So, the New England Revolution’s best winning streak for this season is now two in a row. Our Revs couldn’t make it three straight wins in Dallas, though they seemed to play them even. FC Dallas only needed one goal to win, but they needed more than 93 minutes of football to do it.
We recorded both a preview and a recap all-in-one featuring Total-MLS writer Cory Jensen. Cory brought great insights into a Dallas team whose collective psyche may have needed this win more, though we certainly felt the sting of losing. Cory didn’t gloat and spoke with respect about the Revs. Read more from Cory here. I had a sour look on my face when the game ended, though there are both mistakes to correct and some quality play to take from this game.
Speed kills and boy did we miss Alston on defense. What a difference between the narrow and ineffective LA Galaxy and this Dallas team with Brek Shea and Fabian Castillo. Dallas was missing would-be starters David Ferreira, a play maker, Daniel Hernandez, a disruptive enforcer of a central midfielder, and Jair Benitez, who is an adventurous attack minded defender. With that quality in the middle missing and a typical starter on defense out as well, I thought Dallas might have been more vulnerable. The Revs couldn’t really generate the same kinds of threatening plays as they did against Los Angeles. The FCD wings pushed Lechner and Tierney back deep into our end. I expect that Dallas will heal and, I also expect, handily defeat Montreal next week.
Our defense had to handle more this week than last, true. For more than 90 minutes, though not until the whistle, we held Dallas scoreless. A HUGE reason was that Matt Reis was great in goal. Also, AJ Soares and Stephen McCarthy are developing a solid central defense partnership. Sometimes learning a lesson can be frustratingly painful. The New England defense had arguable less than a minute of the game when decision making slipped. So, with a bit of perspective, three points from two games in five days visiting LA and Dallas sounds more than decent. Coach will likely have more healthy players soon, and I don’t believe he has settled on a set of starters.
In his regular weekly video interview with the team’s website Jay mentioned how it felt to play with Taylor Twellman. Scoring works wonders for taking some pressure off the defense and, as a defender, lining up on the field with Twellman gave Heaps confidence. Jay also mentioned that turnovers forced and recovered by our defense is where our offense starts. Perhaps a simple insight, and surely a great mentality to instill in our team. I think that our defense seemed strong last year only to crumble as the scoring drought weighed on everyone’s mind.
Against FCD, New England’s offense looked rushed in final third at times. I would like to see more possession passing in and around our opponents box. The technical Revs can look to create openings in the defense and everyone can crash for rebounds. Instead we saw several long shots early in our arrival in the final third of the field. Again, the wing play of Dallas seemed to suck some of the attacking instinct, or space, or positioning out of the Revs. Some of the shine from LA came off of Rowe and Nguyen’s performances. Again, a little perspective suggests that, disappointing as losing Thursday night was, that is more due to recently raised expectations than most preseason predictions and certainly last season’s performances would have predicted. If the debate about who should start and how to reintegrate Benny Feilhaber continues then this loss to FCD will be evidence in support of trying new attacking combinations. Check back and read here or listen here ahead of next week’s game against DC United for a preview of the game and likely some suggestions, predictable and wild, of who will start for the Revs.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
