Hello darkness, my old friend … I’ve come to talk to you again.
The last few weeks with the New England Revolution, we’ve seen some great performances -- and we’ve seen some rubbish -- on the defensive end of the football. Against Los Angeles, a wonderful performance by The Boys In Blue spoiled by those -- and I’m sorry for bringing up these bad memories again -- two lackadaisical “defending” moves by Claude Dielna.
Against Minnesota United on Wednesday evening, a poor header by Jalil Anibaba five minutes in leads to a goal. And just before the half, poor defending -- starting with Wilfried Zahibo’s (seriously, put the rotten fruit down; didn’t you ever learn not to shoot the messenger?) poor reaction -- leads to the Loons' second, and the Revs are playing on the back foot for the final 45.
And now, against New York, another set of defensive gaffes had Revolution supporters yanking out their hair:
- Just before the 58th minute expired, Cristian Penilla lazily passes the ball toward Dielna, and instead US international Tyler Adams comes up from around Dielna and swipes it away. He dribbles in, and Luis Caicedo has to tackle him from behind. That leads to an offside by Bradley Wright-Phillips, but the goal is coming.
- Then, just as the 68th minute expired, after a dispossession near the midway line leads to some pinging in the box, Adams again is at the heart of the move. He retrieves the ball, but not without Dielna coming up from behind. There’s some stutter-steps by Adams, but Dielna has a reputation by now: Any contact, you go down. Dielna got his hands on him, and boom -- down Adams went.
- A minute later, the goal: Daniel Royer takes the service, sliding behind an unaware Andrew Farrell, and it’s 1-0 to the Scarlet Steers.
- Eleven minutes later, another bad defensive move — really, more Wright-Phillips’ skill than anything else — sees BWP get away from Anibaba. Kaku’s service was right on the money — a.k.a. BWP’s sweaty pate — and it’s 2-nil to New York, the three points wrapped up.