![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/tierney2.jpg?resize=267%2C300\" "\\"tierney2\\"")
<\/a>Midfielder Chris Tierney says the Revs "weren\u2019t ready to play" on Sunday. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
Instead of the solid defensive effort and calm possession-based attack the Revs displayed in the opening 45 minutes against the English Premier League Champions, there was little communication among the New England players as the Union dominated the possession and sliced through the home side\u2019s defense with ease. The Revs came flat out of the gate and never recovered, suffering a 3-0 defeat in their own stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about it before the game \u2013 about growing a pair,\u201d said head coach Steve Nicol. \u201cAnd that doesn\u2019t mean you can run fighting with people and kicking people, it means that you do the basics well and you do your own job well. To do that, part of playing the game is communication. So when you have no one on the field talking, particularly when you\u2019re under pressure, then it just becomes twice as hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Revs it was just another disappointing performance in a season full of them. But this one came just days after many players appeared full of hope of turning the season around after showing encouraging signs against one of the best teams in the world.<\/p>\n
Yet the team hardly looked like one attempting to get a dreadful year back on the right track. Instead they looked more like a team that 19 games into the season still didn\u2019t know how to play as one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked after the Salt Lake game [on July 4th] that everybody needs to take a look at themselves and we really have to get on the same page,\u201d said veteran goalkeeper Matt Reis. \u201cWe have guys doing a bunch of different things, we\u2019re losing goals on set pieces and it was very uninspired out there. We didn\u2019t show all the stuff that we needed to do. We didn\u2019t fight and all in all it was a terrible game.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at this point of the year with the Revs stuck at the bottom of the standings, a lack of fight will all but assure the year ends as one of, if not the, worst in club history. Somehow, 19 games into the season, the Revs still haven\u2019t found a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just weren\u2019t ready to play,\u201d said midfielder Chris Tierney. \u201cI think we didn\u2019t really have a game plan, we weren\u2019t sure what we were doing, we weren\u2019t on the same page, we couldn\u2019t connect, we weren\u2019t fighting and that\u2019s the biggest thing. I think when the game starts you got to be ready to fight and there wasn\u2019t one of us out there who really was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading into the match eight games winless and knowing every point is crucial if the squad is to make a miraculous run at the playoffs, it would seem preparedness would be high on the Revs priority list. Yet Tierney felt the team \u201cdidn\u2019t really have a game plan\u201d. And he wasn\u2019t the only player to express the Revs\u2019 problems that way. Defender Kevin Alston expressed similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t come out with, I guess, a distinct game plan,\u201d said Alston, \u201cI guess we didn\u2019t come out and try to put the game in our hands. We kind of just let them dictate it early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course the Revs were playing without their captain. The formidable Shalrie Joseph is the team\u2019s leader in midfield and can\u2019t be easily replaced.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Revs there is no time left for excuses. If the team doesn\u2019t start finding three points, the playoffs will soon be out of reach.<\/p>\n
The Revs needed to collectively fill the void with Joseph\u2019s leadership and dominating presence in the center of the pitch missing. They didn\u2019t come close.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you lose a guy like [Joseph], you\u2019re going to miss him major and he makes a huge difference in the middle, but that\u2019s how the game is,\u201d said Alston. \u201cSometimes, you\u2019re going to be missing players and you need to be able to step up and fill that gap and we just did a poor job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Joseph\u2019s absence wasn\u2019t just noticed on the field. Even the locker room was strangely silent before the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was dead in the locker room before the game even started,\u201d said Reis. \u201cSo for us, we\u2019re obviously on the bottom of the heap looking up and it\u2019s not looking good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course with Benny Feilhaber\u2019s red card and subsequent suspension for two reckless challenges on Sunday, the Revs will have another hole to fill on Wednesday. Joseph\u2019s vocal presence will be back, but now the team will need to fill the void left by the absence of Feilhaber\u2019s creative talents.<\/p>\n
Playing just one of the three teams they\u2019ve beaten all season, the Revs will know three points are for the taking on Wednesday night. But it won\u2019t come easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to get it together,\u201d said Alston. \u201cWe need points, this is the point of the season where it\u2019s do or die, so we just got to find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without a victory since May 14th, the Revs will need to find a way \u2013 and a plan – in the nation\u2019s capital just to avoid what would be their longest winless streak in club history. Do that and maybe then the team can start looking to climb their way out of the Eastern Conference cellar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Revs never looked on the same page against Philadelphia on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5345,"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":[24,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/tierneyfeature2.jpg?fit=490%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509"}],"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=5509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5512,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509\/revisions\/5512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}