FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution’s last four days didn’t go exactly how coach Jay Heaps drew them up.
With two home games, the Revs escaped with two of a possible six points, deflating any hopes of climbing up the Eastern Conference standings. And after following up a scoreless midweek affair against San Jose with a 2-2 draw against a depleted D.C. United squad, New England was left ruing what could have been.
“We expected more, we expected a win here in front of our home fans,” center back Antonio Delamea said. “At the end, we didn’t give enough energy to get the right result, and at the end of the day we need to be satisfied with the draw.”
The Revs had chances aplenty to find the back of the net over these days, forcing both San Jose’s David Bingham and D.C.’s Bill Hamid into five saves. The latter did so without US national team contributor Steve Birnbaum (concussion protocol) in central defense to stymie New England’s 4-4-2 diamond formation.
“Tonight, I think the decision making in that final third was a little bit over-aggressive, because I thought the other night we were a little bit passive,” Heaps said. “We can’t continue to overreact in moments. I look in the locker room and guys are just absolutely gutted because they put a lot into this week.”
New England is still unbeaten at home with a 2-0-2 record in 2017, but forward Teal Bunbury insisted these back-to-back draws were a missed opportunity. There were defensive bright spots, though, namely jaw-dropping saves from goalkeeper Cody Cropper.
On Saturday, Cropper answered the call three times, preventing Ben Olsen’s squad from escaping with three points.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to pick up very important points,” forward Juan Agudelo said. “This could have been one of those games, and the past game against San Jose, where we hoped we could have gotten (more) points out of here.”
The Revs head to CenturyLink Field next Saturday to take on the defending MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders having taken just two points from their last three games.
The most important thing, Bunbury said, will be having a short memory.
“It’s one thing in this league, you can’t sit there and dwell,” Bunbury said. “You’re only as good as your next game. That’s what we’re looking forward to.”
