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Dielna Brings Versatility to Revolution Backline

Dielna's signing was announced on Friday, July 28th

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Dielna Brings Versatility to Revolution Backline

Last week the New England Revolution announced the signing of journeyman French defender Claude Dielna. The 29-year-old has been attached to clubs such as Olympiacos in Greece, AC Ajaccio while in Ligue 1 and Sheffield Wednesday in the English Championship, but Dielna has spent most of his recent career out on loan to clubs of lesser stature. Over the past two years, the 6-foot center back has plied his trade for Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava and most recently Romanian club Dinamo Bukarest.

The Revolution will add Dielna as a Designated Player or using Targeted Allocation Money pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P-1 Visa.

YouTube scouting and varied fan-reports paint the picture of an athletic defender (once given the moniker of “the Gymnast”) who finds his way into the attacking third often and sports a dangerous left peg.

Where does Dielna Fit?

Though most often seen in the center of defense, Dielna played 10 of his 25 matches with Sheffield Wednesday at left back during their 14/15 campaign. He found 3 matches on the left with Ajaccio during a 13/14 campaign as well. He may be a candidate to succeed an aging Chris Tierney and relieve Kelyn Rowe of his defensive duties.

Dielna will also compete with Ligue 1 loanee Benjamin Angoua and rookie Joshua Smith to complete a center back pairing next to Antonio Delamea.

Though not a splashy get for what is a potential DP signing, he does give the Revolution defense a bit of needed reinforcement after letting up over 1.6 goals per game thus far in 2017. Coach Jay Heaps suggested Dielna allows the Revs to give opposing teams a few new looks as well.

“It gives us a lot of options, and that’s what we need; we need options to be able to go three in the back, (play with) a center back with a left foot, or a left back with a little bit more aerial presence. Things like that are going to be important for us to have some options defensively.”

What would a three-man back line look like?

Here is my idea of a 3-5-2 featuring Dielna:

This formation takes advantage of the flexibility, athleticism and attacking prowess of both Dielna and Farrell, centered around the sensible play of Delamea. It allows Kei Kamara, Juan Agudelo and Teal Bunbury continue to fight for time up top, Lee Nguyen to pulls the strings, and Scott Caldwell to pair with a hard-nosed Xavier Kouassi or Gershon Koffie to hold down the center of the park.

Options at Wing Back

Rowe has admirably plugged the Tierney-sized hole in the 16/17 Revolution back line, but as his recent Gold Cup stint reminds us- he belongs further up the pitch. A role as a wing back may play to his attacking strengths and continue to provide the squad decent defensive cover.

Fagundez has been praised (and deservedly so) for the maturation of the defensive side to his game, but his inclusion as a left wing back may be worrisome against a more prolific attack. Tierney might find some joy in this role, but I question if he has the legs to cover an entire flank on his own for 90 minutes.

What to Expect in 2017

These left-sided question marks give me pause over a full-90 but may be more effective as a late tactical switch. Heaps has previously made the move to a three-man back line when in search of a late goal. I suspect this is when we will see the formation deployed most often this season. Though it should be remembered that the club was willing to make a complete tactical shift to the 4-4-2 diamond late last year.

Dielna will only have 11 matches at best to make an impact by the time he’s eligible to join the squad. I’m not sure he’ll find his home on the back line in that short a time, but the Revs will hope the Frenchman provides answers for what’s been a questionable back four (or three).

University of Alabama alum who watches far too much soccer. Writing about the New England Revolution for Trifecta Network. Previously covered SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL and high school sports in the state of Maine.

New England Revolution

EA Sports Releases FIFA Ratings. Here’s How The Revolution Stack Up.

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The importance of the FIFA video games series is undeniable. The game in recent years has become one of the world’s highest selling and most popular video games. Within that, there has be a huge growth of sales in America. More sales in FIFA sees more Soccer viewership on TV and at live matches in the United States. As someone who didn’t play soccer growing up, FIFA was my introduction into the world of the sport. While playing FIFA I learned the strategy and nuances of the game. I learned how to build a patient attack and to appreciate a less glorious position like central defensive midfielder for their importance in the game.

FIFA 18 comes out this Friday and promises real individual player motion technology, authentic stadium atmospheres, and a continuation of last year’s story mode “The Journey”. There will even be a release on the Nintendo Switch which along with NBA 2K18 will be the console’s first major third party sports release. In advance of this, EA Sports has released all the ratings for each player in the game through their Ultimate Team cards on the FUT Database on the EA Sports FIFA website.

This means that we get an early look at what the New England Revolution will look like in the game. The developers have appeared to given the Revolution an accurate representation. The depth at attacking positions is evident and the the shakiness in defense is there. Players like Benjamin Angoua have gone down from a 74 last year to a 71. And Josh Smith has gotten a boost to 64. If there is one major gripe with the ratings it is that Lee Nguyen, one of the most talented players in Major League Soccer, is only a 75. He doesn’t even crack the top 20 players in MLS. Nguyen should at least be a 77 or 78 so he can rank among Romain Allesandrini and Michael Bradley as a top midfielder.

Here are the Revolution’s overall individual ratings in order along with their listed position.

CAM Lee Nguyen - 75

ST Kei Kamara - 74

St Krisztian Nemeth - 72

CB Benjamin Angoua - 71

ST Juan Agudelo - 71

LM Diego Fagundez - 71

CB Antonio Delamea - 70

CAM Kelyn Rowe - 70

CB Claude Dielna - 69

CDM Xavier Kouassi - 69

RB Andrew Farrell - 69

CDM Gershon Koffie - 68

LB Chris Tierney - 67

ST Teal Bunbury - 67

CM Scott Caldwell - 66

GK Brad Knighton - 66

GK Cody Cropper - 66

RB London Woodberry - 65

CM Daigo Kobayashi -64

RB Je-Vaughn Watson - 64

CB Joshua Smith - 64

LM Donnie Smith - 63

ST Femi Hollinger-Janzen -60

ST Brian Wright - 59

CM Zachary Herivaux - 58

GK Matt Turner - 52

 

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New England Revolution

New England Revolution Take Down Toronto

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The New England Revolution defeated Toronto FC 2-1 on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.

It was a scoreless game until the 82nd minute when Lee Nguyen scored which set off a 5-minute window where 3 goals were scored.

Two for the Revolution, one for first place Toronto.

Even with the playoff chances being next to zero it was a good start to Tom Soehn’s Revolution coaching career with the team moving on from Coach Jay Heaps earlier in the week.

Below is the full Tweet story from the game.

Tweet Story

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New England Patriots

Robert Kraft Along With Patriots/Revolution Fans Raise Over $2 Million

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When Hurricane Harvey hit the Houston area the Kraft Family stepped up and launched an effort to raise funds to help support the disaster relief effort.

Robert Kraft pledged to match up to $1 million to support the relief effort with the goal being fans coming up with the money to match the pledge.

Patriots and Revolution fans came up big and donated an impressive $1,094,620 to the American Red Cross through the Kraft page bringing the total number raised to $2,094,620.

An impressive effort by all sides.

On Saturday afternoon the Kraft’s announced that outstanding number and thanked those who joined them in supporting the Hurricane Harvey relief effort.

The Kraft Family and fans weren’t the only members of the organization to help out the cause. Most notably Patriots QB Tom Brady donated $100,000 and head coach Bill Belichick donated $50,000. Both of those donations went to the JJ Watt lead effort that raised somewhere north of $30,000,000.

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