Revolution Looking For Consistency After 3-3 Draw Against Sporting KC

“The evolution of this team for me has to continue to move in a direction where we’re more consistent for 90 minutes.”

Photo Courtesy of the New England Revolution

Up 2-0 at halftime, the New England Revolution looked like they would collect a road win against Sporting KC.

The outlook changed during the 16 minutes after the break, as SKC scored three unanswered goals to gain the lead.

“Our mentality changed and it’s disappointing,” head coach Caleb Porter said. “We’re up 2-0, we probably had our best first half of the year, certainly our best half with the ball. We talked about it at halftime; we can’t get complacent. You saw signs of it at the end of the first half where we were too passive dropping into a low block, protecting the lead, not playing forward.

“[We] lost our purpose a bit with the ball. You saw signs of that at the end of the first half. I talked about that with them, talked about how we needed to push, needed to be more aggressive, get the third goal.”

Porter noted that Kansas City performed a similar turnaround against St. Louis, erasing a two-goal deficit to earn a 2-2 result.

Saturday’s game also ended in a draw as the Revs found an equalizer in the 84th minute. Alhassan Yusuf played an entry ball to an onrushing Luis Diaz. Maxi Urruti put the centering pass into the net.

“It’s great when you have some guys that mentally aren’t in the right spot, because they’re casual and complacent, we can get new guys in and they can bring what we need,” Porter said.

“I thought Wyatt [Omsberg] went in and did a great job, started communicating. I thought Luis Diaz and Maxi did what we thought they could do coming into the game, so it’s great to see.”

The Revs are unbeaten in seven games, collecting 15 of 21 points. They’ve been particularly good on the road, maintaining a 3-2-3 record.

Their last three games have been draws, two of which required comebacks. The Revs went down twice against Orlando before finishing 3-3 on the scoreboard.

Against Sporting KC, they had two excellent first-half goals before allowing their opponent into the game.

“The evolution of this team for me has to continue to move in a direction where we’re more consistent for 90 minutes,” Porter said. “Obviously, we’ve shown that we can play at a very high level. That’s undeniable.

“We’re on a run where we’re unbeaten and we’ve shown that we’re a very tough team to beat, but we need to sustain it for longer periods if we want to be a true contender. Otherwise, we’ll have inconsistent games and that led to this being a draw instead of a win. This should have been a win today.”

Porter said Saturday’s game will be a learning tool for the Revs as they look to improve. The club currently sits 10th in the Eastern Conference with 21 games left.

“This group can play at a very high level,” Porter said. “That’s why I believe in this team, I believe in the players. I believe that we have a shot this year to do big things, to accomplish our goals. But you can see on nights like tonight, that there’s still work to be done to evolve into a team that I feel has a chance.”