The New England Revolution are leaking goals at a perilous rate, and as you might expect, it’s taking a heavy toll on their results.
With Saturday’s 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Philadelphia Union, the Revs have surrendered a whopping 13 goals in their past three games, and now possess an MLS-worst -14 goal differential on the season.
Though they felt they deserved more out of their first-half performance vs. Philly, where the scoreline was 1-1 at the half, New England had to admit that they lost the plot after the break.
“Honestly, I can’t really tell you what happened,” center back Michael Mancienne said postgame. “They got the second goal pretty early [in the second half] and then they got a third and then we kind of crumbed to be honest, which is frustrating because I thought we were the better team in the first half.
“We should’ve probably been up 5-1 in the first half. It didn’t happen that way. But even at 3-1 we have to realize we’re still in the game and can’t concede more than that.”
Head coach Brad Friedel offered a similar account, and pointed to the Revs’ midweek visit to the Chicago Fire (8 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada).
“The first half we not only should’ve been ahead, we should’ve been ahead by two, three or four goals. we played very well in the first half. Players stuck to the plan,” Friedel said.
“I couldn’t believe, nor could the staff, what we were seeing in the second half … It’s up to us to stay as positive as we can as a staff and try to get the players as much confidence as possible because we have an enormous game on Wednesday.”
With their club rapidly slipping towards the Eastern Conference basement, Mancienne and his colleagues know an immediate response is needed.
“We’ve got to pick ourselves up. We’re all frustrated at ourselves for how well we played the first half,” Mancienne said. “The second half was just not us. I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know really what happened. Just annoyed and frustrated. All the boys are. We’ve got massive game coming up and we’ve got to pick ourselves up quick and be ready for that game. We can’t dwell on this.”
Friedel called for unity and resilience in the face of adversity.
“It’s up to us to right the ship,” he said. “It’s up to us to give our fans something to cheer about very soon.
“The message is simple: We stay together. We stick together," Friedel said. "It doesn’t matter what anybody says or what anybody thinks. We — meaning the staff and players — are the only ones that can get us out of the position we’re in.”
