In what feels like the lowest point of the New England Revolution's season so far, Brad Friedel and his players have fallen to yet another Eastern Conference opponent. This time it was at the hands of Luciano Acosta and company, who gave New England a lesson on what a playoff-bound team in this league should look like in the final stretch of the season.
Let's look at the starting 11...
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Wilfried Zahibo
Jalil Anibaba
Scott Caldwell
Michael Mancienne
Antonio Delamea
Brandon Bye
Andrew Farrell
Cristian Penilla
Juan Agudelo
Diego Fagundez
Teal Bunbury
Luis Caicedo
Scott Caldwell
TAKEAWAYS
Narrow back four
Brandon Bye
Paul Arriola
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Width of pitch
Russell Canouse
Júnior Moreno
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The challenge of chasing a game
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Luciano Acosta
THREE UP
Cristian Penilla:
Teal Bunbury
Diego Fagundez
Michael Mancienne:
Michael Mancienne
Teal Bunbury:
THREE DOWN
Andrew Farrell:
Andrew Farrell
Yamil Asad
Joseph Mora
Scott Caldwell:
Ted Unkel
Brandon Bye:
If you look at his footwork when Arriola faced him up, Bye made the fundamental mistake of not facing Arriola sideways-on while on his toes. Instead, he planted both of his feet shoulder width apart just as Arriola took a touch on the ball, and the rest was history.
Soccer is a cruel game, and Bye was the victim of it this time. Perhaps, it will be the other way around in a future game as we have seen him on the other end of those 1v1's multiple times this season.
PLAYER RATINGS
PARTING THOUGHTS
Brad Friedel
