Revs Let Four Points Slip Away in Two Game Homestand
- Updated: April 22, 2017
Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution saw their six game home wining streak snapped on Wednesday in a disappointing scoreless draw against the San Jose Earthquakes in which missed opportunities were the story of the game. On Saturday, the team found the back of the net early, but sloppy set piece and counter attack defending saw them fall behind before halftime, forcing them to make a second half comeback and settle for a 2-2 draw.
The end result from the week: two points out of a possible six in two home games for the Revolution.
“We are disappointed, but that’s soccer,” said Revolution defender Antonio Delamea after Saturday’s draw. “If you’re not 100% in game like we weren’t in the first half [on Saturday], they punished our stupid mistakes and at the end we need to be satisfied with a draw.”
One of the areas to point to for the disappointment: set pieces. The Revolution had 11 corner kicks on Wednesday—in addition to some dangerous free kicks—that resulted in nothing. On Saturday, a corner kick led to New England’s equalizing goal, but that was just one of 15 the team had, not to mention several other set pieces from dangerous positions that went to waste.
“Too many set pieces that we didn’t realize the way we want,” said Delamea. “We need to work especially on this because we had maybe 9, 10 corners, but most of the were a wash.”
On the other end, on Saturday, a poor clearance off a D.C. free kick led to their first goal and D.C.’s second goal came on a counter attack after the Revolution turned the ball over on a set piece.
“I look into that locker room and guys were just absolutely gutted because they put a lot into this week,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “Two games back-to-back at home were difficult because the teams that came in were rested and ready to play and it was tough for us to really finish our chances the way we know we can.”
Both D.C. and San Jose had yet to pick up a point on the road this season prior to their trips to Gillette Stadium. For a New England team that’s dubbed their home stadium “Fortress Foxboro”, the week’s results weren’t good enough.
“Overall as a team I think we’re disappointed,” said Revolution goalkeeper Cody Cropper. “We went into the week thinking we could take six points.”
Now sitting with nine points in the standings from eight games (2-3-3), the Revolution hit the road searching for points in one of their toughest matches of the season, at trip to Seattle to face the defending MLS Cup Champion Sounders.
“We expected more,” said Delamea. “We expected to celebrate here in front of our home fans, but in the end I think we didn’t give enough energy to get the right result and at the end of the day, when we look back we need to be satisfied with the draws. Now in our heads it’s only Seattle. It will be, I think, a harder game than today, so we need to start focusing on that.”
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