HARRISON, N.J. – Ahead of Saturday night’s meeting with the New York Red Bulls head coach Brad Friedel urged his New England Revolution side to eradicate the simple individual errors that had cost them results in the previous two matches.
Unfortunately those same issues cropped up once again at Red Bull Arena, where a promising first-half performance was undone midway through the second half when what Friedel called a “needless foul” led to a Red Bulls’ free kick and, eventually, the opening goal in what was ultimately a 2-0 loss.
“I thought this one, in the first half, there was nothing in the game at all,” Friedel said of an opening 45 minutes that featured one quality chance for each side. “In the second half, I thought – again, it wasn’t that entertaining of a game, but we were definitely in it. But Claude Dielna made a terrible mistake – a needless free kick to give away, and we didn’t defend it.”
That was in the 69th minute and the Revs responded by immediately bringing on Kelyn Rowe in an attempt to press forward for an equalizer, but that left them exposed at the back and ultimately Bradley Wright-Phillips put the game to bed in the 80th minute with his 99th career regular-season goal.
“Obviously those two goals are frustrating because we talk about individual mistakes that we’ve got to correct,” said Andrew Farrell, who wore the captain’s armband on Saturday night. “But I saw a lot of fight from the boys, so we’ve got to continue to work on those things and continue to fight.”
The loss was New England’s third straight – they hadn’t lost back-to-back games all season prior to the current stretch – but they’ll head into a bye weekend still above the playoff line in the East with two weeks to prepare for their next match, a trip to Orlando City SC.
While they’d have preferred to head into the break on a positive note, there’s an acknowledgement that perhaps the bye comes at a good time as the Revs aim to reset ahead of the season’s final 13 games.
“We said good teams never lose two in a row – here we are with three losses in a row,” said Friedel. “I think it’s a big mentality check for us as a staff and us as a team. The bye week maybe comes at a good time when we can address some things.”
Friedel also indicated that reinforcements are on the way in the form of new signings, with the summer transfer window set to close just four days after the Revolution’s next match on August 4.
“We’re going to get a couple new faces in, which will help, as well,” Friedel said. “It’s nothing more to it other than hard work. Get back out there and we need the three points against Orlando.
“We’re going to have to stay positive. We’ve got a lot more football to play.”
