FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For a two-month span from mid-July to mid-September, there was simply nothing that could stop the New England Revolution.
Bookended by home wins over Major League Soccer’s two New York clubs – NYCFC and the Red Bulls – the Revs went 7-0-1 through that stretch, outscoring opponents by a margin of 17-5 in the process. The surge rocketed the Revolution from fourth place all the way to the top of the Eastern Conference.
But all good things must end, of course, and New England’s six-game winning streak – matching a club record – was halted on Saturday night at Stade Saputo in a 3-0 loss to the Montreal Impact.
It was a disappointing result on a frustrating night, but with four games remaining in the regular season and a spot in the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs still not guaranteed, Jermaine Jones believes the loss could prove an important lesson at a critical time in the Revolution’s season.
“Maybe it’s a good wakeup call, so that we know how difficult the next games are and that we have to be focused,” said Jones, who played 90 minutes in Montreal for the first time since May 23, having recovered from bilateral sports hernia surgery.
“You can see when you’re not 100 percent – the whole team – that we cannot win.”
Jones expressed a similar sentiment last year when the Revs found themselves in an eerily similar situation. A five-game winning streak was halted by a 1-0 loss to the Columbus Crew on September 20 and Jones was vocal in the aftermath, insisting that the Revs needed full commitment from every player for the entire 90 minutes to be successful.
The response from New England was emphatic. They went 4-0-1 through their final five regular-season games and kept rolling into the postseason en route to an MLS Cup appearance. A similar response this year would put the Revs in great shape heading into the playoffs.
“We’ve got to get back on the right track,” said Scott Caldwell. “Against Philly, if we get a win there, we’re in the playoffs and we can keep that momentum going through the end of the regular season.”
