Team

Bye week offers Revolution extra time to “shore things up” after frustrating stretch

Team huddle at Stade Saputo

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Jay Heaps doesn’t concern himself with what he can’t control.


At the top of that list is the schedule, which hit the New England Revolution – and most of Major League Soccer – with a bye this weekend, less than three weeks ahead of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs.


While Heaps isn’t exactly a fan of the timing – “I hate that we have this break right now,” he said – the Revolution head coach is far more concerned with how his side can make the most of the extra week, particularly on the heels of a frustrating three-game winless run.


“It’s important that we continue to get better,” Heaps said. “We’ve been a little inconsistent as of late. We just need to shore things up and get ourselves back to being at our best.”


The Revs were at their best for two months from mid-July through mid-September, matching a club record with six straight wins and climbing to the top of the Eastern Conference.


But they’ve hit a rough patch in recent weeks, missing out on a trio of chances to clinch a playoff spot with losses in Montreal and Chicago, sandwiched around a home draw against Philadelphia.


While all three games have unfolded differently – the Revs were dominant against the Union, but struggled against the Impact and Fire – Heaps and his staff have extracted some common themes from those recent results, and the focus this week will be on correcting any recent missteps.


“There’ve been things that we’ve done in all three of them that haven’t been good, and there’ve been a couple things in some of them that we’ve done well,” Heaps said. “But in the end, the thing I don’t like is we were in a position to win the game, and two times we’ve let it slip. That’s somewhere we just have to continue to get better.”


Heaps is referencing the Revolution’s last two games, both of which they led 1-0 at halftime only to concede those leads in a 1-1 draw with Philadelphia and a 3-1 loss to Chicago.


While the Union capitalized on a single chance against the run of play, that wasn’t the case against the Fire, who punished the Revolution for simple mistakes in key areas of the field. Correcting those issues will be critical ahead of the regular-season home finale against the Impact set for next Saturday night.


“Unfortunately, we made bad mistakes – giveaways – and we gave them chances,” said center back Jose Goncalves. “That’s our mistake and we must understand that going into the end of the season, if we make those simple mistakes, it’s going to cost us.


“Everyone is very frustrated, but we have to accept it because we can’t go back. The only thing we can do now is make sure we grab these six points from the last two games we have. We know that they are very important to go back into the playoffs.”