Ok folks, let's count the passes. And... go:
This was New England's only goal in Saturday's 1-1 draw against Toronto FC and it stands, to this point, as their highlight of the season. It's been a bad spring for the Revs -- they've been vulnerable defensively and have struggled to turn chances into goals. The pieces of what's been a successful team over the past three years are all still mostly in place, so there's no one easy thing to point to and say "this is going wrong."
So take the above goal as a reminder of how good this team can look when things go right, and that they're still capable of "going right" in a way that is definitively New England's style.
The Revs under Jay Heaps have prioritized getting the ball into the attacking third and keeping it there. They've been among the league leaders in passes attempted and completed in the final third each of the past three seasons, and they're up there again this year:
Note that they've played two more games than many teams. On a per-game basis, they're still in the top two, along with Columbus.
The difference with this sequence is where in the final third most of these passes take place. By running possession through central midfielder Gershon Koffie and both fullbacks, the Revs coaxed TFC up the field a little bit, which opened some space for Kelyn Rowe to exploit in and around the 18.
For most of this season New England have been much higher in the attack, compressing the defense and making it harder for the likes of Rowe, Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez, Teal Bunbury et al to get clean looks. Yes, the Revs have been generating chances, but most of them have required a perfectly placed shot through a forest of bodies.
Not so, this one. They pulled TFC from side to side, drew them out, pinned them deep, then drew them out again before sliding the knife in. It was a beautiful goal and, for the denizens of Foxborough, both a reminder of years past and a sign of what they hope is yet to come in 2016.
