FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With little time to even think about it, the New England Revolution are heading into a do-or-die tilt with Eastern Conference foe D.C. United on Wednesday. And that's just how they want it.
After their 3-1 #DecisionDay win over New York City FC on Sunday, the Revolution hope the momentum gained at Yankee Stadium and the quick turnaround time ahead of Wednesday's will help them duplicate last year's 3-0-1 run to the Eastern Conference Championship.
“I think it’s good,” center back Andrew Farrell said of the quick turnaround. “You don’t have enough time to think about your tired legs. Sometimes when you lose, you want to have a quick turnaround and have another game to get it out of you. But when you win, you have that momentum and you want to get out there again and keep that form going. I think it’s good for us, not even thinking about, get to D.C. tonight and play tomorrow.”
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Game-planning for D.C. United with just two days between games is a tricky task, especially for a club who prepare as heavily and meticulously as the Revolution do. The teams have not faced each other since June 21, a 2-1 United victory at RFK Stadium, so things have certainly changed for both sides, and there is no telling what mindset D.C. will be in following their 5-0 loss at Columbus on Sunday.
“I think for us, the focus is on us right now and how we can go about our mentality,” head coach Jay Heaps told the media on Tuesday before the Revolution departed. “When you start trying to figure out an opposing team’s mentality, you’re on a slippery slope. So it’s really important to us to continue our focus. We’re still in the process of assessing all the little things that you can pick up in a game. But I think we’re almost there. You might see one or two different guys, but overall we want to make sure guys are fit and flying on Wednesday.”
The Revolution have been perhaps Major League Soccer's streakiest team over the last two seasons, with eight separate unbeaten or winless streaks – four in each season – of at least five games. In 2015, that included a six-game winless streak in May and June and a five-game losing streak in June and July, while only Sunday's win over NYCFC snapped a four-game winless run near the end of the year.
But New England also ran off an eight-game unbeaten streak that ended in September and ran off four major unbeaten runs last year. Now, they feel they may have righted the ship just in time.
“If you have a stretch of losing games, it’s always not good,” said Jermaine Jones. “Some players maybe go down with their head and don’t have the trust and the belief in each other. This is why we always say we try to get that win [in New York]. Now we have it, and I hope the confidence in every player goes a little bit up and we take a run here.”
If that run is anything like last year, the rest of the Eastern Conference should be on high alert.
