Santi Rodriguez was playing great and had a goal at New England before he suffered an injury and had to be taken off (also before the red card)
MLS Cup Playoffs - November 30 - New England (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
From anyone else I wouldn't have even blinked at this. But MGar you generally win the prize for meticulousness. So this minor error tickled my funny bone this morning.
Thanks for all your analysis over the years. You make the time between matches more fun and interesting every week.
And thank you also to all the other forum folks who have made this community what it is.
Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble gobble.
Yeah. I started looking at this because almost every piece written about our games against New England by MLS has a paragraph like this:
But the one time they faced a full-strength New England side, back in mid-June, the Revs hung three on ‘em behind the play of their three DPs. The most recent time they faced New England, back in mid-September, none of the three DPs started and New England won 2-1 anyway.
And I'm like, well, the only time in 3 games our world class CB played against New England we shut them out. In the game you mention, besides Callens, we also went without Maxi, Medina (both YC suspensions), and Thor. Plus the stupid 2Y red to Morales.
And speaking of reds, our red card streak this year was bizarre, and IMO another iteration of the team having bad luck. Red cards and penalty kicks are essentially random events, and teams are not inherently good or bad at having them called against. Here are the top 5 MLS leaders in red cards since 2018 at FBRef. The stats before then are incomplete there and nobody else I could find compiles the data as well. If the team at 5th was tied I added the teams tied for that spot, so there are 6 or 7 teams in each year. The numbers on top are the number of teams in the league.
Teams in red were on the list the year before. Teams in orange are on the list twice but not consecutively. There are 20 separate teams on a list of 26. If getting reds were something teams could control, you would see more repetition as the teams with the least discipline and worst coaching show up. Instead, even the best, most consistently well-coached teams show up once, like Seattle and SKC, and hardly anyone repeats. I even ran a short not-quite-scientifically-rigorous set of random number models that exactly matched the number of teams, etc above, and the average number of teams who show up more than once was 6.7, compared to the 6 in real life. Getting a lot of red cards in one season is random chance. That does not mean they were bad calls, and does not mean any given team (including NYCFC) did not commit yellow or red worthy fouls, but whether someone does something that might be worthy of 2 yellows or a red, that a ref or VR notices, and decides it's time to send a message, is heavily random. NYCFC probably lost 5-8 points because of this odd quirk.The upshot to the consecutive Red Bull games alone had a significant effect on the season. Oh, and before NYC's first red card this year they went 28 straight games without one, going all the way back to the Chanot red in the first game of 2020 against Columbus before the virus. So if I'm wrong I'd like an explanation for why the same team and coach could go 28 games with no reds yet then accumulate 8 in the next 27 including 5 in 5 games if randomness is not the reason, and I will be very surprised if we come close to leading the league in reds again next year.
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Lol. I mean, I guess a pentagram stadium would throw people off, though, now that you mention it. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all as well.
I’m thankful that we made the playoffs, had a home playoff game, advanced further than the Red Bulls, and 500+ supporters are coming to this game!
There’s going to be a lot of City blue in New England (under coats and scarves)
And on a cold Tuesday night in Foxboro.
Recently it's been 116. If New England sells the entire lower bowl, we'd move up to 217-218.
Your right. It's the section over the tunnel which made me "remember" it as being in the 200 level.
What’s our history with Fischer? He’s not on our current shit list if I recall correctly
Nothing alarming comes to mind with Fischer. Corey Rockwell, though, was AR1 during throw-in gate.
Fischer is a good ref. I can't remember yelling at him like I have Unkel, Chapman, Elfath, Toledo, Mr. Clean, etc.
I feel pretty good about this game, but honestly even if we lose I'm satisfied with the season. Making playoffs, getting a home playoff game, and winning that playoff game is probably as much as we could have expected from the squad at the beginning of the season.
That said, I think we have more of a chance to beat NE than most are giving us credit for. The first game was at RBA, NE won 3-2 with Turner playing out of his mind, Taty having a PK saved, and TMac getting the 88' winner off some really bad defense. Note that Callens didn't play in that game, Bou and Gil started, Buchanan and Buksa subbed in.
Second game at YS, NYC win 2-0 and controlled most of the game. Buska had a few chances early on, but we really took it to NE and the score could have been more. Buksa started, Bou came in, Buchanan and Gil didn't play.
Third game on 9/11 at Gillette, NE win 2-1. Santi opens the scoring, but gets injured and replaced by Jasson. NE equalizes shortly after and then Morales gets a second yellow in the 53rd to put us down to 10 men. Buchanan gets the winning goal and NE controls the game from there. Buksa, Buchanan, and Gil come on as subs, but none start. Callens missed this game as well.
Looking at the basic stats, goals scored/allowed are 5-5 over 3 games. However, we shut out NE in the one game that Callens played. We've seen their good players; it's not like we've been playing their B team every time. And they haven't played us since Ronny's tactical revelation of Sands as the elbow back.
While missing Parks will always be a blow, if Callens can play and Morales can keep himself disciplined, I think we have a realistic shot at winning this game. Even if we don't, it's been a hell of a ride this season.
That said, I think we have more of a chance to beat NE than most are giving us credit for. The first game was at RBA, NE won 3-2 with Turner playing out of his mind, Taty having a PK saved, and TMac getting the 88' winner off some really bad defense. Note that Callens didn't play in that game, Bou and Gil started, Buchanan and Buksa subbed in.
Second game at YS, NYC win 2-0 and controlled most of the game. Buska had a few chances early on, but we really took it to NE and the score could have been more. Buksa started, Bou came in, Buchanan and Gil didn't play.
Third game on 9/11 at Gillette, NE win 2-1. Santi opens the scoring, but gets injured and replaced by Jasson. NE equalizes shortly after and then Morales gets a second yellow in the 53rd to put us down to 10 men. Buchanan gets the winning goal and NE controls the game from there. Buksa, Buchanan, and Gil come on as subs, but none start. Callens missed this game as well.
Looking at the basic stats, goals scored/allowed are 5-5 over 3 games. However, we shut out NE in the one game that Callens played. We've seen their good players; it's not like we've been playing their B team every time. And they haven't played us since Ronny's tactical revelation of Sands as the elbow back.
While missing Parks will always be a blow, if Callens can play and Morales can keep himself disciplined, I think we have a realistic shot at winning this game. Even if we don't, it's been a hell of a ride this season.
New England must have sold out the lower bowl, or there’s just too many traveling supporters as away tickets will be in 217-218.
Just checked their website and they have a good number of tickets available, including some sections in the middle of the second tier, so it makes sense
It’s so MLSy to not have these games on the same day or at least the same weekend. I would even understand Sunday/Monday. What’s the reasoning behind costing us or NE 2 rest days in a playoff series? It’s stuff like this that undermines the legitimacy of the league. Throw parity out the window. In the biggest competition this league has and the one thing teams spend their entire season fighting for there should be an effort to create an equal competition.
