Carlos Mendes doesn't want to look into the past. And who can blame him given the New England Revolution's recent dominance of the New York Red Bulls.
"I know in the past we haven't done too well against them, but I thought we came out and gave a good effort tonight," the Red Bulls defender said on Saturday. "The team played well."
And yet, the Revs stretched their unbeaten streak to 11 consecutive games without a loss against the Red Bulls with a come-from-behind 1-1 draw at Giants Stadium.
"I haven't beaten this team yet and we haven't beaten them in a long time," Jozy Altidore said. "We wanted to win this game, but we were just unfortunate again. We have to write ourselves a different story, especially with this team. We have to improve."
Altidore scored the go-ahead goal in the 30th minute and the Red Bulls went up a man one minute into the second half when Revs midfielder Mauricio Castro was shown a straight red card for a kick to Kevin Goldthwaite's groin.
It appeared the Red Bulls were going to secure their first regular-season win against New England since a wild 5-4 victory at Giants Stadium Sept. 17, 2005.
But a foul and a bad decision on the ensuing wall by Chris Leitch allowed Jeff Larentowicz to put his free kick through the Red Bulls wall and past Jon Conway to equalize in the 56th minute.
"Obviously our record against them hasn't been great pretty much since I've been here," Seth Stammler said. "Today we put ourselves in great position up a goal and a man and unfortunately just couldn't close it out."
But why do the Revs always find a way not to lose in this one-sided rivalry?
"You have to go to the fact that they're well-coached, they fight hard, they're always well organized," John Wolyniec said. "When you have those three things you're going to keep yourself in games all the time and give yourself a chance."
The last time the Red Bulls defeated the Revolution was Oct. 22, 2005, in the opening leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Then known as the MetroStars and coached by Mo Johnston, New York had a 1-0 lead heading to Foxborough, Mass., and went ahead 2-0 on aggregate on a goal by Youri Djorkaeff.
But the Revs roared back for three unanswered goals to eliminate the Metros from the playoffs.
Jeff Parke was there for that game. And every disappointing result that followed.
"It (ticks) me off," Parke said. "They're a good team, but I think we outplayed them. Good teams find a way and they're a good team. Everyone has their night. That's how soccer goes sometimes."
Juan Carlos Osorio remembers a different time -- when he was an assistant under Octavio Zambrano in 2000, when the MetroStars won the Eastern Conference regular season title. That year, New York won three of four meetings, including a rare 2-0 victory at Gillette Stadium.
"I don't know. If I'm honest with you I cannot put my finger on it," Osorio said when asked about the lopsided rivalry. "This game, particularly, we had enough chances to win this game. I hope I can change that in my time here, we'll see."
On Saturday, some of the Revs' more familiar faces in this rivalry weren't on the field. Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston were injured, Pat Noonan and Clint Dempsey were playing in Europe and Joey Franchino was traded to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Experiencing their first taste were Gambians Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally, as well as Castro and Amaechi Igwe.
"In a couple different aspects, they're a different team, different personnel, they attack differently," Leitch said. "In my opinion, this is a new chapter with the New York-New England rivalry."
Different chapter, same story.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
