Heaps’ Revs re-energize for Red Bulls
FOXBORO — The New York Red Bulls come to town tonight, but the main focus of the Revolution has to be on themselves in the wake of some less-than-satisfying results of late.
“Our preparation and focus is on the Red Bulls now,” Revs coach Jay Heaps said. “Certainly, (Sunday’s loss at the Philadelphia Union) was a tough game from everybody’s standpoint. But, we don’t have too much time to hang heads. We have to be ready and prepared for Wednesday and the quick turn around. Everyone understands the weight of the game and how important it is. It is critical, not just for standings, not just for consideration for playoffs, but also, flat out, us needing to respond and have a better performance.”
The Revolution (5-8-5) and Red Bulls previously met May 27 in New York with the hosts taking a 2-1 win. At Gillette Stadium, the Revs own three straight victories over the Red Bulls (7-8-2).
New York is led by forward Bradley WrightPhillips (eight goals), midfielder Sacha Kljestan (six assists) and goalkeeper Luis Robles (five shutouts).
The Revs suffered a 3-0 loss in Philadelphia and were playing chase throughout after defender Benjamin Angoua was whistled for a handball in the box two minutes into the game and the Union capitalized from the penalty spot. Two second-half goals put the outcome out of reach.
To be fair, the Revolution were without a plethora of key personnel. Defender Antonio Delamea (concussion) and midfielder Daigo Kobayashi (hamstring) were injured, forward Diego Fagundez served a one-game Major League Soccer suspension and midfielder Kelyn Rowe and forward Juan Agudelo were with the U.S. national team for a friendly against Ghana, whose roster included midfielder Gershon Koffie was on the opposite sideline although he did not play.
“You talk about the weight of the game (tonight) and how important it is but we also have to blend in the fact that we are going to be playing some guys that haven’t had this many minutes, some are getting first opportunities and we had a debut on Sunday with Brian Wright,” Heaps said. “That said, the game is about trying to find ways to win. I think every player in there (locker room) has won at every level they’ve been at so it’s important that, sometimes the weight of the game can be lost, and so the focus is on little things and winning your battle, winning against the guy you’re playing against and that’s critical we get to that level. So, collectively we need to get better.”
Midfielder Scott Caldwell was looking at getting back into game play quickly as an advantage.
“It’s good to have short week, a short turnaround,” Caldwell said. “We always like getting back on the field as quickly as possible, especially after the last result. We know that everyone has to step up and improve their play and we have to go at it as a team and take down the Red Bulls at home. We know it’s an important game and a must-win in front of our fans an we’re going to treat it that way. Everyone has to see what they can do to improve their play as a whole. Yeah, things didn’t go our way (in Philly) but we were at fault for a lot of those. So, we have to improve our play in order to turn things around. It’s mostly just know that we need to be better and taking that step. . . . We know we’re going to have to do a lot to get the win but we know how important it is and given the situation, I think we’ll be up for it.”