New England Soccer Today

Team of Streaks

Photo credit: New England Revolution

Photo credit: New England Revolution

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – It’s become patently clear over the last four seasons: When the Revolution are good, they’re really good. And when they’re bad? Well, they’re really bad.

In a league in which parity remains the rule, the Revolution, like many MLS clubs, regularly find themselves weathering the ebbs and flows of a 34-game schedule that can even tax the deepest rosters. But for the locals, who’ve long spoken about the need for more consistency, the solution to shortening the stretches of failure seems to be fleeting.

“I don’t know,” Revolution right back Andrew Farrell said. “I think this year, we didn’t necessarily take it game-by-game. Maybe we thought ahead a little bit too much. We have a good team, and I think it just happens in this league.”

Of course, every talented team is prone to looking ahead. In fact, five of the six Eastern Conference sides that qualified for postseason play endured winless stretches of five or more, with Toronto, which lost four straight early in the season, being the lone exception.

Conversely, four of the conference’s six postseason teams went on unbeaten runs of five or more, except Toronto and Columbus, both of whose best unbeaten stretches didn’t extend beyond four.

While the Revolution know that streakiness is a league-wide condition, they know that they could’ve done better to contain their stretch of struggles in 2015, a season which saw them lose five straight and, perhaps most critically, fail to win in four straight down the stretch.

“There are several games where we could say we lost two points there,” Revolution midfielder Teal Bunbury said. “or we lost all three points there, those would’ve been crucial for us. You never know what could happen.”

Some of the games that fit the description of those disappointments: a 3-1 loss at Chicago, a 1-1 home draw to Philadelphia, a 2-1 home loss to Vancouver, and, of course, the 2-2 draw at Orlando City, which set he Revolution on a treacherous 13-game path in which they staked only a single victory.

“It’s a tough league to go on a consistent run because you’re (inevitably) going to catch a team on a good night, or something happens,” Farrell said. “It’s tough to do. The teams that make it to the finals can control it a little bit better.”

While the Revolution’s struggles in 2015 are well-documented, the stretches of success shouldn’t be overlooked. The club went on a league-best nine-game unbeaten run during the spring months, then put together a league-best six-game winning streak during the latter part of the summer.

“It’s something that’s happened over the past couple of seasons for us,” Bunbury said. “But it’s something that shows our character when you’re going through a tough stretch, we’re able to battle through, and get some wins.”

Both Farrell and Bunbury agree that one thing the Revolution will have to do next year is staying in form longer, and avoiding the tailspins seen in 2015, 2014 and 2012.

“We’re going to have to work on being more consistent,” Bunbury said, “and not maybe have those crazy swings where when it comes down to the end of the season, we’re fighting in a play-in game where (instead) we could get a better seed.”

To Farrell, streaks aren’t necessarily a bad thing if they’re of the positive variety and arrive at the right time, of course.

“Last year was really nice because we carried that momentum into the postseason, and then we went all the way to the final,” Farrell said. “This year, it’s kind of a sucky feeling because we got that momentum in the last game against New York City, and then it just (ended).”

Leave a Reply