Going into the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals, I'd argued that the New England Revolution were something less than their 9-1-1 record down the stretch indicated. Too many of those games were too close against teams that, honestly, weren't very good.
Some examples: They needed a late comeback for a 2-1 win at Houston; they got a fortunate rule interpretation for a 1-0 home win over Toronto; and Eric Kronberg gifted them the winner at the death in KC.
It turns out that what mattered wasn't how they were winning, but that they were winning at all. The Revs are really, really good, as they showed in Saturday's 4-2 win at Columbus Crew Stadium in both teams' first game of the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T.
Here are three things I picked up on:
1. Revs set the tone with the high press
As Sporting faded over the second half of the season, New England has picked up the mantle as the best high pressure team in the league. They used it to good effect from the first kick on Saturday, giving nightmares to the Crew's backline and forcing Crew 'keeper Steve Clark – one of the best in the league with the ball on his foot – into an early, sloppy turnover that could easily have been the game's first goal.
This is a typical tactic for teams in the first leg of a home-and-home, aggregate goals series where away goals count. And it was pretty surprising that Columbus weren't quite ready for it:
As the Crew kept trying to play through the pressure, the Revs kept using that to generate their own chances. They did it by producing an inordinate number of recoveries in the attacking third during the first half:
That's five different New England players just in that right channel terrorizing Tyson Wahl and Waylon Francis. It didn't directly produce the first goal, but it certainly set the tone for the type of frenetic, scattered distribution that the visitors ended up feasting on for the duration of the game.
It was the right gameplan from Jay Heaps. More important, though, was the elite level at which his guys executed it. This was an absolute drubbing, one of the truly great performances any team has put up in recent playoff memory.
2. Plan B works great, too
For New England, Plan A is always to get Lee Nguyen free somewhere around the top of the box and let him create magic. He had a couple of moments like that – a clever backheel to Kelyn Rowe just before the first goal, an extended solo effort around the hour mark that Tony Tchani eventually dug away from him, and, naturally, the goal.
But while Nguyen was active and influential, he wasn't all over the ball in the final third. The Revs had to spread it around a bunch, and at times it was clear that the best plan was to draw some fouls and try to bend in some free kicks. They'd done it to good effect all year, but especially against Columbus, as Jermaine Jones got the game-winner on a late set piece the last time these two teams met.
This is always New England's Plan B, and is a product of how they hold the ball deep in the attacking zone:
Look at the numbers above: New England attempted almost 400 more passes in the final third than any other MLS team. They're not particularly precise, but given the sheer volume of passes they attempt there, they don't have to be.
And they don't always have to do it in the run of play. True to form, the first two New England goals were scored off set pieces in the final third. This is an advantage built directly into how they play, and if it reminds you a bit of 2011-2013 Sporting KC, well, there's a reason for that.
3. Defend from the front... and the back
What makes New England interesting is how they transition from high pressure to low pressure, which is the difference between a gimmick defense and one that can work fulltime.
In the Revolution's case, once their high pressure is cracked they use Jones and whichever winger is on that side of the field to hound the ball, while the rest of the team retreats into a shell and drops the line of confrontation deep. Today that meant encouraging the Crew to play sideways to Tchani and Wil Trapp, always leaving the overlapping fullback or central defenders one of those guys as an outlet through midfield.
Jones and Scott Caldwell simply dominated their Crew counterparts, refusing to let them complete dangerous passes:
They're not a mid-pressure team, because they don't want to deal with crosses like the one that led to the first Columbus goal of the day.
So they transition from high pressure, to token pressure, to deep blocks of four, all with the intent of causing turnovers in zones where they'll have extra numbers.
Columbus just couldn't crack that code:
The Crew did get those two goals, and had other good looks from the likes of Meram, Aaron Schoenfeld and Federico Higuain. They're a good enough team to go into Gillette Stadium and win next week.
But can they win by three goals, which is pretty much a necessity given the away goals rule? Nobody should bet on that. Not when the Revs are playing – and winning – like this.
