Staying True to Themselves

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

If anyone thought the Revolution were going to approach Saturday’s Conference Semifinal clash in Columbus cautiously and playing for the counter, the tenor of the entire 90 proved them wrong.

While many teams often adopt a conservative, defend-first approach on the road during the postseason, coach Jay Heaps didn’t see any reason to deviate from his club’s attack-first philosophy.

“Yeah, we push it,” Heaps told the media after Saturday’s 4-2 win. “I think that is kind of our motto: to go after teams. If we have chances, we want to put them away. I think we were a little bit disappointed we didn’t put them all away.”

The Revolution wasted no time announcing its intent once referee Drew Fischer blew the opening whistle. In the opening seconds, Jermaine Jones picked up a long touch from Tyson Wahl in the midfield, ran at goal, and blasted a shot that may have missed its mark, but nevertheless put goalkeeper Steve Clark on notice.

To their credit, the Crew didn’t let the Revolution’s early ambitions change their gameplan. Moments after the Revolution midfielder’s violent miss, Aaron Schoenfeld found himself in the heart of the box, where he put himself in a dangerous position to score before it was thwarted by Andrew Farrell in the second minute.

“When we lost the League game here (on Sept. 20), we were not sharp and we were not 100 percent concentrated,” Jones told the media after the match. “I think today you could see that everybody was focused on that game.”

Focus wouldn’t be a problem for the Revolution this time around. Although they escaped an early deficit after Justin Meram smacked the bar in the 29th minute, Charlie Davies tallied in the 34th minute and, well, the guests never looked back.

Chris Tierney doubled the lead in the 51st minute on a ball he thrust into the back of the net from a 25-yard free kick. While Meram answered back in the 64th minute, Lee Nguyen reclaimed the two-goal lead in the 70th minute. Davies widened the gap to three when he beat Steve Clark on a drive from outside the area in the 78th minute.

“We didn’t do any talking this week with all the media trying to build up a story, trying to get us to react to what Columbus were saying,” Davies told the media after the match. “But we stayed focused. We came out and we were hungry, we showed what we are capable of when we are playing at our best.”

Although a stoppage-time Federico Higuain penalty gave the Crew a flicker of hope going into the second leg on Nov. 9 at Gillette Stadium, Heaps had to have been pleased by what he saw. Instead of conforming to conventional wisdom, which dictates that the road team must make defense its first priority, the Revolution stuck to what worked for them during the regular season.

Thanks to their audacious display of offense, the Revolution find themselves in firm control heading into the home leg. Even so, Heaps isn’t ready to unfurl the “Mission Accomplished” banner just yet.

“In the end, we know we have a quick turnaround in a week’s time to play the same team and that’s very difficult,” Heaps said. “The MLS Playoffs are difficult because we have a physical game out here, and now we have to ramp it back up, and have another physical match on Sunday night.”