After a poor showing last weekend against this same Chivas USA team, the New England Revolution were hoping to surge out of the gate Saturday night and stamp their personality on the game.
It didn't work that way in the opening stanza.
New England conceded a goal from a Claudio Suarez header on five minutes and dodged close misses from Ante Razov twice within the first 10 minutes.
"They had a lot of chances early and I think Matt [Reis] did a great job making some great saves," Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston said.
The home side was under siege because it was careless with the ball, according to Revs coach Steve Nicol.
"It's a bad goal we lose on that corner, but what leads up to that is losing the ball in the middle of the park," Nicol said.
Chivas USA's spurned opportunities allowed New England into a contest which could have already been decided. The team's play picked up as the stanza approached, but the home side went into the locker room at halftime ready to make some changes.
"We tried to play nice passing football too early in the game," Nicol said. "You have to win the battle first to earn the right to play, and I felt we made it easy for them by putting too many short balls in the middle of the field. That's ideal for them to close the ball down."
"We had a talk at halftime and we had to do a lot of things different and get better," Ralston said.
Given the chance to start again, New England capitalized to start the second half.
New England bombarded Preston Burpo's goal. Substitutes Taylor Twellman and Khano Smith aided in an effort that saw Burpo bravely stand on his head and deny the Revolution valiantly before Andy Dorman's sublime half-volley in the 64th minute gave the home team a deserved equalizer.
Despite pressing forward after Dorman's goal in search of the match winner, New England could not turn territorial advantage into numerical superiority.
Nicol was pleased with how his team responded after the interval.
"That was the real team you saw second half," Nicol said. "We wanted to make a statement -- we wanted to show that we were coming at them and looking to move forward at all times. And once we won the battle, we could start to play football, and that's exactly what we did right from the word go in the second half."
Dorman believes that his Revolution showed their typical cutting thrust in the second half.
"Other than the L.A. trip [last weekend], I think we've been doing really well attacking," Dorman said. "Unfortunately, today we couldn't score a second, but we're doing a good job getting forward and getting chances. Once we start finishing we'll be even better."
Ralston was disappointed that his team only came away with a point after its second half performance.
"I think we did a much better job in the second half; we were all over them. It's a little disappointing we only got one point instead of the three," Ralston said.
Dorman pointed towards Burpo, who made eight saves on the evening, as the reason why New England could not find victory in the second half.
"Their 'keeper just made some unbelievable saves," Dorman said. "Give credit to him; he pretty much kept them in the game in the second half."
The game also included a historical milestone, as Ralston tied the all-time MLS assist record with his helper on Dorman's finish. Ralston's 114th assist brings him level with current record holder and former Tampa Bay Mutiny teammate Carlos Valderrama.
"I'm more upset about the fact that we didn't win the game, honestly," Ralston said of tying the assist record. "But one more and I'll be at the top. Like I've said before, it's just a reflection of the longevity of my soccer career and I've played with some great players so that's helped as well."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
