In the last three weeks the New England Revolution have played an exhausting five matches, four of which have been away from home. During that stretch the Revolution have yet to earn a win, but only have a single loss as they played to their fourth consecutive tie, playing to a goalless draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.
The crammed playing schedule and frequent traveling has taken its toll on the Revs as they have lost several players to injury. Head coach Steve Nicol feels the scheduling hasn't been fair to his players.
"We've come straight from Columbus to play here," Nicol said. "That's not a good schedule to expect the players to be able to prepare for the game -- having to do all that traveling is unfair on the players.
"But you saw tonight that we dodged a few bullets in first half."
The biggest bullet came in the form of a Jeff Cunningham misfire. In the 18th minute, RSL's Jason Kreis played an easy rolling pass across the face of the goal. Cunningham came crashing through the six-yard box to tap home the pass but somehow missed the ball completely.
Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis knew the danger that the RSL strikers brought to the table but he felt that his defenders were up to the challenge.
"They're really dangerous on the counter, with Jeff Cunningham and Atiba Harris -- they are real quick," said Reis. "If you give them a little bit of daylight they could have burned you and Jeff [Larentowicz] and [Michael Parkhurst] did really well."
Even though the home side continued to exploit holes left by the Revolution defense throughout the first half, Nicol felt his team shored up their effort as the game went on.
"I think defensively, as a team, we were much better in the second half," Nicol said. "We left a lot of holes in the first half, which they exploited to some degree -- they just never finished it off. In the second half, we limited them."
In a game where there were a total of four shots on goal from both sides -- and only one by New England -- it could be said that it was a defensive battle. It was one that the Revs are just happy to have escaped from with a point.
Keeping Real from scoring was also a welcome accomplishment, as the Revolution defense has not posted a shutout since their 4-0 win against the Los Angeles Galaxy back on May 6.
"For us give up no goals and come out of here with at least a point is decent for us," said Reis.
The lack of punch offensively Reis feels is due to a lack of manpower and the fitness of key contributors.
"It was tough for us," said Reis. "We have a lot of games in a short amount of time and we're a little beat up. It seems like we can't catch a break -- in terms of fitness-wise with some players. And we're not all on the same page, so it makes it tough to make that final pass and connect that final pass and to dangerous.
"We played a good game defensively tonight," he said. "We were all on the same page defensively. We really limited their chances."
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
