The Revolution play at Orlando on Wednesday. Photo/Kari Heistad
If you need any kind of evidence or barometer for just how bad the New England Revolution are on the road this season, look no further than what they procured on Wednesday night in Orlando.
The Revolution lost 6-1 to Orlando City SC – a team who entered the match with just two wins in their last 16 contests and hadn’t won a game in their beautiful stadium since May 31 (against the worst team in the league).
To boot, there were almost a dozen reasons – ranging from tactics to form to personnel available – why the Revolution should have been favorites on Wednesday to finally win a road game this season. Alas, this New England team has talent but will retreat into its shell and get pounded into submission at the first sign of trouble away from Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution have an 0-13-3 road record this season.
In their last three road games, they’ve been out-scored 16-2.
And yet, somehow, the team is STILL alive in the playoff chase with three games remaining in the regular season. Thanks to a last gasp goal by league-worst DC United against the New York Red Bulls last night to secure a 3-3 tie, the math is such that the Revs actually have a chance.
Bringing this up isn’t to delude anyone that the Revolution are making the playoffs. But it is amazing that a team that is so bad on the road and so dreadfully inconsistent overall is still mathematically capable of reaching the post-season. Imagine what would have been had New England not thrown points away like an idiot standing on a rooftop throwing hundred dollar bills into the wind.
The 3-3 draw at Seattle. The 2-1 loss at home to Chicago. The 3-2 loss at home to the Red Bulls. The 2-1 loss at NYCFC. The 1-0 loss at DC. In most of these matches, the Revolution were comfortably in the drivers’ seat, only to allow a foolish lapse to get in the way. Granted, some of those lapses were caused by tactical switches – bad ones – on the part of former coach Jay Heaps. But this season and last have been hallmarks of missed opportunities; on that, there’s enough blame to go around.
Referee Silviu Petrescu made an abomination of a call when he ejected Xavier Kouassi for a non-contact play in the 11th minute against Orlando. That was the wrong call, and just about every analyst, journalist, and fan who has seen the play agrees. Indulge this side conversation: the quality of referees in Major League Soccer has never been good; VAR was supposed to correct this, but it’s arguably made it worse; if a referee can’t make the correct call when he or she gets to replay it on video, they shouldn’t be a referee.
The Revolution were obviously hurt, both mentally and tactically, by the Kouassi red card. Winning the game was always going to be tougher, though not impossible. And given that the team was supposed to be fighting for its life, being one man down should have been a crutch, not an excuse.
As bad as the call was and as tough as it may be to play a man down, Orlando’s goals were not caused by the card. Orlando’s goals were caused by poor one on one defending and goalkeeping. The Revolution’s back line has had a habit all season of being in the wrong positions and giving opposing attackers too much time and space – that was true in the season opening 1-0 loss at Colorado, it was true when Josef Martinez outran Toni Delamea and roofed the opening goal in Atlanta’s eventual 7-0 victory over the Revs two weeks ago, and it was true on all six of the Lions’ goals Wednesday.
Just look at Cody Cropper yell to Benjamin Angoua that he has to step to his attacker on Orlando’s sixth goal. Benjamin Angoua. A veteran central defender who has real experience in Ligue 1. A veteran central defender who has real experience in Ligue 1 whom the Revolution brought in this off-season to correct the defensive woes of 2016.
The Revolution have clawed back from two and three-goal deficits before. They have scored multiple times even when playing a man down. And they’ve also been up a man with the lead and gone on to lose. It’s improbable to pull out a win, but not impossible.
Monty Rodrigues, the former President of the Midnight Riders, astutely pointed out Wednesday evening that the Revolution tend to roll over and die at the first sign of trouble on the road – most notably with red cards. They don’t have a backbone, he said. Consider that the Revolution, after having a player red carded, gave up a goal to Atlanta in 15 minutes; gave a goal up at Kansas City in five minutes; and gave up a goal to Orlando in 11.
That is staggering.
But it’s also ONLY a MICROCOSM of why the Revolution are winless on the road and shouldn’t make the playoffs.
