{"id":16609,"date":"2012-10-29T09:10:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T13:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=16609"},"modified":"2012-10-29T09:12:40","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T13:12:40","slug":"five-things-we-learned-revolution-at-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=16609","title":{"rendered":"Five Things We Learned: Revolution at Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Tierney returned to the lineup in Montreal on Saturday, and delivered the game-winning assist in the 88th minute. (Photo: Kari Heistad\/CapturedImages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

It wasn’t the way Jay Heaps\u00a0drew it up before the\u00a0season started.<\/p>\n

During his first press conference as head coach, Heaps\u00a0emphasized the desire to have his team attack. To push forward. To play their game. To impose their will on other teams.<\/p>\n

Well, one team certainly stuck to that\u00a0approach on Saturday.\u00a0Interestingly, it\u00a0wasn’t the Revolution.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0the season finale,\u00a0Montreal owned the midfield, \u00a0journeyed into the final third at will, and fired seven shots on frame, all the while the Revolution seemed content to\u00a0keep numbers back.<\/p>\n

And that was precisely the plan. They\u00a0didn’t\u00a0step onto the pitch at Stade Saputo looking to\u00a0impose their will. Quite the opposite. They\u00a0flooded the rear and\u00a0absorbed the pressure.\u00a0They poked the ball away when possible, and journeyed up field on occasion. In other words, it was the exact opposite of what Heaps preached 11 months ago at his unveiling.<\/p>\n

At the same time,\u00a0it was a classic Heapsian performance. Even though they were outmatched, outgunned and outmuscled, they\u00a0grinded. They frustrated their opponent. They did just enough to keep it level, then\u00a0capitalized on a golden chance late.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just a win. It was survival. And at the end of the day (or season, if you will), it wasn’t just the best course of action for Heaps. It was the only one afforded to him.<\/p>\n

So what else did we learn from Saturday’s afternoon affair?<\/p>\n

1. For the second straight week, the Revolution’s\u00a0gameplan provided the difference.<\/strong> Last week, the Revolution keyed in on Chris Rolfe, went with a funky formation (4-1-4-1), and somehow, pulled off an improbable\u00a0win. Well, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right? On Saturday, Heaps may have revamped the look in the midfield, but nevertheless, the general idea was the same: drop back, flood the defensive third and play for the counter.\u00a0Granted, the Revs may have had too many players back at times. Bobby Shuttleworth faced a career-high seven shots. And yes, the possession scale tipped heavily in favor of the Impact. But however perilous it became, the fact is that the Revolution wouldn’t have succeeded any other way.<\/p>\n

2. Fernando Cardenas still needs to be better inside the area.<\/strong> There’s no denying that the\u00a0Colombian midfielder is talented. At times, he’s a world-beater, ready to take on anyone standing his way. He’s quick,\u00a0he’s shifty and\u00a0he’s never met a give-and-go he didn’t like. Yet, for all the energy and spark he adds, it all seems to go horribly wrong when he enters the the area, with Saturday’s game serving as the latest example. In the 28th minute, Diego Fagundez played a nifty ball inside to his fellow mohawked midfielder, who slipped past a sliding Jeb Brovsky. With only Troy Perkins to beat, Cardenas put his shot right…at…Perkins. OK, so finishing’s not his forte. What’s more troubling, though, is that he had Bengtson at the far post. If Cardenas wants to expand his role next year, he can’t afford to leave chances like that on the pitch anymore.<\/p>\n

3. Bobby Shuttleworth’s subpar passing was a byproduct of the Revs figuring\u00a0out how to carry out the\u00a0gameplan<\/strong>. We all know Shuttleworth has a bionic leg that could probably clear a country mile. When the Revs are\u00a0pinned inside their own end, they can count on their fourth-year keeper to collect it, then air mail it into the opposite end of the pitch, while they catch their collective breaths. On Saturday, Shuttelworth was called upon to launch it long a lot, but right back to Montreal. The reason? Too many guys in white shirts lagging behind, trying to grasp the gameplan. Once they did, though, Shuttleworth’s service became better. Much better.<\/p>\n

4. Let’s face it: the Revolution also got lucky.<\/strong> Dimitry Imbongo may have brought the wrong boots to Montreal, but it didn’t look like the Revolution left the rabbit feet, four leaf clovers and lucky undies at home. Think about it. First, the Rev-killer himself,\u00a0Sanna Nyassi, gets suspended for Saturday’s match due to yellow card accumulation. Then, Marco Di Vaio’s shot squirts through Shuttleworth’s legs and, somehow avoids crossing the line (the blue streamers may have helped). In the 86th minute, Ryan Guy whiffs on a clearance before Blair Gavin, who might’ve\u00a0put on an invisibility suit shortly after he came on after the hour, makes the game-saving stop on the line. Finally, a game-winning goal from a set piece? And on the road? C’mon. Even the most ardent Revolution supporter would’ve had a good\u00a0laugh at that one.<\/p>\n

5. Clyde Simms may have just played cemented his spot on the roster for 2013.<\/strong>\u00a0It was only\u00a0a month ago that\u00a0Simms looked very much a shell of the player\u00a0he was during the first half of the season. Without Shalrie Joseph, it the former D.C. midfielder\u00a0was no longer\u00a0a steadying presence in the middle of the park. Rather, he became a liability. He failed to assert himself. \u00a0He gave the ball away. But in the last two games,\u00a0the central midfielder’s\u00a0form rose from the ashes. His voice grew louder. His positioning was more precise. His attitude was edgier. More importantly, he welcomed the responsibility that came with the armband, and showed it. And because of that, he might have just earned a return to Foxboro in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revolution somehow escaped Stade Saputo with three points in Saturday’s finale. But what did we really learn from it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16611,"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\/10\/CTierney81.png?fit=481%2C262&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16609"}],"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=16609"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16640,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16609\/revisions\/16640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}