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The New England Revolution’s playoff hopes continue to flutter away in the wake of the team’s 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union last Saturday night. New England is now winless in eight league matches.
Here are three takeaways from the Revolution’s performance:
Don’t let a controversial goal tell the story
The only goal Saturday night came from a controversial non-call by match referee Drew Fischer. Despite his assistant’s raised offside flag, Fischer never blew his whistle on Cory Burke’s game-winning goal.
Fischer consulted Video Assistant Review on the play, and footage showed Burke was onside, meaning there was no reason for the assistant to raise his flag. Regardless, the Revolution’s back line stopped chasing the play, likely because of the raised flag. Even goalkeeper Matt Turner did not appear to try his hardest to make a stop as Burke loomed in one-on-one.
Though it was a confusing play and a tough goal to concede in such a tight, important affair, replay clearly showed it was a valid goal.
Back on April 28, the Revolution profited from a similar situation in a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City. On that night, Teal Bunbury deposited the game’s only goal into the back of the net despite an apparent offside call by the match referee. After VAR was consulted, Bunbury and the Revolution were awarded the goal.
Now on the opposite side of a controversial goal call, Revolution coach Brad Friedel summed up the situation succinctly after the game on Saturday:
“The way VAR works now is if the referee continues play and the player goes and scores or misses or there’s a foul or penalty or something of that nature and blows the whistle at the end, the play is reviewable. If the referee had blown the whistle right away, the play would not have been reviewable.”
Revolution offense screeches to halt
Saturday’s loss marked the first time this season the Revolution have been shutout twice in a row.
Despite all the team’s defensive woes in recent weeks, the offense, at least, had continued to produce.
After Saturday’s game, Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner praised the efforts of his counterpart, Philadelphia shot-stopper Andre Blake, who came up big twice — first to deny Cristian Penilla (70th minute) and then to deny Juan Agudelo (79′) to protect his team’s fragile lead.
Brandon Bye also advanced into the attack and had a bid cleared off the line 67th minute.
On the plus side, the Revs created a few chances against Philadelphia after producing very little in the attack the week before in a 2-0 loss at D.C. United.
However, one of the areas of focus following the loss at D.C. was Teal Bunbury’s production in front of goal. Bunbury picked up a slight knock in training last week, keeping him from suiting up Saturday in Philadelphia. Bunbury has been the Revolution’s only poacher all season. So, Bunbury having just one goal in his last seven games seems like just a dry spell – which all players have.
But when the offensive spearhead is unavailable, who takes his place? The Revolution’s forward ranks are thin, which hasn’t been spoken about much this season due to Bunbury’s previously strong form.
The Revolution parted ways with Lee Nguyen, Krisztian Nemeth and Kei Kamara in the last eight months, but haven’t done much to replenish their attack.
The latest six-pointer to get away
The Revolution’s last five matches have all been against Eastern Conference teams.
Each of those games has had enormous implications on the standings and the club’s playoff hopes. Given the stakes, the matches were all so-called “six-pointers.”
The Revs have either been out-played or allowed foolish blunders to leave them empty-handed in the last two months.
July 21, New England was cleanly beat 2-0 by the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. New England was also thoroughly out-played by D.C. United two weeks ago in the Nation’s Capital.
However, the games that sting the most are this last loss in Philadelphia, a 3-3 tie at Orlando and the botched comeback attempt against the Union on Aug. 11.
Given the Revolution’s poor form the last two months, their playoff hopes have all but drowned. They’ve conceded 16 goals in seven games and dropped to seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, four points behind sixth place Montreal.
On the bright side, the Revs have two games in hand on Montreal.