New England Revolution coach Jay Heaps tried again to shake things up on Saturday night in an effort to end a six-game losing streak. He used five different starters from the team’s 5-1 loss to the LA Galaxy last Wednesday, and though the newcomers provided a needed spark, the end result was another frustrating defeat.
The Revolution fell 2-0 to FC Dallas, a result that extended New England's winless run in league play to a post-shootout era club record of seven in a row, all losses. Heaps was encouraged by some of what he saw in the match but still was disappointed to see that his moves did not pay off in the way of picking up a vicotry.
“Other than the result, I think the guys we inserted added a nice level of intensity,” Heaps said following the game at Toyota Stadium. “In that regard we were happy, but absolutely gutted by the result.”
Charlie Davies, Steve Neumann and Stephen McCarthy got their first starts of the season, while Scott Caldwell plugged in at holding midfield for the suspended A.J. Soares and Daigo Kobayashi returned to the lineup. Despite early control of the match, New England fell behind when Dallas scored in the 29th minute and struggled to recover from then on.
“I want to credit a good team,” said Heaps. “In terms of what we did tonight, I thought, in terms of energy and effort, it was a great bounce-back for us [from Wednesday]. We made one mistake in the first half, and we got punished for it.”
- Get more New England Revolution news at RevolutionSoccer.net
The finishing woes continued for the Revolution, who were unable to level the game before Tesho Akindele’s goal clinched the result for Dallas in stoppage time.
New England has now been outscored 17-3 and shut out four times during their current run of futility, but Heaps hopes the energy shown on Saturday will help the Revolution get out of their rut.
“There’s a lot to be said,” said Heaps. “We’ve got to keep fighting, keep going forward and try to get back out of this.”
