For the New England Revolution, Saturday night’s 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the Colorado Rapids was a case of déjà-vu.
The Rapids were able to jump out to an early 2-0 first-half lead, and then it was smooth sailing for the home team, despite somewhat of a reaction by the Revolution after the break.
“It’s been the same all year long, teams come at us but we have let them do that,” Revolution midfielder Pat Phelan said. “We have not played with enough heart and passion and it shows.”
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“The first half was really terrible,” New England forward Ilija Stolica said. “In Los Angeles and Chivas, we had the same mistakes. Tonight [in Colorado] was the same.”
New England manager Steve Nicol boils down Saturday’s loss to the mistakes, which put them behind early in Colorado, where the Revs have not won a match since 2002.
“It is not rocket science why we have lost tonight,” Nicol said. “We made too many basic errors, which just encourages the opposition to come after us. Two of the goals were avoidable. If we had cleared the first one correctly and then followed the run on the second goal, it was basic stuff. We just gave up.”
Defender Emmanuel Osei was an accomplice on both Rapids goals in the first half and his teammates made it clear in their comments. Osei had the chance to clear the ball before the first goal by Omar Cummings and then failed to track Conor Casey on the second.
“We gave them two goals in the first half,” Phelan said. “We were not following runners or clearing the ball properly and then boom-boom, it is 2-0.”
Phelan also questioned Nicol’s game plan entering the match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where altitude is a factor. The Revolution may have played too conservatively under the conditions for Phelan’s liking.
“Our game plan was to not go crazy chasing the ball, but at times when we needed to press we did not press,” the midfielder said. “We did not close down the ball properly and it burned us.”
The Revolution continue to dig themselves into holes and this year they don’t have dangerous enough attacking weapons to get out of the predicaments.
Now they find themselves in the biggest hole yet: 12 points out of the final playoff spot with only six games remaining (18 available points). The MLS postseason is a mirage after their fifth loss in six matches.
And it doesn’t get any easier for New England. Next up is another midweek road trip against a Western Conference opponent, against which Revs have a 0-6-0 record away from home.
“We will either sink or swim,” Nicol said. “And we better swim.”
