Pinzone: Two Teams in One
The Revs have been playing like two incredibly dissimilar teams before and after half time during their recent uptick in form...
The five wins in the last seven games picked up by the New England Revolution have been enjoyable for many. However, with one exception, you would have been better off not watching the second half of any of their last seven games, win or no win. The reason being that the Revs have been a relatively entertaining, attacking, and successful side in the first half only to become timid, boring, and unsuccessful in the second.
What many might call protecting what you have, others might call clinging on for a narrow victory by playing differently to the manner in which you played when you got said lead in the first place. Does it work? Sometimes, yes, including recently for the Revs.
However, it should not be looked at as a sustainable approach. If you concede the ball, space on the field, and the initiative to your opponent week in and week out, you invite your own downfall.
What the Revs could be doing is pressing, attacking, and getting forward until they kill the game off. Taking the attitude that the best way to defend a two-goal lead is to make it a three-goal lead. That isn’t the approach we’ve seen since the Revs have picked up five wins since June 1.
Andy Judd has already looked at the overall underlying stats comparing recent games to the dreaded 13-game march to doom, sadness, and a search for deeper meaning in life not involving soccer that this season started off with.
Let’s look at those last seven games by comparing the 1st half to the 2nd. In the first 45 of the last seven games the Revs have a plus 4 goal difference thanks to having scored nine and conceded only five. The second-half Revs in that same time period scored just twice while conceding seven.
The Revs scored in the 1st half in five of seven games but did so in the second half on just two occasions. The Revs went into halftime with a shutout four times across those seven games but had just one second-half shutout.
Two simple measures of attacking intent, shots, and passes in the opponent’s half also tell a tale of two halves. First-half shots totaled up to 47, while the Revs mustered only 34 total in the second half. That’s 6.7 shots per half to start, dropping to 4.85 shots per half after the break. The Revs connected 570 first-half passes in the opponent’s half of the field, an average of 81. Those figures dropped down to 490 and 70 upon taking the field for the second time.
There was only one game where the Revs took more shots in the second half than the first and also completed more passes in the opponent’s half after halftime than before. That would be, according to BetterTeamTracker.com; the only statistical performance put in by the Revs in which they were indeed, the better team since June 1.
Were the Revs in a situation from June 1 onward where winning was all that mattered? In terms of salvaging their season, yes. Should we just be satisfied with the result no matter how it happens? No.
The entire point of spectator sports is to provide entertainment. Is winning fun? Yes. Is hanging on by the skin of your teeth while getting totally outplayed by your opponent as the team spends the final moments in the shadow of their own goal with six defenders on the field entertaining? Sometimes. Every week? No.
Playing in the manner the Revs have been in the second half of games after showing what they are capable of in the first half is not likely to be sustainable over the course of a 34-game season and it is certainly not enjoyable to watch. If the Revs are going to develop into a successful team they are going to need to stop looking afraid to take that next step and go beyond clinging to narrow leads.
It’s difficult to know who’s holding them back exactly, be it the players themselves or Caleb Porter. Based on the substitution pattern and the clear change in mindset each week, it would strongly seem like it’s Porter’s doing. He has history with this too, his last Crew team in 2022 dropped points from winning positions with a similar style at an alarming rate.
The second-half doldrums have also wiped out those strong first-half performances when totaling everything up. The eight stats watched by BetterTeamTracker over the seven games had the Revs finish with an attacking and entertainment record of 10W-2D-44L.
So it is not as if the Revs are decimating their opponents so fully in the first 45 that there’s nothing left to kill off in the second. For now, those strong first halves have delivered points at full-time but the stats overall suggest this can’t continue.
We’ve seen this team turn around the results and we’ve seen what they are capable of for portions of games. The question now is will they be allowed to grow into a team that takes it to the opponent with equal vigor in both halves and give us something to look forward to or should we do what some of us did on Saturday night and turn it off at the half and check FotMob in the morning?
Nailed it. You can see it in the faces of the players when they take the field after the half. They look dispirited, even though they could be leading. What's the messaging in the locker room at the half? In all the quotations from Porter, you really don't get the sense that he even likes his players, with the exception of a couple. Does he make adjustments? Not so much. Does he sub in a timely fashion, nope. But truthfully, look at the faces as the team takes the field again. For me, tells a lot about what is going on.
Great piece. Most of these players were here last season and you can see the difference in them. Last season they looked so geared to be on the pitch and this year its like its just like a job to do. Porter has ruined the moral of this team. Sad to say but the lucky ones will be the ones who get get traded or find other teams to play for.