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With the exception of the March 10th loss against Sporting Kansas City, the Revs have not lost any game this season by more than 1 goal. And I used to find a least a little solace in that fact. But it's not really doing it for me anymore. Losses are losses and ours are really piling up now.
Okay. So, let's get this over with.
The New England Revolution are a team in crisis (you're welcome for stating the obvious there). There are no shortage of slip-ups, mistakes, and missed opportunities to point to. Saturday's match against the Chicago Fire was no exception. In fact, it was exactly what we've come to expect lately.
Unlike many other games around MLS in general and indeed this weekend alone (of course, one in particular), ours actually had some acceptable officiating. And, yes, that includes the penalty kick awarded to Chris Rolfe when he got taken down in the box by A.J. Soares. That was 100% the right call. Soares should know better and it's disappointing that it happened. And now here we are at point where even the likes of A.J. Soares and Clyde Simms (against Sporting Kansas City recently) are making the mistakes that are costing us games.
Seriously, what happened?
However, the Revs were at least able to answer back from that PK. Two key components in Jay Heaps's roster shake-up on Saturday, Blake Brettschneider and Fernando Cardenas, helped New England equalize and gave the Revs their first goal since July 29th. And yes, I do attribute at least partial credit to Brettschneider for following up on the shot and using his frame to box out Austin Berry and also push the deflection back towards goal. As many have already pointed out, it was a pretty ugly goal. But, hey, we're pretty desperate for them these days, so who really cares.
Although Brettschneider and Cardenas were able to pull one back, they both were directly responsible for a number of giveaways, slip-ups, and generally poor decisions. Cardenas, for starters, despite his 40 successful passes, tallied 11 unsuccessful ones on top of 13 instances of ‘tackled and possession lost', according to the mlssoccer.com chalkboard of the game. And as for Brettschneider, what he seems to lack most is a read on which runs to make and when to make them. When the midfield is sending in crosses, like Guy's in 17th minute which Brettschneider was too late to really get behind, or threading through balls, the Benny Feilhaber specialty, Blake has got to be there. If he doesn't learn his role soon, he may just be looking for a 3rd team in as many seasons.
In general, the Revs at this point just need to prove to the fans and to themselves that there's still something there; some fight, some part of them that still believes in what Jay Heaps is doing. I'm sure that it's easy to just give up. And maybe this is where we will see the cream will rise to the top--where the roster will shake out in a way that shows just who is in it for the long haul and who just isn't going to work out.
It's pretty clear that this season is a wash. At this point, all we can really hope to see is the Revs finish out the season strong--give us something to maybe look forward to next Spring. For the fans, it's about sucking it up and being ever the more patient. Is it easy? Hell no, it sucks. But hey, at least we'll get a pretty good spot in the SuperDraft right? Try to find the silver lining, whatever it is for you. It may be all we can do at this point.