New England vs. Chicago Fire, Game 14: Mess around and you’ll end up burnt

Two things can be simultaneously true from last night: The boys did great to find their mettle not once, but twice to bring this game level—and they shouldn’t have put themselves in both of those situations to begin with. As much as this was a point gained back from a losing position, it also felt like two points tossed away against a bottom-feeding Chicago Fire team. It’s clear that the Revs are battling injuries and that a fully firing squad is going to be a problem, but there’s also an issue with a lack of desire at the start of games from the team recently, and it burned us once again.

The biggest gut-kick Saturday night was Chicago’s third. After a listless first 38 or so minutes, the Revs (7-3-4, 25 points) woke up in a big way with the pair of goals to tie things up going into the break, and out of the lockers it looked like the Revs might score a third, fourth, and maybe even fifth. But then, another breakdown and another goal. First, I’ll give Vrioni partial credit for wanting to get the ball and finding himself on the right defensive touchline when he’s a striker, but he certainly didn’t need to lose the ball there. From there, just more calamitous movement and pressing allowed Kei Kamara to dummy over the ball and Maren Haile-Selassie had an easy chance to put the Fire back up.

On my couch, I dropped my head and shouted at the TV. All the points seemed headed back to the Midwest. But then, the Revs leaned on their biggest strengths: Corner kicks and Jozy Altidore. And by strengths, I mean I’m still chocked that we found an equalizer. I think it’s perfectly fitting that Altidore nearly managed to fuck it up, too. Seriously, he did a rabona-shin-off-balance-he-didn’t-actually-mean-that kick to score. I’m still shocked he managed to bundle it in. Diving into the nerd stats: Per FBref.com, coming into the night the Revs scored exactly 1 sequence this season where a dead-ball pass (corner, throw-in, free kick) led to a goal. The Revs scored in two such situations last night. Good coaching, or just luck? Hoping for former, probably latter. Here are far too many bullet points about last night:

• The start once again left us wanting. Revs came out flat, uninspired, and seemingly unaware that Shaqiri, while prone to being useless for the Fire, can still be a dynamic player.
• The Revs were reminded of that fact in the 10th minute when Shaqiri played probably the pass of the match to unlock the Revs and allow for a relatively easy finish for Georgios Koutsias. What a ball. BUT: What the fuck is Makoun doing with that back pass in the first place? Why did Andrew stutter-step/run north-south when Koutsias was going from east to west? We’ll never know. Instead, we just found ourselves down.
• The Fire’s second goal indicated to me that the Revs weren’t going to have luck on their side, regardless of how the rest of the game played out. Seriously, it’s been easy to beat up on Andrew Farrell lately because he’s just as liable to do something smart as stupid, but that was just shit luck. 9.9 times out of 10, he boots that ball over the crossbar, or even better, out of play and not near the goal.
• While luck might not have been on the Revs’ side last night, hard work proved to be. I am not going to call Giacomo’s night a great one (he missed too many chances and he is, y’know, a DP striker), but he earned my trust in another starting spot mid-week with his efforts on the first goal. Think he benefitted from the MLS officiating not being good, but he went in with a mean tackle, got the ball back, and set up a Buck Banger. A fucking BANGER. That kid has no fear in his game and it shows. He picked up the ball in space, looked up to assess where everyone was, then put his laces through it. Add it to the Goal of the Year contender list!
• Two goals in about two minutes is how you draw up a comeback. And it was on a corner! With a flick-on by Christian Makoun!? Makoun redeemed himself from Chicago’s first goal with an excellent little flick to keep the ball moving, and Bobby Wood isn’t going to miss a chance like that.
• I dig Matt Polster. He’s never going to be the flashy player, never going to dominate the stat sheet, but when he’s calm, cool, and collected in the middle of the park, it’s no surprise that the Revs just play better. His ball to Vrioni in the 55th was absolutely scrumptious, too. Vrioni had to do better there (theme of the night for him—but at least he looked hungry!)
• I suppose it was a positive that Vrioni had five shots in the game (per WhoScored.com) as he continues to try and figure this out in New England. More starts should be in his future.
• I take back half of the mean things I said about Jozy up until this point. But only half. He really almost did this:

• Carles Gil really does give this team life. If he’s healthy enough to play, can’t fault Bruce for putting him in. But I would have liked to see him get a rest ahead of Atlanta away midweek and NYCFC at the weekend. C’est la vie. We got to see some more brilliant passing by him.
• Also, hilariously, in Jozy’s equalizer, you see Carles throw his hands up at one point and mouth something that looked like “Jozy!” because Altidore wasn’t getting into the box (I’d link a clip but Apple TV is shit). Hilarious that Carles even knew that our hulking striker should be, y’know, IN THE BOX on a corner.
• This team lacks positional discipline sometimes. There was one point in the game where Latif Blessing got the ball on one side of the pitch, and when he looked to the other side to reverse it, he realized that he should have been in that area, and instead there was NO ONE to pass too. Seems like too often all the Revs players kinda bunch together in one area of the field, and leave the opposite side wide open to be counter attacked against. Probably an issue of lack of true wingers at the moment (thank God for Ema right now giving us actual width). Bruce has gotta clean that up.
• Defensive depth issues still apparent. Makoun is going to have a role to play, but beyond him I don’t see where any depth comes from until Henry Kessler finally gets back and 2fast2farrell can go back to being the depth option. Send help, summer window.
• I thought Shaqiri was the best player on the pitch last night, FWIW.
• Why do the Revs lie on their XI releases every week (or so it seems)? Last night they had the audacity to say we’d line up in a 3-5-2. Clearly, we didn’t. I get gamesmanship, but fans too would like some insight into the team set-up going into the game. Fix that shit, Revs.

Revs are sitting comfortably in third in the Eastern Conference after the draw. Fair spot for the team all things considered. Great test coming up this week for the boys, with a Wednesday trip down to the A to face Atlanta United, then to the baseball stadium to play Man City Miniatures. Six valuable points on the line, and I think the Revs should expect at least 3 from the games.

Extra Kicks

• Didn’t watch any other games last night, wife got home early so I was a good husband instead.
• Cincinnati stays tops in the East and the Supporters’ Shield. Good. Let them. Then ask ’em how it worked out when the playoffs start.
• Philadelphia Union are suddenly very much back. Gulp.
• Nashville-Columbus today should be a banger.