosts New American Game, a soccer talk radio show from 10am to noon on WMEX AM1510. He previously hosted Revolution Recap, a weekly radio program covering the New England Revolution and U.S. Men's National Team from 2005-2008. He is a member of the North American Soccer Reporters. Sean can be reached at nesoccertoday@gmail.com or on Twitter @SeanLDonahue
rick sewall
July 19, 2012 at 7:57 am
On that big beautiful field the Rev midfield has got to perform better. They should be watching films of players like Scott Parker and Paul Scholes. Very nice shot by Lee. Tierney is too slow. Why argue about an obvious penalty?
Jim
July 19, 2012 at 10:24 am
Odd that Nyassi was brought in…. he did a very good job of proving to Heaps why he SHOULD be cut last night. However, since Nyassi has never been able to pass or shoot – wouldn’t this be an average performance for him 🙂 ?
Brettschneider did look awful. He just couldn’t get his foot on the ball – infuriating. He should pay more attention to the Spalding Rehabilitation tip of the day to improve his agility and accuracy.
Mat
July 19, 2012 at 11:02 am
I was also very confused as to why Simms came out of the game–with all the crappiness of the team why did Heaps take out one of the teams only good performers? And the subs that came in were awful–Nyassi (agree with Jim, cut him from this team!), BB (why is he playing professional soccer and why does Heaps think he’s good enough to play for our team?). I won’t say anything bad about Cardenas–he’s not one of the problems.
Chris B
July 19, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Two reasons Simms was subbed out:
1) Heaps (tried) to make an attacking sub
2) Managing minutes for a game on Wed and Sat
Jim
July 19, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Makes sense Chris – but if Heaps was attempting to replicate the magic in the Seattle or (first) Toronto game – why wouldn’t he just pull a wide defender for Flo, or a another offensively gifted player & drop to a 3 man back line? (Unless he actually did this. I can’t remember – I finished watching the game this morning getting ready for work)
Sean Donahue
July 19, 2012 at 9:33 pm
If I had to guess, I’d think you’re spot on with Heaps’ reasoning. That said, I think it’s flawed reasoning (and did as soon as the sub was made). No explanation needed for 1, but for 2, I don’t think you can afford to rest Simms — particularly on the road in a tight tied game — unless Shalrie Joseph is on the field.
Chris B
July 20, 2012 at 1:37 pm
And Heaps probably figured that out. This is still a learning experience year for him.
And just to clarify, Sean, I wasn’t defending Heaps’ decision to pull Simms off, I was just stating why I think he did. I’m with you, I don’t think it should have been done. I was very disappointed to see Simms come off and you could even see it in his face as well. It just felt like we’d give up a goal after that sub and we did.
Another issue I have is when Nyassi was put on did Heaps intend to use him as a striker? That would’ve made more sense than putting him out right even though he’s more comfortable there. Part of me thinks Nyassi drifted out wide even though he was told to play striker. If he was told to play wide right then this game would’ve been Heaps’ worst coached game all year IMO. Why take off Simms only to end up with 4-5-1 with BB up top alone? And why disrupt Nguyen and Tierney’s chemistry on the left flank as well?
Sean Donahue
July 21, 2012 at 12:02 pm
All excellent points, Chris, and I had assumed you were stating what you thought Heaps was thinking, rather than defending it.