FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Charlie Davies doesn’t need to be told twice that his New England Revolution are red hot at the moment.
But in the midst of their current eight-game unbeaten stretch (5-0-3) – a streak that has made their two straight losses to start the season seem like ancient history – the Revs striker heard something from an old friend that made him sit up and really take notice.
“I was just speaking with Maurice Edu the other day, and he was telling me, “You guys really have a good chance of winning the MLS Cup,” Davies told MLSsoccer.com. “Just because he thought we’re so deep and we play the game really well. He thought we were the best team they faced so far.
“When you hear things like that, obviously it’s coming from a guy with a lot of quality, it’s great to hear. It’s one of those things that you don’t take for granted.”
Not taking their current run for granted, either, the Revs are relishing their current standing, spurred on by a potent offense that has lit up the opposition of late.
The Revolution have 14 goals through 10 matches heading into Saturday's home matchup with Toronto FC (7:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE), tied for second most in the Eastern Conference. And that’s from a club that has surprisingly been blanked four times already, meaning that all of their scoring has come in six matches – including 10 goals over their last four after their 2-2 draw last Friday with Orlando City SC.
“You have to play what the opposing team is giving you,” said midfielder Teal Bunbury, who has two goals and an assist in seven matches. “We try to focus on keeping possession. We try to focus on connecting passes and working on counter attacks. Obviously at times it’s not going to be the prettiest, but we do focus on keeping possession in our attacking third and trying to give it the guy in the best position to be able to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Unlike last season, when midfielder Lee Nguyen accounted for 35 percent of the goalscoring – he has just a goal and two assists so far this year – things have been much more evenly distributed with seven different players finding pay dirt and 10 players assisting on those matters.
With the emergence of a completely healthy Davies, who leads the team with four goals, the attack has opened up and allowed the likes of Bunbury, Juan Agudelo (two goals, assist) and Kelyn Rowe (three goals, two assists) to find more open opportunities.
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“I find it that we are a team that prides ourselves on being deep,” said Davies. “We have a lot of talent, so it makes it fun when we attack teams. We can attack them in many different ways. We have speed, we have guys who are technical and I think we pose a lot of problems for opposing teams. In doing that, we score goals and have a lot of fun doing it. It’s always fun to play with this team.”
The fun times stem from the serious, competitive nature of the group and intense training sessions used to push each other, knowing full well that it could lead to more or less minutes on match day. It’s meant that talented players like Diego Fagundez and Rowe, likely starters on most teams throughout the league, have been mostly used off the bench.
It all comes to a head on game days, with the Revs displaying an exuberance on the field that becomes even more boisterous in their goal celebrations.
“Each day in training we’re trying to work through that, and when it comes time for the game I think the biggest thing that we show is how much enjoyment and fun that we’re having and that kind of just brings out the best in us,” Bunbury told MLSsoccer.com. “We just have so much fun out there. We have a lot of chemistry. We want the best for each other, and we’re also all competitive. That’s the way we push each other to try and be better. We’re never satisfied and don’t really want to settle for anything. It’s a joy to be a part of a group like this.”
