MONTREAL – Saturday night just felt like “one of those nights” from the opening whistle.
A pair of heavily-deflected goals – first from Johan Venegas and then from Didier Drogba – staked the Montreal Impact to a 2-0 lead before Dilly Duka rounded out the scoring, as the New England Revolution had their six game-winning streak and eight-game unbeaten run snapped in a 3-0 loss at Stade Saputo.
“The first [goal] kind of hurt us a little bit,” Jeremy Hall said of Venegas’ fifth-minute strike, which hit Steve Neumann before looping over Bobby Shuttleworth. “I felt like it just kind of shocked us. We still had the ball, but we kind of fell out of a rhythm a little bit.
“Then the second one’s a deflection, as well, and we’re still chasing and chasing. It was just one of those games. It was frustrating.”
Neumann, making his first start of the 2015 season, was one of six changes to the Revolution lineup which beat the New York Red Bulls midweek as the Revs closed out a hectic three-game week.
New England looked a tired side as they struggled to connect passes in the final third, but head coach Jay Heaps refused to use the schedule as an excuse, particularly against an Impact side which also played on Wednesday night in San Jose.
“No excuses,” Heaps said, while at the same time acknowledging the difficulties of managing a Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday schedule. “I don’t think we put ourselves in the best position to win.
“Whether we as a staff didn’t prepare the guys well enough or whether the guys weren’t sharp enough – whatever it is, we have to get better.”
Saturday night’s frustrating performance aside, six points from such a challenging week – thanks to victories over Toronto FC and the Red Bulls – was a respectable haul, and puts the Revs in good shape heading into the final four games of the season.
That stretch begins next week at home against the Philadelphia Union, when again the Revs will have the chance to lock up a berth in the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs with a win.
“It would’ve been great to steal three here, but we did good to get six points out of three games,” said Lee Nguyen, who was kept off the score sheet on Saturday night for just the second time in the past 10 games. “Now we’re going back home.”
