Playing a Chicago Fire team that had waxed his side 4-0 at Toyota Park in April, New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol thought his team would be up to the challenge.
He was sorely disappointed after his team lost 3-0 to the Fire on Saturday night at home and did little to hide his displeasure.
"We're coming off losing 4-0 to them at their place," Nicol said. "I certainly expected us to be up for it and ready to go. Certainly, after all the talk before, I thought we were (ready)."
The side wasn't ready from the start of the contest. Plagued by slow starts for most of the season, the Revs couldn't really gain a foothold in the game.
"From the start, we weren't playing our normal style of game," Revs midfielder Shalrie Joseph said. "We weren't passing and we weren't moving the ball like we normally do. Whenever we tried to get going, we gave up a soft goal. We gave up two or three soft goals tonight."
Once Chicago got goals from Chris Rolfe and John Thorrington, the Revs pressed forward. But all of the pressure yielded few chances, none of the variety that would have you scratch your head wondering how the player missed the open chance.
"It felt like we were just a little bit off in everything we did," midfielder Wells Thompson said. "Our crosses and our passes were just a little bit off. The final ball wasn't there. That is stuff we need to clean up."
Although the team held the ball, the movement lacked incisiveness. Nicol felt his side didn't do enough in its passing game to put Chicago under any pressure.
"We were consistent, but consistently bad," Nicol said. "We were second tonight. Every way you look at it, we were second. We didn't move the ball quickly. Give them credit. They've outdone us tonight."
Not moving the ball briskly gave the Chicago the freedom to counter attack even though the Revs had them pinned in their defensive half for most of the second half, Nicol said.
"You need to move the ball quickly," Nicol said. "If you don't, teams are going to be able to keep tight against you. They get the goal, which makes it easier to run forward when you're one-nil up. We tried to push the game, but above the neck, we were pretty dead tonight."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
