Rev's Season Opener

photo courtesy of www.revolutionsoccer.net

Blake here,

So here was the Revs starting lineup for the first game of the season against the LA Galaxy:

Phelan, Alston, Shilawski, Dube, Nyassi, Niouky, Tierney, Sinovic, Gibbs, Osei, Burpo

Just out of curiosity, I went back and dug up the starting lineup for the opening game last year against San Jose:

Reis, Tierney, Heaps, Barnes, Alston, Thompson, Joseph, Larentowicz, Nyassi, Mansally,Dube

So if you're counting that's 4 players (Tierney, Alston, Nyassi, Dube) who started in both season openers. That's a fairly significant change. Now in fairness when Barnes, Joseph and Reis are healthy they will be starting and Osei was a consistent started by the end of the year. Still, I hope this doesn't turn out to presage a trend that emerged last year when I don't believe the Revs started the same lineup in two consecutive games the whole year. And with two new starters in the back line, you might worry that set pieces could present a problem. Sure enough in the fifth minute, Buddle scored on a header off a free kick that Nyassi gave away needlessly. I couldn't tell who lost Buddle on the free kick but in the halftime highlights, it looked like maybe Sinovic let Buddle get to the inside. There were a couple of other scary moments on free kicks in the first half as well.

In the second half, the Revs looked better and Shilawski and Tierney both delivered great passes that Dube converted into... nothing. Damn, I miss Twellman. At a minimum he puts away one of those chances if not both. As for the rest of the team, Phelan did nothing to suggest that he is an adequate replacement in midfield. He sprayed passes mostly to LA and other then that wasn't much of a presence. Niouky, a new player from Senegal at times looked good, but had several bad giveaways on the wrong side of the halfway line. Nyassi still seems to wait too long to make the pass. His speed gives defenders fits but until he learns to make the pass before he has dribbled into a situation where he loses the ball, he is still more promise that actual danger.I was impressed with Gibbs. The last few times I have seen him play for Colorado, he seemed a shadow of the player who at one time was an automatic selection for the U.S. National Team. If he has recovered from all the knee injuries and can play at that level again, I may not hate the Kraft’s quite so much for trading Larentowicz .

On a side note, has anyone noticed that the Kraft’s have traded or released a couple of players who trialed with European clubs - think Noonan and now Larentowicz. If Twellman hadn't been such a huge name, I wonder if they would have traded or released him after he tried to join Preston.

So what did we learn from the opener? Not much. Without Sharlie Joseph, the Revs are a different team (well duh!). They will have trouble scoring (that is different from last year how?). The Revs play better in the second half of games (a Nicol trademark). Fox soccer announcers make my teeth hurt (no change there either). It will be interesting to see how they fare against D.C. at D.C., historically a bad place to travel for the Revs and perhaps more so after the 4-0 shellacking they took at the hands of K.C.