Forcing and Causing Issues: Full Strength Revs Attack Shines in Montreal
Forcing and Causing Issues: Full Strength Revs Attack Shines in Montreal
If last weekend's win was an indication of what the Revs can do the rest of the way (and next year), the rest of the league is going to be very unhappy.
Way back in early May I chastised Caleb Porter and the Revs for not being direct enough. Their style of play was slow, methodical, and predictable and was barely getting into the final third/opponent’s box to generate anything that looked like a quality chance.
Yes, the Revs dealt with two waves of injuries and early season fixture congestion. It’s not an excuse, merely a statement of fact. We saw the Revs be competitive during Leagues Cup essentially with a second string attacking group who were better adhering to what I think should be the Revs best practices going forward, countering, direct play, green light shooting anywhere near the box.
But there is another element that I might have underestimated in my analysis of the Revs attack. See, the benefit of quicker, direct play is getting the defense unsettled and/or backpedaling. This allows New England to have the initiative and dictate space and runs. It also forces the defense to make decisions, some of which are bad and/or unfortunate.
First goal - 7’: Carles Gil collects the ball in the middle of his own half and carries forward a good 30-40 yards before springing Brandon Bye down the right flank. At this point the Revs have a 4v2 with Bobby Wood making a near post run in front of his mark which I think is George Campbell.
Joaquin Sosa ends up marking maybe a cutback lane if we’re being generous and Joel Waterman doesn’t attempt to make a play at the cross (or maybe he can’t cause he’s too far away) and ends up watching Campbell and keeper Jon Sirois do not much to stop a sliding Wood from crashing the six yard box for a goal.
Bye forced the issue with a cross into traffic, maybe Waterman thought his boys had it covered, and I can not overstate this enough but Bobby Wood makes a lot of good decisions and often gets rewarded for them. Time from Gil carrying the ball forward to Wood scoring by the way was like 10 seconds.
Second Goal - 37’: Highlight cuts it off a bit, but I think this is a recycled ball the Revs reset on the left win. Boateng springs Will Sands into the box and in a ton of space…like Sands is all alone in Ohio types of space. Sands picks out Esmir at the penalty spot, which is a good decision cause there’s no one within Rhode Island of Bajraktarevic even though the ball gets intercepted. Shame Sands and Ema can’t get credit for an assist on this play cause it’s good soccer.
This is where forcing the issue works for the Revs again, as Samuel Piette facing his own goal has to make a play on the ball or give up maybe an uncontested shot from 12 yards out. Who’s on the near post again waiting? That Bobby Wood guy…and I still say Owen Goal scored that one but the Revs have two goals by forcing Montreal into choices that it did/or didn’t make. Waterman left a ball alone and got burned and Piette had to make a play and got *gestures at everything* whatever that was.
Now the fun begins. 66th minute New England subs on Giacomo Vrioni and Dylan Borrero and about 10 minutes later Luca Langoni and Ian Harkes are going to come on too.
Third goal - 71’: Esmir collects on the Montreal endline and sends it back to Carles at the top corner of the box. Carles does that magician thing and splits a triple team to center a ball for Vrioni, but more importantly drawing the attention of Waterman. So when Vrioni dummies it, Nick Lima is the one charging into a space about the size of Connecticut to polish off the goal.
I feel like I’m picking on poor Joel Waterman but such is the life of the middle centerback on a three man line sometimes. When stuff breaks down, it usually does so spectacularly and the Revs did a great job of pulling apart the Montreal setup. It’s not that anyone from Montreal is doing anything wrong… okay being on the wrong side of Wood on the first and not getting in front of Carles on two runs that led to goals is bad. But it’s more that the Revs are the ones dictating what Montreal is doing and reacting too and that’s usually a negative trend for the defense.
One more thing here I wanted to highlight, this from Matt Doyle’s weekly postmatch column:
I’m gonna focus on the oft-maligned Vrioni, though. How many center forwards – especially ones just returning from injury (the Revs have a lot of that happening, obviously) – leave that for a defender when the game’s more or less already decided? I feel like it’s not a lot.
Vrioni who could’ve played that ball but would’ve been at a tight angle and might not have had a clear attacking decision with the ball. If he was able to recognize Lima was bombing in behind him, Carles should have to share that assist with him because that is a 4D chess level move without the ball there.
Floodgate goals - 79’ and 83’: Alright, we’re gonna learn that putting on Luca Langoni against a tired team for fifteen minutes along with a fresh DP striker and another fresh U-22 winger is really, really unfair. Ian Harkes on the far sideline starts a 3v3 in which the Revs have Langoni, Vrioni, and Borrero…who all just subbed on.
The result is obvious, Langoni beats Waterman for pace, slips a pass under a sliding Campbell and Jahkele Marshal-Rutty is stuck between Borrero and a wide open Vrioni who could’ve had a picnic in all six states before finishing the Revs fourth.
The fifth is another 3v3 of sorts. Borrero on the near side line and right as Vrioni cuts hard on a near post run is when Borrero opts to go through to Langoni splitting Waterman and midfielder Nathan Saliba. Waterman however made one step forward, putting him ever so slightly out of position and Luca pounces on the opportunity with a touch forward and unleashing a shot that Sirois gets a massive piece of but it’s not enough. The rout is complete.
Overall, there are two trains of thought I’ve had with New England this year that played out perfectly in this game. The direct attacking style is one, and maybe Porter knew the Revs were capable of a return to the June form when they rattled off four wins in a row. The Revs had numerous attacking sequences where they caught Montreal in some semblance of flatfooted, recovering, and/or out of sorts and punished them accordingly
I’ve lamented New England’s lack of big scoring chances this year and they generated and finished all four last weekend (Wood [1] .28 xG, Lima .22, Vrioni .52, Langoni .21), and even Wood’s second (.15 xG which seems high considering his shooting position from his backside but it was very close to goal) is a pretty good scoring opportunity.
The second overall trend is how the Revs need to finish games. It’s not by subbing on extra defenders, but extra attackers. The best way for New England to close a game is with more goals, and yes, this is something that was far more situational early in the year when the Revs were short on attackers and I still like the Andrew Farrell CDM experiment. But with the now fully healthy and operational attacking corps, the Revs are going to have weapons off the bench.
Wood and Vrioni are an obvious tandem to split time, but it should be Vrioni getting the starters minutes. However, not all of Langoni, Esmir, Borrero, Boateng, and even Nacho and Chancalay when he returns can start at winger opposite of Carles. So the Revs are going to have ample minutes to give to players off the bench and take advantage of tired legs like they did against Montreal. Even having Harkes or Buck off the bench as an additional playmaker could be a boon late as well and take some pressure and minutes off Carles.
This was a big win not just on the scoreboard, but in a practical sense as well. We know the Revs are capable of high level play and are significantly better than the last place team in the East they started as up in Canada. Now the trick is to see if they can do it again, because the Revs won last week…and could win next week…and the week after that.
It’s called a winning streak, it has happened before.