On a night where his team couldn't have looked more comfortable if each starter had a recliner to rest on during the game, New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol wasn't pleased after his team's 2-0 victory against the San Jose Earthquakes.
"I thought in the second half, as good as we were the first half, I thought we were as bad the second half," Nicol said.
Of course, his team had done just about everything that it needed to do in the first half. Kheli Dube scored his first MLS goal in his first MLS start and former Revolution defender James Riley headed past Cannon to give the Revs a 2-0 lead at halftime.
"Shalrie didn't get a good touch on the ball, so it just happened that it just came to me," Dube said of his inaugural marker. "I had to make sure to finish it."
The Revs were dominant in the first half, spraying balls around the field and pinning San Jose back inside its own half. But the team wanted a third goal to try to seal the contest.
"We were talking about it at halftime," Parkhurst said. "That third goal is extremely important; if they got it, we would have gone down 2-1, and it's a whole new game. We were really trying to get that third goal in. We weren't sitting back and we wanted to score some goals for our fans and continue to play well."
Nicol didn't think his side came out as well in the second half as San Jose tried to push forward in search of a goal to get back into the game. Yet the Revolution defense didn't yield any shots on goal, even though Ramiro Corrales rang the crossbar just before the match headed into stoppage time.
Parkhurst said the midfield did a good job of closing down the Quakes midfielders, breaking down attacks before they reached the Revolution penalty area.
"The guys in front of us did a good job of protecting us and cutting down passes and really dominating the midfield and making our life a lot easier in the back," Parkhurst said.
Even though the team didn't get the goal it wanted in the second half, Dube said the team can take some momentum from the easy win.
"The good thing was that everybody kept on working hard," Dube said. "Even if things weren't coming our way, we kept on working hard and didn't concede a goal which is good for the team. It's just going to help us go into the next game with our heads high."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
