New England Revolution coach Jay Heaps did not mince his words in the wake of his team's 2-1 defeat at Colorado on Wednesday night.
This trip to Commerce City – the latest in a long line of disappointing excursions to Colorado – offered few silver linings in his estimation. He credited Juan Toja for a clever play on the opening goal, but he otherwise felt the Revs – from the coaches all the way through the substitutes – did not do enough to claim the desired victory.
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“We didn't keep it,” Heaps told reporters about the first half display. “We dribbled too much. We have to have more flow. We have to be a little bit better. We as a staff have to be better. The players have to be better. We all have to be better.”
Even with those points conceded, the visitors found themselves in a position to snatch a result after Toja opened the scoring inside the opening quarter of an hour. They navigated through their poor display in the first half (62.4 percent passing accuracy and 34.4 percent of possession, according to Opta statistics) and placed themselves in a spot to profit after the interval.
OPTA Chalkboard: New England's distribution falls behind that of Colorado
It just didn't happen. Although the Revs mustered marginal improvements on the ball, they succumbed to the pressure piled upon them by the Rapids. The visitors' inability to push out and string together possession consistently eventually led to their demise.
“We wanted to play better than we did in the first half,” Heaps said. “We really thought in the first half we were second to balls. Some of the things we are good at, we just weren't doing. It's disappointing because we want to keep the ball when we can. We knew it was going to be tough, but we didn't play well.”
