Last Sunday, fortune finally fell on the side of the New England Revolution and the club ended a nine-game winless streak in all competitions with a victory against the Columbus Crew.
On Saturday evening at Crew Stadium, however, the Revolution played the role of guests bearing gifts, and allowed the Crew to hastily rebound from that defeat with a 3-0 victory.
"Was it fair?" asked Revolution head coach Steve Nicol. "I don't think so. We had chances."
It was a result that coupled a careless New England backline with a crisp Columbus attack -- and also the span of just a couple of inches, the width of the crossbar, kept busy throughout the evening by the New England charge.
"We just gave goals away," said Nicol with disgust. "They were just feeding off our mistakes."
Said goalkeeper Matt Reis: "We didn't take care of the ball well enough. That gave them easy opportunities on the break. We played right into their hands."
Reis was peppered with shots throughout the entire night.
"We knew coming into today that they wanted to counterattack. And we ended up playing right into their hands by giving up the ball in the midfield," he said.
"They had a lot of chances ... open chances. We gave them a lot of chances."
The three-goal output for the Crew was something they hadn't accomplished for a period that stretched one day shy of an entire year -- Sept. 3, 2005. The Revolution outshot the Crew, but the home side was much more precise with the opportunities it were given.
"Sometimes, that's just the way the ball rolls," said midfielder Jeff Larentowicz, whose 30-yard blast was rudely rejected by the crossbar.
From the outset, the Crew were knocking upon the New England door. In just the third minute, Jason Garey capitalized on a rebound of a shot that deflected off the chest of Reis. After that goal, Columbus didn't look back.
"We're chasing the game, all the time," Nicol said. "We can't play catch up ... We're never going to win games that way."
Ryan D. Kuhn is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
