Putting the Preseason in the Rear View

By Brian O'Connell
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Updated: February 26, 2017

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

It was, no doubt, important for the Revolution to wrap up their winter schedule on a positive note, and that’s precisely what they did in Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Red Bulls. Just don’t expect them to hang their hats on it.

As everyone from the technical director to the parking attendant will tell you, preseason results are a terrible predictor of regular season fortunes. And it is with that in mind why the Revolution weren’t exactly popping bottles in the locker room after their victory over the Red Bulls.

“It’s important, but at the end, it will only count how we’ll be doing it on Saturday,” Revolution center back Antonio Delamea told the media after the match. “That’s all that’s in our mind. We need to prepare for the first season game.”

MLS certainly did the Revolution no favors (shocker) when the season openers were announced in December. While history has shown that opening on the road is a virtual certainty for the locals, the fact they’ll kick off their campaign at altitude in Colorado only raises the degree of difficulty.

Yes, the Revolution claimed victory during their last trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park back in 2015. On the flip side, it was their first in Colorado in nearly 14 years, and against a team that was terrible at the time.

Whatever the circumstances were two years ago, Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe – who took it upon himself to set up Juan Agudelo’s opening goal in that fateful match – isn’t looking back at that win, or last year’s 2-0 home win, or last week’s 3-1 preseason loss for that matter.

“We’ve obviously seen them in preseason before, but it’s about going in and getting a result,” Rowe told the media after Saturday’s match. “It’s the first game of the year, everyone’s pretty pumped up, everyone’s pretty excited.”

Without the benefit of getting the video session on Colorado’s preseason performances (that’ll come on Tuesday), Rowe emphasized the need to stay focused on the task at hand rather than worrying about what the Rapids – who’ll return their entire backline following last year’s defensive excellence – will have in store for their guests.

“We need to come in and be smart,” Rowe said. “We need be able to have those mid-game changes throughout the whole year, but this first game especially.”

A first game that, Delamea pointed out, will bear almost zero resemblance to the ones seen over the last five weeks.

“It’s not the same if you’re playing preseason and the competition,” Delamea said. “We need to learn to compete, we need to work a little bit on our tactics, and we’re looking [forward to] the first game.”