COLUMBUS, Ohio – Even before kickoff of Saturday afternoon’s Eastern Conference Semifinal first leg, Charlie Davies could tell his New England Revolution teammates were locked into playoff mode.
“I knew right at warmups that the feeling was right,” Davies said. “Everyone felt the energy and the focus and the concentration. I think we were all ready to explode today.”
Explode would be one way to describe what the Revs did against the Columbus Crew. They scored four precious road goals to take a commanding 4-2 lead in the two-game, aggregate-goals series, striking twice from set pieces and two more times from lethal counterattacks.
Davies – making his MLS Cup Playoffs debut – scored a pair to bookend New England’s offensive output, sandwiching his goals around a stunning Chris Tierney free kick and MVP candidate Lee Nguyen’s clever individual effort.
Rampant as the Revs were, head coach Jay Heaps was left feeling that perhaps they left goals on the table at Crew Stadium, where both Andrew Farrell and Teal Bunbury were denied by stellar Steve Clark saves.
“I thought we probably could’ve had more,” Heaps said. “It’s kind of our motto to go after teams and if we have chances, we want to try to put them away. I think we were a little bit disappointed we didn’t put them all away.”
New England has played an attacking brand of soccer all season and had even more incentive to do so on Saturday afternoon with the away-goals rule now instituted in Major League Soccer. The Revs were comfortable letting the game open up a bit away from home, knowing road goals hold extra value as a tiebreaker.
“We like our chances when the game’s open because we feel like we have quality players in the attacking third that are going to take chances,” said Tierney, who scored his first playoff goal in his second postseason appearance. “That’s what happened. If it ends up being an open game, we’ll take our chances.”
All four goals could prove to be critical, but the most pivotal may well have been Nguyen’s 70th-minute strike, his first career playoff goal after notching 18 this regular season.
After goals from Davies and Tierney had the Revs in control, Justin Meram scored in the 64th minute as the Crew threatened to wrestle momentum away from the Revs. But Nguyen’s marauding run forward and simple finish was a gut punch for the home side, paving the way for Davies to add a fourth shortly thereafter.
“One thing we talked about was when the game got open, especially if we got an advantage, it was going to be a counterattack-type situation,” said Heaps. “I think we were ready for it. The momentum was definitely swinging and Lee’s goal was able to swing it back.”
Now the Revs will carry that momentum – not to mention a 4-2 aggregate lead – into the second and decisive leg next Sunday evening, when they’ll host the Crew at Gillette Stadium. That night, a spot in the Eastern Conference Championship will be on the line in Foxborough.
And although the Revs know they have a cushion to work with ahead of that match, they plan to approach it with the same vigor which pushed them to their big win in Saturday’s first leg.
“The mindset is the same as it was coming into today, which is it’s a zero-zero game,” said Tierney. “We always want to win, especially when we’re at home. We’re not going to sit back and just defend our lead and try not to concede. We’re going to expect to win the game at home and we’re going to prepare this week to do so.”
