{"id":14700,"date":"2012-08-14T07:12:06","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T11:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14700"},"modified":"2012-08-14T17:26:50","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T21:26:50","slug":"five-things-we-learned-revolution-vs-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14700","title":{"rendered":"Five Things We Learned: Revolution vs. Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen sparked a few chances in Sunday’s 1-0 loss against the Impact. (Photo: Kari Heistad\/CapturedImages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s time to can the “one mistake killed us” excuse.<\/p>\n

For the last six games, it’s been become the go-to phrase\u00a0when\u00a0a bad bounce, an unsettling sequence of unwatchable defending, a concentration lapse, or\u00a0a moment of indifference has cost the Revolution points.<\/p>\n

“One mistake killed us.”<\/p>\n

Here’s the problem with that phrase: it’s pretty much\u00a0false.<\/p>\n

Yes, mistakes have taken a huge\u00a0bite out of the Revolution’s playoff chances. But\u00a0real reason why mistakes are killing them is because of this:\u00a0the attack\u00a0has been in a month-long coma. And the math doesn’t lie.<\/p>\n

If we\u00a0add up\u00a0the number of pure mistakes – mistakes in which an opponent has unquestionably outclassed a player or players en route to a goal – in the last six games and compare them to the number of goals the Revolution have scored, you’ll find that the obvious mistakes (at least four) outnumber the goals (two). Forget the fact the they’re avoiding the blowout. The Revolution are handing out points the way cute co-eds hand out party fliers out on the quad.<\/p>\n

And yet, even\u00a0if the dreaded mistakes don’t occur, the Revolution are hypothetically left with\u00a0a trio of\u00a00-0 home draws. Note: that’s still not good enough.<\/p>\n

Mistakes\u00a0aren’t what’s keeping this club in contention for\u00a0next year’s\u00a0first overall pick. It’s their wretched form in the final third that’s doing the trick. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n

So with another round of wasted chances keeping the Revolution out of the win column, let’s take a look at what we learned from Sunday’s clash.<\/p>\n

1. If the Revolution want to commit themselves to attacking soccer, then\u00a0they need to start employing more off the ball runs.<\/strong> In theory, the idea of switching players in and out of position could’ve worked. Definitely could’ve worked with the worst road team in the league. But there was one problem: where were the off the ball runs? When Lee Nguyen had the ball, a host of players around him seemed comfortable to jog along rather than cut inside, go wide or provide support. Instead of going for the kill, the Revolution stayed static on a number of occasions. They stayed predictable. And because of it, the Impact walked away with a rare road win.<\/p>\n

2. Speaking of the attack, did somebody forget to tell Jerry Bengtson that his name was listed in the starting XI?<\/strong> Sixteen times. Yes, that’s the number of times the Revolution’s lone designated player touched the ball on Sunday. Olympic hangover, anyone? Yes, he may have been\u00a0less than rested\u00a0coming off of a concentrated spell of competitive games and the accompanying trans-atlantic flights. But the Honduran international isn’t being paid to loaf it through league games. Instead of showing for a pass inside the area, stretching the defense or making himself a nuisance for Montreal’s center backs, he slipped quietly into the night. He became the opposite of what he should’ve been: the non-factor. Olympic duty or not, McKayla Maroney is not impressed.<\/p>\n

3. The Revolution need to stop feeling bad for themselves and start playing without fear of the bad bounce or officiating blunder.<\/strong> If there’s one thing the Revolution have done well in recent weeks it’s grabbing the pint of Ben & Jerry’s, parking themselves in front of the TV, and watching The Notebook<\/em> on repeat all day. In other words, they need to toss the wubby away and face the world. It’s one thing to feel the momentary sting of a ball off the bar, a harsh penalty call, or a missed handball inside the area. But the world doesn’t conspire to work against a soccer team. There isn’t a jinx or curse on the Revolution (at last check, at least). It’s time to do away with the box of tissues and put the Chunky Monkey back in the freezer.\u00a0It’s time to\u00a0get back\u00a0to work. This is soccer, not a Jennifer Aniston movie.<\/p>\n

4. No one seems to know what exactly is keeping the Revolution from seizing their chances.<\/strong> You can talk about effort. You can talk about finding the final pass or cashing in on a final touch, but the fact is it’s all talk. No one really knows what the root cause is. Some\u00a0day it’s poor technique. Others\u00a0say it’s a mental. And another group of others have mentioned it’s the quality of players. We’ve got a lot of guesses, but no one really knows. One thing we do know is this: it’s a problem that no one has\u00a0figured out a solution for. No one. And while that remains true, it looks like it’s going to be a\u00a0tough trek\u00a0to the finish.<\/p>\n

5. The Revolution are in dire need of a tempo setter.<\/strong> Last week, the Revolution failed to establish any kind of rhythm\u00a0against a very good Sporting K.C. This week, a pushover like Montreal effectively schooled New England in squeezing out a win on the road. The\u00a0common denominator: both teams effectively\u00a0knocked the\u00a0attack off-kilter by playing an agitating,\u00a0physical\u00a0brand of football. That said, it’s time for Mike Burns to bring in a player who can keep the attack together. A player who can read the game, and get his teammates on the same page when a Montreal, Toronto, Columbus or Sporting K.C. come in and bring the baseball bats and brass knuckles. OK, so it won’t be easy to find another Shalrie Joseph. But signing a player who has similar qualities would at least give the Revolution an opportunity to salvage the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may have been more of the same from the Revolution attack on Sunday, but we pored through the stats, replays and analysis to figure out what we learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14743,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Lee24.png?fit=480%2C269&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14700"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14754,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14700\/revisions\/14754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}