Caleb Porter Comments on Dave Romney's Return To The XI
Porter: “David Romney had a great performance. I'm really happy and proud for him to come back here to Nashville, to play so well against his former team, and to help us secure a result."
Head coach Caleb Porter thought Dave Romney had a positive performance during the New England Revolution’s 2-1 win over Nashville SC on Saturday night.
Romney, who played every minute last season, started six of the first seven league games this year before moving to the bench.
The center back returned to the starting lineup this weekend, and Porter liked what he saw.
“David Romney had a great performance,” Porter said. “I'm really happy and proud for him to come back here to Nashville, to play so well against his former team, and to help us secure a result.”
During his 90 minutes, Romney had 50 touches, was 27/36 on accurate passes, 1/2 on tackles, 2/3 on ground duels, and 7/8 on aerial duels. He also had seven clearances, one interception, and one clearance. These numbers are via FotMob.
Romney was the catalyst for a penalty as referee Ismail Elfath pointed to the spot after deeming that the veteran fouled Walker Zimmerman.
After the game, Porter said, “I'm not sure on that penalty that they called, that second one.”
Porter has recently preferred the pairing of Henry Kessler and Xavier Arreaga, as the two have started the last five games. A change was needed against Nashville because Kessler was unavailable due to yellow card accumulation.
Porter noted that Romney’s showing on Saturday will weigh on his mind ahead of Saturday’s game against the New York Red Bulls.
“I thought the chemistry with [Romney] and Xavi was very good,” Porter said. “One of the reasons I went away from him is I didn’t think the chemistry with him and Kessler was very good. So, for sure, that is giving me something to think about when I look at his chemistry with Xavi. Those two guys were really good today.”
While Porter was asked specifically about Romney during his post-game press conference, the head coach was sure to point out that the Revs’ third win of the season was because of a team-wide effort.
“It’s another game where I thought Xavi was excellent,” Porter said. “I thought DeJuan and Nick Lima, in a game where there’s a lot of crosses going in the box and they have to release and press the service, I thought they did a really good job of doing that, helping us get pressure on the service.
“I thought Matt [Polster] and Mark[-Anthony Kaye], maybe their best game of the year. Those two guys are getting chemistry as well.
“Can’t say enough about the performances. We’re going to enjoy this for a couple days and then we’re going to get back to work. We’ve got another full week and I’ve been saying it, we’re improving. We’re improving and I thought this was another step forward for us.”
It's only one game, right now I am still not sold. A lot still has to change. I do not like Porter at all for many reasons. Romney played a good game considering sitting on the bench for so long, goes to show what a great player he is. The penalty was soft could have gone either way. But it was nice to see them finally win one.
I'm glad to hear it because I know there was talk of the penalty, but I really don't think that overshadows his performance. I also think the pen was soft (though not explicitly *wrong*, to be clear) so he was a bit unlucky there – this wasn't an "oh my god, what are you doing" moment – after a really good game from him.