Sweeney: When you shuffle the deck like Friedel did Saturday, the results came as expected

FOXBOROUGH — Just how much of a wake-up call did Brad Friedel send to his locker room Saturday afternoon?

After mentioning during last Sunday’s press conference that four or five players didn’t put in the work against FC Cincinnati, Revolution fans basically called for four or five changes to his starting XI for Saturday afternoon’s sunny soiree with Minnesota United FC in town.

Friedel has long held during his brief managerial tenure at Patriot Place that it doesn’t matter what your last name is, what you’ve done in the past (say hello, Kelyn Rowe; say hello, Lee Nguyen), or how much money is owed you (nice knowing you, Krisztian Nemeth; au revoir, Claude Dielna), that if you put in the hard work in training, you’ll earn your spot at the weekend. It has earned quite a bit of head-scratching from fans and the Revs' press gaggle.

However, given the result six days prior, and with that press conference in mind, one has to think that the XI Friedel sent out to face the Loons was meant to shake the locker room up yet again. You don’t want to do your job? Okay, here are some players who are willing to do the work.

So yes, he made those four or five changes for Saturday.

In fact, he made six.

After making the first four benches of the season, Cody Cropper — who we highlighted post-match — made his first start in over a year and a half on the calendar, and 42 matches in both the league and US Open Cup competitions. He made a pair of saves in place of Brad Knighton, whose distribution Sunday was lacking.

Jalil Anibaba, who stepped up in Michael Mancienne’s stead in the season opener, replaced Antonio Delamea in the back. Against Dallas, he provided the secondary assist to Carles Gil’s leveler. Against Minnesota, he provided the opener — his first-ever goal with the Revs, and first goal in four years — and steadied the back line with six clearances and eight interceptions. He has to be in the running for early-season Defender of the Year. Hell, he has my vote and it’s not even September.

Andrew Farrell made his first start of the season, moving Brandon Bye up into the midfield. He replaced Luis Caicedo in the XI.

DeJuan Jones, the No. 11 SuperDraft selection two-and-a-half months ago, replaced Cristian Penilla out on the left. He had a rough first half, a frustrating first half; his touches were not clean in the attacking third, but that changed in the second half. He got himself free as the Revs were patient in attack, and he provided the secondary assist on Bye’s match-winner. He almost delivered the match-winner himself two minutes after the re-start.

Juan Agudelo replaced Diego Fagundez. He worked his tail off, got a couple of shots off in his 88 minutes, had nine defensive recoveries, and in attack, had a key pass.

And finally, Scott Caldwell replaced Wilfried Zahibo as the lone defensive central midfielder. The Braintree native, fresh off his contract extension, gives everything for the Crayon Crest, and we feel did the work of two and sometimes even three players. He had 4 important tackles, including an important dispossession of Darwin Quintero, and 8 defensive recoveries. But not only that, he had two key passes, including a smart lay-off to Gil who served up Anibaba’s tally. In fact, check out his passing map:


Of the six players replaced, only two would come on late as a substitute: Caicedo replaced Bunbury in the 78th minute, while Zahibo came on for Caldwell in the 88th. Fagundez and Delamea made the bench, but were unused. And Knighton and Penilla did not even make the squad.

Message sent? We’ll see when the club heads to Columbus next weekend, when we'll find out if the message was received.