FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Gillette Stadium had been a fortress for the New England Revolution in 2017, with the Revs carrying an 11-game home unbeaten streak entering their match this weekend.
The Chicago Fire put a stop to that on Saturday night.
Chicago stormed their way to a 2-1 win in New England on Saturday, gaining a measure of revenge on the Revs after losing both of their games at Gillette Stadium in 2016. After the match, head coach Veljko Paunovic pointed to a new squad – not tactics – as the driving force behind solving Gillette’s riddle.
“What I can say is we have a different team, this is not the Chicago Fire of the past,” Paunovic said. “We improved, we worked in our offseason, we built our team, we have a great locker room, great spirit and we have fantastic players, guys and champions who want to win. That’s the difference this year.”
Still, it was tactical adjustments from two newcomers – Bastian Schweinsteiger and Nemanja Nikolic – that proved to be the difference.
The German midfielder often dropped deep to split Chicago’s center backs, dictating tempo and possession. From there, Nikolic could run the channels, much like he did on his opening strike in the 18th minute, when he banged home a rebound after being played through by Matt Polster to record his 13th goal in 16 matches.
“Our main thing was just to play our own game plan, which was to try and keep the ball,” Polster said. “That’s what we’re the best at, when we keep possession and we move it side to side. That’s how the [first] goal came. We worked it around the back, created overloads and Niko made a good run down the line. We exploited good spaces on the field.”
While plenty of credit should go to Chicago, New England did themselves no favors on Saturday night. The Revs played a lackluster first half and fell into a 2-0 hole before seeing their comeback bid unravel thanks to some wayward finishing.
The Revs outshot Chicago 24-8 on Saturday, but only put five of their attempts on target. They registered over 100 more passes in the attacking third than Chicago and created several solid looks at a late equalizer, but Lee Nguyen and Gershon Koffie all missed golden chances to steal a point.
“[We’re] disappointed that we didn’t get at least a point in this game,” Heaps said. “I really believe we deserved a point in this game. The first half, the way we played, we probably didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t a 90 minute performance for us, but it certainly was a great second half for us. I thought we should’ve gotten a point out of it.”
With the loss, New England failed to climb up the Eastern Conference, ending the night in eighth place, on point out of playoff position. They could make up some ground over the next month and a half, however, as five of their next six MLS matches are against Eastern Conference foes.
“Effort and energy was all there,” Heaps said. “I thought until the last whistle, we laid it all out on the line. I think our sharpness wasn’t where it needs to be to break a team like Chicago down in terms of how they’re set up. I thought if we’d had been a little sharper earlier in the game, it wouldn’t have turned the way it did.”
