FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.
Things started well enough for the New England Revolution on Saturday night: Ema Boateng put the team ahead within 10 minutes, the winger dispatching a clever chip on the back of a successful pressing scheme from the Revs. But the defending MLS Cup champions weren’t going to go down without a fight, and a Cucho Hernández goal less than 10 minutes later started what would ultimately become a 5-1 defeat of the Revs by the Columbus Crew.
And sometimes, after a loss like that, the best thing a team can do is put it behind themselves quickly and move on to the next one. Perhaps fortunately for New England, the coming week’s schedule allows them to do exactly that, with their next match coming on Wednesday back at home against Atlanta United FC.
“That’s the best part about a midweek, is that you can forget about this pretty quickly,” midfielder Matt Polster said following the defeat. “Everything now shifts to Wednesday. We’ll probably dwell on [tonight’s loss] for about 10, 15 minutes on Monday and then we’re just going to have to re-shift focus. We can be upset for tonight, but you have to move quick.”
Head coach Caleb Porter stressed after the final whistle that the tough loss to his former team didn’t take away from the success that the Revs had been seeing for the previous few weeks, but confirmed the importance of shifting focus to Wednesday's game.
“We’ve obviously been playing really well, and we won four in a row. We can’t lose sight of that,” Porter said. “We have to learn from this game; there were a lot of little details to look at, to improve on … We’ll be better for this game. We can’t dwell on it; we’ve got a quick turnaround with Atlanta. It’s really important that we bounce back on Wednesday and get that win.”
Porter did acknowledge that the quick turnaround to Wednesday’s game came with its own unique challenges, and recognized the importance of getting a positive result against playoff hopefuls Atlanta United FC.
“I’d rather have a week, to be honest with you, so that I can prepare and rest guys up,” he said. “But it is what it is, you’ve got to turn around and you’ve got to win the next game. It’s a very important game. Obviously, it would have been nice to beat Columbus, but actually the Atlanta game is probably more important because they’re in around us [in the Eastern Conference table]. So, we can’t be giving points to teams that are in around the hunt for the playoffs.”
Atlanta’s spectacular last-minute winner over Toronto FC on Saturday night lifted them to 24 points (6-8-6), just out of reach of the Revolution who stay on 19 points (6-11-1) after the loss. But, as the Revs continue to chase an Eastern Conference playoff spot, every point will count in the coming months, and a positive result against the Five Stripes will go a long way toward boosting the Revs’ chances of playing postseason soccer.
