FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s as if Bill Murray is waking up in a New England Revolution kit at the same place on the same day, forced to face Ned Ryerson over and over and over again.
It was Groundhog Day once again as the Revolution dropped their eighth straight game on Saturday night with a 2-1 loss at the hands of the Columbus Crew.
Once again, the club was felled by the combination of conceding the first goal, coupled with one lapse on the defensive end and a host of unfinished chances.
“The game was there for the taking in the first half,” Revs head coach Jay Heaps said to the media following the match. “We had some chances, and we didn’t finish. It comes down to one or two plays at the end of the game that we didn’t make.”
New England did control play early on, earning nine corner kicks in the first half thanks to some penetration in the Crew end, but they were unable to complete on any of those chances and the door was left open.
Columbus entered in the 43rd minute on a beautiful strike by Federico Higuain on a free kick just outside of the box, and the Revs headed to halftime down a goal, a place where they had yet to return from this season to collect any points.
“We didn’t want to foul outside the 18,” said Heaps. “We know that Higuain can hit that. That’s obviously a tough way to go into halftime.”
The Revs responded with a 50th-minute goal from A.J. Soares, who headed in a Kelyn Rowe corner. And as the game wore on and Columbus’ chances were thwarted, a positive result was within reach.
Then the alarm clock went off, and Sonny and Cher kicked on again, and the Crew saw their shadow when the just-subbed-on Justin Meram sent a long pass up the middle of the field, leading Ethan Finlay into the box where he bodied out Darrius Barnes and shot past Bobby Shuttleworth in the 83rd minute.
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Now the club is left with a quick turnaround before the alarm sounds again on Wednesday night, when they play host to the Colorado Rapids, hopeful this time to get a chance to kiss victory once again.
“You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and keep going forward,” said Heaps. “It’s awful, it’s really tough, but at the same time, you’ve got to keep perspective and keep digging.”
