New England Soccer Today

Tierney: We Have A Lot to Work On

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

They may sit in third place with a playoff spot awaiting them, but Revolution left back Chris Tierney believes that he and his teammates have plenty of work ahead if they want to be a force during the late-fall again.

Following Saturday’s dismal 3-1 defeat to the bottom-feeding Fire, Tierney adopted a somber tone after the locals were unable figure out a way to get a postseason-clinching result for the third-straight week.

“It was a tough night and the conditions were tough,” Tierney told the media after the match. “No excuses, but we had a lot of chances to put balls in the box, and myself being the primary guilty party there where the service wasn’t good enough.”

Tierney set up Juan Agudelo’s opening goal in the 31st minute to put the Revolution ahead going into halftime, but after was relatively quiet after the break. On the whole, Tierney fired a game-high eight crosses, but only three of them found teammates. He was subbed out in the 83rd minute for Charlie Davies.

Although the Fire overpowered the Revolution during the second frame, an opportunity to turn the tables was there for the taking in the 66th minute. Kelyn Rowe played a perfect pass to Agudelo deep in the box, and on most occasions, the physical forward would’ve done well to bury it from point-blank. But on this occasion, Jon Busch was up to the task, and denied Agudelo’s bid.

“It’s a chance that I should have taken – I take full responsibility,” Agudelo told the media after the match. “The ball was coming in and bobbling a little bit and I just wanted to get it on target.  But unfortunately I didn’t get enough power on it and if I would have hit it anywhere else but there.”

Had Agudelo found a way to cash in, the match would’ve been 2-2, and anyone’s game going into the final 25 minutes. Instead, Harry Shipp made the most of his own opportunity in the 69th minute when he turned an awkward clearance attempt from Andrew Farrell into the go-ahead goal.

With 26 mph gusts wreaking havoc on their long ball game – which didn’t do a big target forward like Agudelo any favors – the Revolution struggled to put pressure on a Fire backline that surrendered 13 goals in its last five games.

“The wind was definitely creating a little bit of a havoc,” Agudelo said. “Balls were coming in a little bit shorter, and unfortunately we weren’t able to keep the one-zero lead.”

Then again, perhaps the thought of a 1-0 win was a bit of fantasy in the first place. Last week, Revolution coach Jay Heaps told the media after their 1-1 draw to the Union that his team wasn’t built to win low-scoring affairs.

Regardless, the Revolution will have plenty of time to regroup and, they hope, rediscover the form that allowed them to rip off an eight-game unbeaten run during the second half of the summer.

“We aren’t happy with the way anything went tonight,” Tierney said. “We got one goal, but we gave up three.  There’s a lot of stuff we need to work on.”

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