FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Wednesday night was hardly ideal for the Revolution hosting newly crowned Portuguese champions Benfica as the team dropped a 4-0 defeat at Gillette Stadium.
Circumstances were probably even tougher for three newcomers hoping to make an impression and earn a season-long spot with the New Englanders. The reason was simple: Benfica simply had too much of the ball to allow anyone on the other side of the field to shine.
But Revolution coach Steve Nicol said he would take into consideration every aspect of the game to assess the performances of Serbian midfielder Ivan Gvozdenovic, Haitian national-teamer Jean-Baptiste Fritzon and third-round selection Jason Griffiths.
Asked if there was a timetable by which he would evaluate the Serbian, Nicol indicated that of whatever he did he wanted to be fair to the player.
“Not really, no,’’ said the coach. “We’ll just sit down and decide what we saw tonight. We don’t have a lot of training. As you know this is our seventh or eighth game in three or four weeks so it was always going to be tough for everybody.’’
Part of that fairness was recognizing that last night simply wasn’t the perfect platform for anybody not wearing a red Benfica jersey.
“Not an awful lot,’’ said Nicol, when asked what the player’s game revealed. “It’s kind of tough. He’s not fully fit. That’s always going to be difficult no matter what you are playing against. Like I said we couldn’t get on the ball enough and have it long enough for him to probably show what he really can do. But, at the same time, we saw certain things that we can evaluate and we can decide.’’
Gvozdenovic, who just arrived last weekend, said the small sampling from last night, probably didn’t give him the best opportunity to show his game but he recognized that playing in the expanse of the United States brings special challenges.
“Yes, it’s a big problem, but I cannot cry because I want to give my best and I cannot say nothing wrong,’’ he said. “It’s true you have time zones, there is a lot of traveling and the body needs to recover and prepare for the game. But it’s life and you need to adapt very quickly. I try to give my best. But I know I can do much better but it’s after three days. I came here the 15th of May and after four days I play and it is not easy. But I just need time and I know I’ll be better than that.’
Nicol said it was also difficult to get a read on Fritzon but said the player demonstrated that he was motivated to make the team.
“He works really hard,’’ said Nicol. “Again, obviously when you are not getting any service it’s difficult. But it’s the same situation. There’s obviously things we were looking for and things that we like and don’t like and we go from there and decide.’’
