FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – While the players had Monday and Tuesday off to “reset and refocus” after a difficult trip to Dallas, head coach Jay Heaps went about the task of collectively analyzing the New England Revolution’s last four matches – all losses.
What he found wasn’t entirely surprising, but the exercise did shed some light on exactly where the Revs stand after suffering a comprehensive 3-0 loss to FC Dallas.
“They were all different forms of losing, with Dallas being the worst of it because we lost in every component,” Heaps said. “In the other games, there were positives; there were moments where the game very easily could’ve been points for our team.
“Dallas, there weren’t many moments in that game. So I think for me that was the most disheartening one, and one that we need to correct and correct quickly.”
While those 90 minutes at Toyota Stadium were unquestionably the worst of this recent slump, it’s worth noting that the Revolution’s best spell in the past three weeks was likely the second half of the 2-1 loss to Vancouver Whitecaps FC – a period in which the Revs were dominant despite playing with only 10 men.
The question then becomes, why? What did the Revs do during that shorthanded spell against the Whitecaps and why did it bring so much success?
“We were down a man and we showed a lot of fight,” said Teal Bunbury. “A lot of guys – everybody – gave 100 percent. It’s doing the little things; getting into the right positions and working for each other.”
The concept of ‘fight’ is an abstract – in hockey they call it ‘compete level’ – but it’s exactly what spurred the Revs on against Vancouver. Trailing by two goals and down a man at halftime, they had no choice but to scrap and claw and battle their way back into the game.
Moving forward, Heaps wants the Revolution’s top priority to become replicating that kind of fight, regardless of the circumstances.
“The message is: we’ve got to outwork the team, we’ve got to outfight the team and we’ve got to try to outplay the team – in that order,” Heaps said. “Recently we’ve gone out to try to outplay, and we get outworked and outfought. That’s not going to happen anymore.
“We’ve got to make sure we hit the outworking and the outfighting, and then the outplaying will come. I think when you play a conference rival, you have to make sure that you have those first two – in order – before you can outplay a team.”
Conference rivals are who the Revs will be playing almost exclusively through the rest of the season, as 13 of their 14 remaining games are against the East. That begins on Saturday night when they’ll visit the New York Red Bulls, perched just one point back of the Revolution in the standings.
