FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The nature of this week’s quick turnaround may work in favor of the New England Revolution as the club prepares for Friday night’s visit to Toronto FC.
After Sunday night’s impressive display in a 5-1 romp over the Philadelphia Union, the Revs were back on the training field by Monday afternoon as they’ll need to fit a full week’s worth of preparation into a slightly compressed four-day timeframe.
“We like coming in the day after a game,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “I think that’s a good time to kind of decompress about the game we just played and get ourselves healed a little bit. Now we’re on to Toronto.”
Shifting the focus quickly to TFC should help the Revs avoid the trap of overconfidence, always a danger when lingering too long on such a comprehensive result.
The Revolution’s five-goal outburst against a postseason rival has national media perking up, but players and coaches alike are being careful to keep their focus on the field, namely on the next opponent.
“It’s huge mentally to make sure we’re not overconfident or overexcited for any one game or training session, because they’ve been pretty hyped up, as well,” said rookie midfielder Scott Caldwell. “We really just mentally have to stay focused on one game at a time and remember what we did well, keep those positives, but refocus on the next game.”
“It’s kind of been our motto: one play, one game at a time,” said Heaps. “We have to learn from the past game and then on to the next game. We have a game plan that we’re about to start implementing, but we have to go into Toronto and be ready to play.”
