Revs II 0 - Cincinnati 1: Three Thoughts
Three thoughts following Revolution II's shutout loss to FC Cincinnati 2 on the road.
New England Revolution II’s recent woes continued Sunday evening as a 1-0 loss inside NKU Soccer Stadium saw the club’s 2024 away record move to a bleak 0-7-1 while the club suffered their fourth loss in the last five games. Here are three thoughts.
1 - Road Woes
As mentioned above, the loss to FC Cincinnati 2 saw Revs II record away from home stretch to an abysmal 0-7-1 record.
Revolution II’s last win away from home came back on August 27th, 2023, when they secured a 3-0 shutout victory over Philadelphia Union II. In the eight road games since then, Revs II have gone 0-8-1 and have a goal differential of negative 12 in that span.
To have success in any league, you need to find a way to get results away from home. Unfortunately for Richie Williams and Revs II, they’ve been unable to do so in 2024 and it’s come back to haunt them as they find themselves in 12th place in the East. With over half the season in the books, it will be an incredibly tough hill to climb for the club if they want to secure a second-consecutive playoff appearance.
2 - JD’s Resurgence
Despite the scoreline, I have to give JD Gunn props for the effort displayed in the loss. After a rough performance against Crown Legacy, where he conceded five goals, it was nice to see him put that result to the side and come out swinging against Cincinnati.
Again, while he did allow the lone goal that gave Cincy the win, Gunn stood on his head the majority of the match attempting to keep Revolution II’s hopes alive. When all was said and done, Gunn made six massive saves on the night, two of which required him to dive.
The biggest moment that stood out to me was his alertness to prevent Guilherme Santos from giving Cincy a 2-0 lead in the 85th minute when he stretched to save the shot following a poor turnover in the Revs defensive half.
Hopefully for Gunn and Revs II, a mostly good performance like Sunday’s can propel Gunn and the team when they return to action on Saturday.
3 - Poor Turnovers
The thing that’s irked me about this 2024 Revs II side has been the number of times they’ve given the ball away.
From an eye test, there was plenty of it against Cincinnati, who walked away with 11 interceptions on the night. Thankfully for Revs II, Cincy did not capitalize on any of the poor mistakes, but in reality, Cincy could have made them pay for them.
Looking at Revs II overall passing stats, it gets more bleak. Per the MLS NEXT Pro stats page, Revs II ranks seventh for lowest passing percentage with 81.7%. Per FotMob, Revs II ranks in the middle of the pack (#15th) in accurate passes per match with 359.9.
Again, if Revs II wants to end 2024 successfully in terms of table positioning and playoffs, they need to clean up their passing work to prevent their opposition from converting on poor giveaways.