Analysis: New England Revolution (h). At What Point Is Enough, Enough?

At what point is enough, enough? There seems to be a real divide among the fanbase right now. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. That's fine. I realise I'm at risk of being maligned, but I honestly don't care. What we're seeing right now, is a team that's not on-board with what they're being asked to do. A team that has a general sense of resignation about it. Look at the body language after the second and third goals (figures 1 & 2).

Total and utter resignation.

Figure 1 is Pedro Gallese's embodiment of how we're all feeling right now.

Figure 2 there's no reaction to the third. Just apathy.

As a supporter you're allowed to question the club and it's management. You buy your tickets, your concessions, your merchandise... You're allowed to do that. For us UK fans, we stay up until the small hours of the morning on a regular basis to follow this team. We all invest emotionally, and financially, into this team.

We all pay a price.

This nonsensical view that you have to blindly follow along and only harbour optimistic notions of 'everything is fine, Vamos Orlando' all the time is just moronic. It's fine for people to choose to do that. Everyone supports the team in different ways. But people need to stop shouting down those who are, rightly, criticising this team. Everything is not fine. It's OK for people to point that out.

As I'm about to.

Everything is not OK. This isn't that weird LEGO Movie. Everything is not awesome.

People can point to the US Open Cup and that's obviously a fantastic achievement; It's a realistic chance of silverware. But that's papering over some pretty huge cracks.

As it stands, with our form right now, and the results as they are, we are not making the play-offs. That's not a negative view, or me being pessimistic. It's just a fact. We now sit below the line, and we have to start winning games. We've lost 7 at home. We've lost more than we've won at home and overall.

Can you honestly see that changing right now? Oscar Pareja is under pressure. It's a difficult situation, because a change in leadership is never ideal before a cup final. That being said it feels like we're nearing the end of Oscar Pareja's time as head coach of Orlando City.

Regardless of the result of the US Open Cup final. We cannot just be rolling over and accepting defeat time after time. I wasn't able to sit in on the post match, due to family commitments. But viewing the footage below was a bizarre experience. Pato, in particular, speaks positively. But I don't get the sense he truly believes what he's saying there. I'm not saying he's lying, or anything like that. He's a positive person, he wants to portray that. But, in my opinion, there's also a sense of disbelief in his voice.

As for Oscar, it was more of the same. We have to keep looking forward. To what, though? Nothing changes. The predictable tactics, the poor defending, the lack of intensity. Whether or not you believe the players are buying into his methods or no, they sure as heck aren't playing like it.

Soccer is a results business. And we're not doing that right now. The issues we're experiencing right now have their routes in 2021. We scraped into the play-offs on the final day last year. I fear even that won't be the case this year, unless something changes.

Top player

Ivan Angulo

The new kid on the block showed some flashes of ability when he came on. As a debutant, coming on when the game is already lost, is always difficult. He completed 11 of his 13 passes and generally looked lively.

But, honestly, no one else deserves 'Top Player' this week. Bet they're all devastated.

Head Coach Oscar Pareja:

“A difficult night for us. There aren’t many words, but to just keep the mentality to walk forward with this group. The disappointment is worse to explain as it was a difficult match. We had our chances as always, we saw that, but we couldn’t finalize, but I think it is much more than that because through the game we lost energy. The second half was painful for us and we couldn’t find a rhythm and we stopped being dangerous as well. What we will do is refresh this group, that is what we are going to do in the next couple days. Try to rest and try to get the energy back. The effort was there, the boys tried. As I said, we couldn’t find that second gear or that second energy and the game just went away.”

*Top player image and cover image courtesy of Orlando City SC.

All statistics courtesy of fotmob.com

Media availability footage courtesy of Orlando City SC.