While pleased that his New England Revolution side clinched a playoff spot with Saturday's 3-1 win against the Colorado Rapids at Gillette Stadium, head coach Steve Nicol was still keen to impress upon his men that simply qualifying for postseason play is not enough.
After the win and Chicago loss to New York, the Revs find themselves just two points behind the Fire, in third place in the Eastern Conference standings. Both sides have two regular season games left and Nicol is keen to continue a run of form that has seen the Revolution go unbeaten in their last five games.
"It was nice to get (qualification) done and dusted and now we want to finish as high as we can. Obviously we can't catch D.C. now but we certainly want to try and catch Chicago and get any home-field advantage we can," said Nicol.
The Revolution got off to a flying start when Steve Ralston converted a fourth-minute penalty following Aitor Karanka's foul on Jay Heaps. Captaining the side in the absence of Joe Franchino and Shalrie Joseph, Ralston took responsibility and stepped up to the spot before coolly sending Jose Cannon the wrong way.
"I had taken one against Joe before and had seen him in a few other games," said Ralston. "He likes to move a little bit early so I just tried to wait and let him go and, when I saw him go one way, I just tried to slide it in the other side. I knew he had gone the other way so I had the whole left side."
Ralston turned provider on the Revs' second goal, which was a debut strike for Jose Manuel Abundis. The Mexican striker showed good instincts to dart in front of Pablo Mastroeni and stoop to flick home a left-wing free kick that Ralston admitted he was just trying to put in the mixer and see what resulted.
"I told Taylor (Twellman) earlier on that I was going to try and whip one in on goal and aim at the far post and hope to get some redirection. Luckily I got it over the first guy's head and José did a great job of getting his head on it," said Ralston.
Abundis was impressive in his 71-minute performance and has given Nicol another option in the forward department that the Revs desperately needed.
"He hasn't played a game for a while but he has been sharp in training and that showed tonight," said Nicol. "The goal tells you exactly what he is all about. He holds the ball up well but we got him because he has scored goals and because of what he does in the box and he showed you exactly what he does in the box tonight. He is hard to pick up and he puts the ball in the net. That's exactly what we want."
Clint Dempsey's third goal in four games gave the Revolution a 3-0 lead before Kyle Beckerman's late penalty provided a consolation goal for the Rapids. The loss of the shutout was a minor blip on the New England display, which Nicol believed got better and better after a slow start.
"I think the first half was really bitty; the interruptions were relentless and the game never really got going. There were so many fouls and disruptions with people getting taken off the field. Nobody could settle down," Nicol said. "The second half just kind of started off the same but I felt that, the longer the game was going, the better we were getting and going down to 10 men really hurt them badly."
Clint Mathis was the man that saw red for Colorado, following his elbow on Avery John in the 65th minute. The Trinidadian shrugged off the incident after the game, preferring to focus on the overall job that had been done by a side that was missing several key members from recent weeks.
"I thought we did everything well as a team," said John. "We went forward, we defended as a group and that's what we need, especially going into the playoffs. You see we had a couple of changes but the gaffer knows us and can count on some of the guys on the bench."
The Revolution head to the nation's capital next week to play D.C. United before rounding off regular season play at home to Columbus on Oct. 14. As Nicol said, the initial objective -- to reach the playoffs has been achieved -- but, as his captain and opening goal scorer concurred after the game, the need to maintain the improved recent form is paramount for the Revs when they face the bigger challenges that are to come.
"Scoring goals is really important for us," said Ralston. "We have been struggling and so tonight was huge. It as nice to get three and we got have got a few others. Playing against 10 guys made it a bit easier. If we can play like that against 11 guys then I'll be happy."
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
