The New England Revolution lost 4-0 to the Philadelphia Union. Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution needn’t look much farther than their 4-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium to see proof that their playoff hopes are very rapidly fading.
The loss in front of 17,127 was a bloodbath, as the visitors hammered away at a lackluster Revolution back line that has now conceded three or more goals in each of their last three league games.
New England haven’t done that since July 2002; they also did it in 1997 and 1998.
“Most of the goals we’ve given up are things we could have avoided. I don’t know what the numbers are exactly but, yeah, it’s a fault of ours this year, it’s our Achilles heel,” said Revolution coach Jay Heaps.
“We have to find a way to get out of it or this is going to keep happening to us.
“There’s no excuse. It’s on us as a staff it’s on us as players. We have to really face this one because this was not good on any level.”
Philadelphia hardly wasted any time going after the hosts. Just 80 seconds into the game, Fabinho sprinted down the left flank, bought himself some space on Andrew Farrell, and then curled a cross into the penalty area for CJ Sapong, who slipped past Jose Goncalves and one-timed the feed into the back of the net past diving Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth.
The Union remained in cruise control from that moment on, though the Revolution made an effort to bounce back before the visitors put the match out of reach with two second half goals.
Diego Fagundez fired from distance in the 19th minute, his line drive palmed away by Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake, who went left to make the stop.
Chris Tierney then found Andrew Farrell in space on the right side of the box in the 39th, Farrell’s first-time shot blocked at the near post by Blake.
Moments later, Kei Kamara headed a cross by Farrell off the left post.
But the Revolution failed to carry the same energy past halftime. In fact, the Union doubled their advantage just six minutes after play restarted.
Tierney made an errant clearance that came off of Alejandro Bedoya’s chest in the 51st minute, the ball falling to Ilsinho at the top of the box.
Ilsinho cut past his marker then squeaked a pass wide to Chris Pontius, whose shot from the left side of the box rolled into the back of the net.
“That goal was the one that was maddening, so to speak,” Heaps said. “No excuses, Philly were better than us tonight, across the board.”
In the 55th minute, Pontius headed a corner kick by Tranquillo Barnetta across the face of goal to defender Richie Marquez, who made enough space for himself to poke the ball past Shuttleworth and make it 3-0.
The match’s result was obvious by the time stoppage time came around, but the Union added another for good measure, as Roland Alberg slammed a shot past Shuttleworth from just ouside the box.
“It’s just not a good enough performance from every single player on the field tonight,” said Shuttleworth. “To lose 4-0 at home is unacceptable.
“It’s everywhere, I think there’s a lot of things as a group that we’re collectively not doing consistently enough.”
The Revolution sent numbers forward in the waning minutes, even opting to add Daigo Kobayashi and Juan Agudelo to the game.
But that didn’t do much to jumpstart the attack in a meaningful way, much less the fans in attendance.
That said, the home supporters did grow noticeably more energetic in the 85th minute, when Charlie Davies got substituent into the game for Ilsinho.
Davies, whom the Revolution sent to Philadelphia at the trade deadline for an undisclosed amount of money, drew chants of “Charlie Davies” from his fans in The Fort.
Davies made his way forward on a handful of occasions – the most meaningful of which came just before stoppage time when he beat Goncalves on the right flank – though he did make a point salute his former home fans once the final whistle blew.
For Philadelphia, having Davies adds a dangerous attacker to the mix and is yet another tool they can employ in their quest for a playoff spot, which looks decidedly more put together after Saturday night’s win.
The Union have moved up to fourth place with the win; The Revolution meanwhile have fallen out of a playoff place and could fall as low as seventh in the East if Orlando manage to beat last place Chicago on Sunday.
“There’s only one way to go: roll up sleeves and get to work again,” said Heaps. “Obviously people are upset and this is as bad as it gets in terms of losses.
“However, we still are in this fight. We’ve got 10 games left. No one is saying this thing is out of our control.
“We feel like when we get going, we’re dangerous. If we don’t get going, which is what we were tonight, we’re going to be watching some teams pass us.
If you want to reach Julian email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com
