The losing streak has hit six, and this time it wasn't close.
For the New England Revolution, who spent much of the spring riding high as the goals came in buckets while the defense held tight, summer has been a slaughter. Their latest indignity was a 5-1 dismantling by the LA Galaxy, who struck early and often on Wednesday night at the StubHub Center.
The Revs -- as has been the case too often of late -- simply had no answers.
"It's a disappointing game all the way around," said head coach Jay Heaps afterward. "We can't do that. It's not good enough.
"We, as a group -- as a staff -- have got to get better. We as a team have to get better."
New England went down early thanks to a Robbie Keane golazo, and things got worse minutes later when Gyasi Zardes snuck into the box to finish a bit of neat combination play for the Galaxy. At 2-0 down inside 20 minutes, it seemed like the game was already over -- especially when A.J. Soares was sent off just after that for a high boot.
But the Revs fought back after Teal Bunbury snuck past Dan Gargan and into the box, drawing a penalty and a red card. When Lee Nguyen converted the spot kick, he sent the game into the half at 2-1 and even at 10-vs-10, giving his team a real chance.
They didn't take it. Zardes scored his second just on the other side of the break, and, and that was pretty much that.
"At halftime it really felt like we were going to come out and make a difference," said Heaps. "We really had chances there, even before the half. That's why I said that third goal, to me, was an awful goal to give up. That was the goal that we have to respond from but couldn't.
"But credit LA," Heaps continued. "They brought their scoring shoes tonight, and they scored their chances."
New England will likely have to do the same this Saturday, as the summer doesn't get any easier. They'll be on the road again, this time at FC Dallas, who are unbeaten in four and rounding into form after spending most of the spring and early summer nursing various injuries.
"Points," said midfielder Kelyn Rowe, when asked what his team needs from the trip. "It's just points. We needed to get points tonight, and we didn't do it, so we need to take care of business and get points on Saturday. It's as simple as that."
