FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Most professional athletes will tell you that the best way to move on from a disappointing loss is to get back onto the field as quickly as possible.
That’s why the New England Revolution have mixed feelings about heading into a bye weekend on the back of three straight losses, their first string of defeats in 2018.
“There’s never really a good time for a break,” said goalkeeper Matt Turner. “When you finish a run of games with losses, you want to get back out there and right them.”
“We kind of want to get back to playing the game,” added Teal Bunbury. “We want to redeem ourselves. It’s going to be a little tough knowing that we don’t have a game on the weekend.”
On the flip side, there can be benefits to a weekend off, particularly after playing three games in eight days in the midst of a hectic road stretch. The break gives players an opportunity to recover from any lingering injuries, and a chance to mentally recharge ahead of a make-or-break month of August.
But perhaps most importantly considering recent results – a heartbreaking home loss to the LA Galaxy followed by road defeats in Minnesota and New York – this is an opportunity for players and coaches to step back, assess those recent performances, and reset their mentality before returning to action.
“It’s part of the game sometimes, so we have to look forward now, kind of have to regroup, and start playing together as a team again,” said Bunbury. “I think this bye week will be a nice week to work on a few things, tweak a few things and kind of get a little bit sharper.”
“There’s still a lot of soccer to be played, so we can’t harp on those losses too much,” added Turner. “We can’t let them affect us any longer. [We’ll] learn from them, grow from them, and don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
Head coach Brad Friedel expressed a similar sentiment, saying that recent results have been worrying, but “not the end of the world worrying.” With all four games in the month of August against teams currently chasing the Revs in the East, there’s a massive opportunity to solidify their playoff standing.
“The disappointing part is that we lost our resilience a little bit,” Friedel said, noting his belief that the Revs were by far the better team against LA and Minnesota. “During this bye week we’ll get that back, and I’m sure by the time we go play Orlando (on August 4), we’ll be firing on all cylinders again.”
