whether it is a fitness problem, which I don't believe it is, or maybe it is a ball possession thing," Bliss said. "With that being said, we could have had three [goals] in the first half, even the first 20, and we wouldn't have been in that predicament that we were in. We were saying the same thing one week ago, three weeks ago, five weeks ago. We need to get one on their end and prevent one on our end. It is a repeat of last week's quote."
The Wizards knew what New England was going to do -- try to serve balls from the wings into the penalty area, especially in the air.
"If you can't shut the service down then you have to tie somebody up in the box," Wizards interim coach Brian Bliss said. "And we were lax on that as well. I just think that's a staple in their game. They have a good guy in the box in [Taylor] Twellman and a latecomer in [Clint] Dempsey into the box. And they have guys that serve the ball well in [Steve] Ralston and [Andy] Dorman."
Bliss felt his team could have put the game away and finished it off at the end by maintaining possession. "You hold the ball a little better. I don't know how many times we had three passes and the ball was gone or four passes and the ball was gone," Bliss said. "Good teams will defend by holding on to the ball and eating up the clock and picking apart a team with a couple of plays."
The Wizards actually a couple of chances to add a second goal in the second half. Forward Eddie Johnson headed two balls in the second half that missed the target and had a shot saved by Matt Reis. "Right now, I think Eddie is getting his chances, so it means he's doing something right," Bliss said. "He just needs to find the back of the net and get his confidence going."
The Wizards have scored just three goals over their last eight games. But at least the result put an end to the long losing streak. "It's better than a loss. Our expectations are to win. Although it may not look that way, we are putting a lot into winning games and if we don't we feel we are coming up short," Zavagnin said. "It's a frustrating time. But we are plugging away. The coaches have us going in the right direction. We're going to come back and we are going to keep fighting."
