New England Soccer Today

Heaps: ‘We Just Weren’t Good Enough’

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

There’s no debate that the Revolution haven’t been at their best over the last two months. But on Saturday, they may have been at their worst.

After conceding an early Mauro Diaz goal, the locals simply had no response to a dangerous and opportunistic FC Dallas side that widened the gap in the second half to hand the Revolution their worst loss since First Kick.

“Disappointed across the board,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps told the media after the 3-0 defeat. “Every facet of the game: how we attacked, how we defended free kicks, set pieces, we just weren’t good enough.”

It didn’t take long for Dallas to take notice of that, either. Aside from Diaz’s ninth minute free kick strike – which was set up by a rash challenge on David Texeira by London Woodberry – Dallas ran all over the Revolution for much of the first half.

During the first 20 minutes, the hosts gradually gathered more of the ball. Between the 15th and 20th minutes, Dallas boasted a whopping 85 percent possession figure. It wasn’t until the latter stages of the first stanza that the Revolution started to exert some semblance of control over Saturday’s proceedings.

The Revolution may have weathered the first-half storm to stay within striking distance going into the half, but their inability to threaten the Dallas backline would have to change. Aside from a couple of long-range Lee Nguyen efforts, keeper Dan Kennedy was largely left alone.

After the half, the Revolution finally started to bear down by employing a healthy dose of high pressure. A point-blank shot from Kevin Alston was walled up by Kennedy, while Matt Hedges was forced to undertake some emergency measures to keep Diego Fagundez from pouncing on a loose ball in front of frame.

“We were definitely trying to press high in the beginning of the second half, but we didn’t get anything out of it,” Revolution midfielder Scott Caldwell told the media after the match. “It didn’t lead to anything, and they caught us.”

How the hosts caught the Revolution was the result of two glaring defensive gaffes in rapid succession. The first occurred when Diaz cut off a Jose Goncalves clearance and raced down the right before crossing into the box for Fabian Castillo. Although Castillo’s initial shot was stopped by Bobby Shuttleworth, he buried his second effort after getting a hold of an under-hit clearance from Caldwell in the 64th minute.

“Bad clearance on my part, and they put us away,” Caldwell said. “Giving up that second goal was tough.”

Given the way the locals played throughout the match, there was little reason to believe they were capable of a comeback. But if there were any lingering hopes remaining, they were effectively erased in the 73rd minute when Diaz played a perfectly-weighted through ball to Michael Barrios, who snuck through and put it past Shuttleworth.

Dallas may have claimed a slight edge in key areas like total shots (9-7) and passing accuracy (82-78 percent), but the scoreboard didn’t lie: Saturday’s match was no contest.

“We were outplayed,” Heaps said. “I don’t want to take away from Dallas. They were better than us tonight.”

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