HARRISON, N.J. – Jay Heaps and his New England Revolution side expected the opening 15 minutes of Saturday night’s meeting with the New York Red Bulls to be decisive.
Unfortunately, they were right.
Bradley Wright-Phillips scored either side of a Lloyd Sam strike as the Red Bulls raced out to an insurmountable 3-0 lead inside 12 minutes, ultimately easing their way to a 4-1 victory.
“We knew the first 15 minutes were going to be key this game,” Heaps said. “Rather than it being an objective, it actually became a major problem for us.
“It’s not good enough across the board. We have to be better and we have to hold ourselves accountable. We as a staff, we have to get the guys playing better and right now we’re not doing it.”
It was the second straight game in which the Revs conceded inside the opening 10 minutes en route to an eventual three-goal loss, and Heaps said many of New England’s issues have stemmed from turning off at critical moments and not excelling at “the little things.”
While the players insisted it’s on them to be ready to play from the opening whistle, Heaps put the onus on himself and his staff to have the squad firing on all cylinders for the entire 90 minutes.
“The last two games, for sure, we have not had the edge that we need to win games in this league,” Heaps said. “That’s on the staff, that’s on me, that’s on our group, that’s on us getting everyone ready.
“I’ll take the blame because I’ve got to get our guys to get that edge, because that edge is the difference. These last two games, we haven’t had it.”
Saturday’s setback extended the Revolution’s losing streak to five games in the league, and with just one win since early May, next weekend’s home game against New York City FC is – to put it mildly – vital.
“We need to regroup from this and take it on the chin,” Heaps said. “We took it on the chin last week and we had a real good week of training, but it didn’t translate to the game.
“Now this week we need to do the same thing – roll up our sleeves, get another good week of training and use this as learning, because we have to be better.”
