FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It didn't take very long for New England manager Steve Nicol to figure out that the Revolution lacked the vibrancy they would need to see off a feisty Portland Timbers side on Saturday night.
From the outset, Nicol said he thought his side was missing the necessary inspiration to turn its eventual 1-1 draw against the Timbers into a full three points.
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS: New England Revolution 1, Portland Timbers 1
“We were just disappointed all around,” Nicol told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “There were very few good things about tonight. I guess that if you're not on your game and you pick up points, you should be happy. But obviously at home, we want three points.”
After starting well in each of the previous two matches, the Revs engineered a more modest opening salvo in this encounter. New England couldn't produce a third successive early goal, but it did create a pair of half-chances and Sainey Nyassi's drive off the bar.
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The increasing pressure yielded the opener after 22 minutes. Portland failed to clear at three potential junctures and the inability to hack clear ultimately cost the Timbers a goal. The third attempted clearance fell kindly to Stephen McCarthy on the edge of the penalty area and the Revolution rookie hit a bouncing volley past Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson to open the scoring.
“I wanted to be in a good spot because I knew the ball was popping around,” McCarthy said. “Maybe two times it came out and it was put back in, so I started to think maybe I should get to the top of the box and maybe I'd get lucky.”
While the goal should have sparked the Revolution to life, it instead badgered the Timbers to improve their own lot.
Portland reaped the dividends from its application seven minutes before the break when it constructed the equalizer. Kenny Cooper did most of the hard work with his surging run through midfield and his diagonal pass to Jeremy Hall inside the Revolution penalty area. Hall held off two New England defenders before sliding an inch-perfect feed for Jack Jewsbury to thump inside the far post.
The manner of the tying goal – plus the inability to intervene at several points during the buildup – left Nicol bemused at full time.
“It's a swift break, but it was a wrong goal,” Nicol said. “It wasn't like we got caught up. We were half a leg short here and a half a leg short there. It was just a horrible goal. It kind of summed up the game.”
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Matters didn't improve much in the second half for the Revs. Nicol threw on Kenny Mansally and switched to a 4-4-2 formation in an attempt to produce a response from his charges, but Portland came closest to securing all three points when Kalif Alhassan hit the post from a free kick with 20 minutes to play.
“Even after they scored, I thought we had opportunities,” Revolution midfielder Pat Phelan said. “We just lacked a little life. We were too nice at times. We weren't pressing hard enough. There were opportunities there. We just didn't take (them).”
Although the Revs were disappointed to pick up only one point from the contest, they realize there isn't much time to wallow on this performance with a midweek trip to Vancouver on the docket.
“We can't hang our heads too long about this one,” Phelan said. “We have to take care of our bodies tomorrow and then it's out West on Monday.”
