{"id":14690,"date":"2012-08-13T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T04:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14690"},"modified":"2012-08-13T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T14:35:06","slug":"attack-fails-at-worst-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14690","title":{"rendered":"Attack Fails at Worst Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jerry Bengtson’s return couldn’t save the Revs offense on Sunday. (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For the New England Revolution, 2012\u2019s focus for improvement \u2013 publicly, at least \u2013 was all about one area: the attack. Halfway through the season, visible \u2013 and statistical \u2013 progress was evident.<\/p>\n

Now, with the Revs (6-12-5, 23 points) in desperate needs of wins to keep playoff hopes alive, the attack has generated just a meager two goals in the past six matches. That goal drought has coincided with the Revs worst stretch of the season, a six game winless run (0-5-1), with the most recent match being Sunday\u2019s 1-0 loss to the expansion Montreal Impact.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s perhaps most alarming is the Revs are now averaging just 1.13 goals per game, just a hundredth of a point better than the 1.12 goals per game the team averaged by the end of last season. That total has the Revs eighth out of the 10 teams in the East in goals per game. A month ago, the Revs average of 1.41 goals per game would\u2019ve had them among the top four sides in the Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust that final ball is lacking,\u201d said midfielder Chris Tierney of the scoring drought after the Montreal loss. \u201cI think we\u2019re getting into decent spots, we have good spells of possession, but when we get into that advanced third of the field it\u2019s just about putting the ball on the money and committing to getting runs in the box and we haven\u2019t been doing that lately. We just have to have that full commitment to lay our bodies on the line, make those runs, and do what it takes to score goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s changed in a month? Why have the Revs \u2013 in their most important stretch of the season \u2013 failed to find the back of the net?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could tell you the answer to that and if we did have the answer it wouldn\u2019t be a problem for us,\u201d said midfielder Clyde Simms. \u201cWe have to do better though. I think we did do a better job at creating chances tonight, which we struggled with last game or two. The difference is just putting those away.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, the Revs finishing this year has never really been clinical. \u00a0When the team was scoring, especially early in the year, it was often because the chances were plentiful and the Revs could afford a few wasted opportunities. Now, every missed chance seems certain to doom the Revs hopes of a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the finishing touch,\u201d said midfield Ryan Guy. \u201cI think at the beginning of the season we were coming into every game going \u2018oh, we\u2019re going to score goals, at least one\u2019\u2026 hey, you hit rough patches, and that happens, people go through goal droughts and I think that\u2019s unfortunately what we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Revs, that drought has come at the worst possible time. \u00a0The dismal run of form has seen New England\u2019s playoff chances drop from 38.1% a month ago to just 0.3% after Sunday\u2019s loss, according to SportsClubStats<\/a>. In other words, thanks to the past six games, despite having 11 games left, it\u2019s already time to start looking towards next year as far as postseason hopes are concerned.<\/p>\n

The offensive ineptitude has also amplified defensive issues. With the team not scoring, any defensive mistake seems to prove enough to send the Revs to defeat. Knowledge of the team\u2019s attacking struggles has to weigh on the defender\u2019s minds, even if they aren\u2019t ready to admit it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the nature of being a defender that you have got to be error free in order to win games,\u201d said center back AJ Soares. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s more pressure. We just have to do our jobs. We\u2019ve got to be error free even if we score five goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

While that might be the attitude a defender needs to have, the fact is if a defender is playing behind an offense that is regularly capable of scoring two or three goals \u2013 let alone five \u2013 he knows one mistake won\u2019t end the club\u2019s hopes of winning. When the team\u2019s struggling to just to score a solitary goal, the pressure for perfection is undoubtedly higher.<\/p>\n

The host of defensive errors in the Revs recent struggles seems more than a coincidence and until head coach Jay Heaps finds a solution to the Revs recent offensive slump, New England can expect their problems on both sides of the ball to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When team needs it most, Revs unable to find the back of the net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/bengtsonfeature2.jpg?fit=490%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14690"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14707,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14690\/revisions\/14707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}