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The New England Revolution are looking towards the future as the 2017 season comes to a close.
On Saturday, the Revs recorded a scoreless draw against Atlanta United FC. Usually a result of this nature against an attack-minded team would be more than acceptable. Unfortunately, the Revs needed full points to stay in the playoff hunt.
“This one hurts and then obviously, the last one, too [against Orlando City SC] could have put us in a good spot,” Lee Nguyen told media. “But like I said, not getting three here makes our chances a little bit slimmer. We’ll see after tonight if there’s still a chance.”
The Revolution aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs but it does seem like they will be soon. FiveThirtyEight gives the team a 2% chance of playing past Oct. 22.
With this in mind, the players are looking towards the future. The off-season will likely be a busy one as the club looks to replace long-time coach Jay Heaps. More changes could be on the horizon as well.
One thing that needs to improve is the team’s road record. While the Revs were an impressive 11-2-3 at home this season, they only collected three points when playing away from Gillette Stadium. That’s something that needs to change if the club wants to be successful in 2018.
“For me personally, it’s more like we should be learning something for next season,” Antonio Delamea explained. “We should start to build for next season, especially on the road. Our road mentality is very, very bad and this is something we have to improve for next year if we want to reach the playoffs.”