Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Revolution are quickly fading out of the MLS Cup spotlight.
They blew their fourth straight chance to clinch a berth in this year’s playoffs, falling to the Montreal Impact 1-0 at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.
A crowd of 42,947, which is a franchise regular season record for attendance, wasn’t enough to spur the home team on and send them into the post season. The Revolution have gone 0-1-3 in their last four games and have fallen from second place in the Eastern Conference all the way to sixth.
“Credit Montreal, they did a good job, good game plan,” said coach Jay Heaps. “Unfortunately for us, we like it when teams kind of pack it in, usually we’re good , tonight our movement was just a little bit off.
Lee Nguyen after losing Revs’ home finale. Photo/Kari Heistad
“We could have gotten more early service, more penetration in all areas but ultimately we weren’t able to. So when you have a couple of guys who were a little bit off, a team that’s back behind the ball is tough to break down.”
Saturday’s game was mostly a physical contest, with neither team showing much tactical precision. But the entire crowd seemed to marvel when Igancio Piatti scored the game-winner in the 55th minute.
Piatti received possession in midfield, then dribbled toward goal. The Revolution’s defenders backed off, which allowed Piatti to bank a 25-yard shot up and over the outstretched reach of goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth and into the goal.
“Piatti is top class in the league,” defender Chris Tierney said. “If you give him space, he’s going to punish you.
“That’s the way this season is going. If we want to make the playoffs, we’re going to play teams with players that are capable of doing that, so we have to tighten things up.”
The strike put Montreal in the playoffs for just the second time in their history. The Revolution, meanwhile, can still clinch a spot in the post season with either a win or tie at NYCFC in the season finale next weekend or an Orlando City SC loss or tie against Philadelphia.
Piatti had the game winning goal. Photo/Kari Heistad
“No excuses,” Tierney added. “We have to get back to it this week and hopefully put in a good performance in New York.”
But the Revolution haven’t looked like a playoff team in recent weeks, especially on Saturday night. Montreal out-gunned them 5-2 in shots on target and seemed to have a better hold of possession throughout the game.
Only a bouncing shot by Lee Nguyen that Evan Bush had to palm away in the 57th minute made up the best of the Revolution’s efforts on goal.
“At the end of the day, we just weren’t our best, myself included,” Tierney said. “We just weren’t sharp in the final third. You leave them hanging around, they catch a goal pretty much on a counter attack. A guy like Piatti has the quality to score one, unfortunately we didn’t have the quality to score one tonight.
“That was kind of the story of the game. We’re disappointed obviously.”
New England Revolution
Montreal
