Another ‘Spotty’ Showing Dooms Revs…Again

By Brian O'Connell
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Updated: August 6, 2017

Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com

When a team is sitting in tenth place and the margin for error getting thinner as the season creeps into August, the reality is anything short of a staying woke for 90 minutes won’t cut it. Exhibit A: the Revolution’s loss in Chicago.

Despite displaying some moments of promise, and briefly clawing back after conceding, the glaring mistakes came back to haunt New England, whose season-long road struggles continued at Toyota Park.

“We can’t have these spotty performances like we’ve had a few too many times this season,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps told the media after the match. “The reality was that we weren’t good enough on the night for 90 minutes.”

Good at times? Sure. Before Juninho’s 39th minute goal, it appeared to be anyone’s game with the score knotted at one after Matt Polster and Kei Kamara both finding paydirt in the opening stages.

“Throughout the course of the game, I thought we had some good moments to attack,” Heaps said. “After it was 1-0, I thought we fought hard to get back in the game.”

Yes, the Revolution may have put pressure on the Fire backline…at times. And yes, the guests may have looked like they could hang with Veljko Paunovic’s players…on occasion. But for a full hour and a half? Not during Saturday’s proceedings, which too often took on the appearance of a Chicago Fire training session.

In addition to Polster’s outside-footed strike, Juninho’s sniper shot from distance prevented the Revolution from going into the break at one apiece.

However, it was readily apparent the Fire weren’t fooling around when Michael de Leeuw essentially strolled toward the back post before glancing Patrick Doody’s cross through.

“That goal was really unfortunate,” Heaps said. “We did not start the way we wanted to start it, and I thought there were a couple of plays where we could’ve been better.”

If the latter sentiment sounds familiar, because Heaps and his players have said it ad nauseam over the course of the season, to the point which it’s sounding disingenuous.

Despite the obvious need for improvement, the Revolution continue to cue the errors at critical moments. In many senses, they cannot get out of their own way, the hallmark of a team that simply isn’t good enough to contend.

When asked about the timing of Juninho’s and de Leeuw’s goals in the 39th and 49th minutes, Heaps only had one explanation.

“It’s tough,” Heaps said.

Indeed, those strikes on each side of the break were tough to stomach for the tenth-place Revolution. Losing their eighth game on the road due to the same old mistakes? That’s probably tough, too.

So what, if anything, are they going to do about it?