E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. - In the aftermath of his side's scoreless draw with the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night, New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol admitted that if he had been offered four points from the opening two games of the season prior to his side's kicking off the regular season, he would have happily taken them.
However, following a game in which his side missed a host of good chances, the Scotsman was disappointed that the Revs' 100 percent record did not remain intact.
"It feels like a loss. In the first half we should have been out of sight, I thought we were excellent. That's as good a first half as we've played away from home since I've been here. We cut them up at will. The possession was excellent, we created chances and gave them all kinds of problems but we couldn't finish them off. A point on the road is always a good result but we do kind of feel that we let two points slip away," said Nicol.
Nicol watched as one opportunity after another slipped away, with Taylor Twellman, in particular, guilty of missing chances. The Revs striker headed Joe Franchino's free kick wide from six yards in the 10th minute and, with 13 minutes remaining, fired wide when found in front of goal by Kyle Brown.
However, despite his side's profligacy in front of goal, Nicol was not overly critical of his strikers and backed them to come around.
"The biggest thing is that we're creating all these chances and, eventually, somebody is going to be on the end of it," said Nicol. "Hopefully, that's sooner rather than later. It looks dead easy sitting on the bench and in the stands, but it's not. The guys are working hard at it and it will come good."
It is almost certain the Revolution will rediscover their goal touch, particularly with players of the caliber of Twellman, Pat Noonan and Clint Dempsey among the ranks. But the side's recent inability to turn control of the territory and possession in games into goals is increasingly troublesome.
Since Dempsey's goal in the Eastern Conference Championship against the Chicago Fire last November, the Revolution have failed to score in a competitive game from open play for 566 minutes, or 9 1/2 hours, be it in the MLS regular season or postseason, or in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
In the absence of Michael Parkhurst, who is expected to play a reserve game Sunday, Nicol has adopted a 3-4-3 formation, which has given Dempsey further license to attack alongside Twellman and Pat Noonan.
The new alignment has certainly helped from a defensive point of view, with Shalrie Joseph and Andy Dorman forming a solid barrier in central midfield in front of the defense of Daniel Hernandez, Jay Heaps and James Riley. However, thus far, neither middle man has been able to get forward consistently and add depth to attacks that are also starved of consistent quality service from the wings.
"I think there's still room for improvement, there's no doubt," Twellman said after the game when asked how the front three was taking to the new formation. "It's a new system and hopefully all three of us will get used to it. Our job is to get the ball on frame and we're not getting the quality chances that we're normally getting. We've got to get that ball out wide and get the ball in the box and we haven't done that of late."
Given his side's lack of goals recently, it is perhaps puzzling that Nicol has not looked to freshen things up on the field. In each of the Revolution's first two games, the same starting 11 has been selected and the only change made has seen rookie Kyle Brown come on twice for players feeling slight injuries. Being able to select an unchanged side is no bad thing, of course, but should this trend of failing to put opponents away continue, Nicol certainly has options available to him.
The most obvious choice would be Jose Cancela, the Uruguayan who so memorably influenced the Revs as a substitute in last year's MLS Cup Playoffs. While his style of play might not make him suitable for a starting role, he does possess a range of passing that is unparalleled among his teammates and could have made the difference at Giants Stadium when, on several occasions, Revolution players seemed to be looking to be too unselfish in front of goal or were hesitant when they did have the chance to shoot.
Kansas City, which is setting the early pace in the Eastern Conference, is next for the Revolution. Ahead of that game next Saturday, Nicol will be without five starters from Saturday night until midweek, as Twellman, Noonan, Dempsey, Steve Ralston and Matt Reis head to North Carolina to play for the USA against Jamaica on Tuesday.
In their absence, the likes of Cancela, Brown and other potential impact players such as Willie Sims and Marshall Leonard have a chance on the training ground to show their coach that they can bring to the team what is currently missing.
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
