On Saturday, the New England Revolution tied New York City FC 2-2. Here are four thoughts on the game.
1. The High Press
The first half was controlled, almost dominated, by the Revs, as they got at least a half dozen excellent scoring chances, while NYCFC got only two. This happened (unusually) in spite of the the Revs’ having only 25% of ball possession – clearly because Brad Friedel chose to use the high press throughout the half, occasionally including up to 7 men. At the same time, NYCFC, a team that takes pride in their ability to play ball possession soccer, kept insisting on taking the ball out of their defensive half using short passes.