Let’s not pull any punches tonight, folks: the New England Revolution were just plain out-worked, just plain out-shot — 16-5 at one point — and just plain out-classed by USL champ Louisville City FC in the US Open Cup Tuesday night.
End of column? No, not exactly.
From our view of the livestream — which, while we’re being honest and everything, was sub-public access TV quality — the Revs’ Fourth Round hosts put out an incredible work rate, beating New England to practically every loose ball in their 3-2 victory. The Boys In Purple clogged up the middle to prevent serious forays into the attacking third and, when Brad Friedel brought in two regular first-teamers in Juan Agudelo and Kelyn Rowe in the second half, managed to harry the two long-time Revolution servants with their relentless determination in the last 20 minutes to see out the result.
Seriously, Kelyn: you let an accountant — an accountant! — dispossess you not once, but twice.
You take away New England’s two goals — Mark Segbers being in the right place at the right time for the fifth-minute opener, a little tap-in; Brian Wright’s cross back into the 6-yard box that took a lucky bounce off Louisville centerback Pat McMahon’s out-stretched leg — and the tourists from Route 1 just had no answer for a Louisville City team that simply responded perfectly to everything the Revs wanted to do.
Fellow striker Femi Hollinger-Janzen? At 6 feet tall, no one expects him to be invisible, but he was just that Tuesday night.
Brandon Bye, a player we have praised a few times? Responsible for guarding the back post on Oscar Jimenez’s goal. Didn’t do it.
Bad passes galore, many of which slowed by Louisville.
The only player that I saw playing his weight? Andrew Farrell.
The former No. 1 draft pick returned to his old campus at the University of Louisville and came out ready to play. He made four sensational defensive stops — one on former Tottenham property Cameron Lancaster in the early goings that went into the crowd — in the first 45 minutes, including a well-timed sliding tackle which, if he had been a smidge off, would have resulted in a penalty and more than likely a straight red card.
Some will say the Revs’ present fixture congestion — four matches in the last 10 days; another two in the next eight days before the World Cup break — and fatigue can be to blame for the loss to Louisville, a second-division team that hadn’t played in 10 days before New England came to the other Commonwealth.
Hogwash. That's a load of bunk.
When six of your outfield players have barely seen the pitch except in training, and several others are fresh and hadn’t played much since last Wednesday due to the congestion, there is no excuse for what happened at Lynn Stadium. None. Fatigue wasn’t an issue. Letting a USL side — granted, they are that league’s defending champs, but the Revs are supposed to be the side with better-skilled players (again, an accountant!) making loads more money than Louisville’s squad — get the better of you is unacceptable.
Brad Friedel, according to post-match tweets I saw out of Revs’ in-house writer Jeff Lemieux, let his team have it:
Friedel: “I think they felt they’ll put the shirt on, they’re an MLS team, they’ll come out and they deserve to win the game. I’m afraid that’s not how it works. That’s not how it works anywhere in the world in cup competitions.” #NERevs
— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) June 6, 2018
Friedel: “We broke a very important rule: When you go and play teams that are in lower divisions than you ... you have to at least match their work rate. It’s a very simple thing. We spoke about it for the past two days.” #NERevs
— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) June 6, 2018
Friedel: “It wasn’t until Juan came on the field, until Kelyn came on the field, that there was any sort of energy whatsoever with our team. I’m just really disappointed that some players had a chance to impress tonight, and they didn’t take it.” #NERevs
— Jeff Lemieux (@jeff_lemieux) June 6, 2018