Sunday, March 30, 2014

Things are Looking Up

Rose City 3 - 1 Union SC

The Flyers extended their all time lead versus the Commissioner's club this week to 4-1-0. That's about as good as the news should have gotten for the Boys in Red. However, the club's late challenge to the result versus Gold Coast last week (originally recorded as a 1-1 draw) was successful after MLS awarded Lamar Neagle credit for what had originally been ruled an own goal. That lifts the Rose City to 2-2-0 this season with six points and a chance to be relevant.

The team's 2.2 APG could use some work but the win this week dragged them up to eighth place. That's the highest ranking so far this season and higher than the team finished in 2013. Still, there's a long way to go and a lot of games to play. Getting that APG up, keeping points in the box score instead of on the bench, and figuring out who's not seeing the playing time they were expected to is going to be the trick now. A point has been left on the bench three weeks in a row now. Versus the Union it didn't change the outcome, but last week (before the call reversal) it would have changed a draw to a win and the week before a loss would have been a draw. When asked, the Flyers GM had this to say.

"We've set ourselves up for a new problem this year. There is very little chaff in our 2014 draft group so figuring out who of the five or six guys near the bottom of the pecking order are going to sit any given week gets interesting. When no one is injured and every MLS team plays it's kind of drawing straws based on who's looked good recently. And with guys like this, every one of them will contribute five or six to the scoreboard by the end of the season. Not missing those points because they've maybe not produced in the last couple of weeks is tricky."

The real elephant in the room at this point is the crickets emanating from the spot big offseason signing Diego Fagundez is supposed to be occupying. The Revolution only just scored their first goal this week so something is going on with their team.

"We have faith in Diego," the GM offered. "You don't bag 20 BSL goals at the age of nineteen on a fluke. He'll get it sorted out and when he does, this team will be a lot more dangerous." The young Revolution striker has played all but one available minute for his MLS team so far and has twelve shots with five on goal. It would appear that everything is going right except the finishing. Look for that to change, soon.

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