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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution coach Brad Friedel alluded to a culture of defeat and signaled that sweeping player personnel changes could be on the way in the wake of his team’s 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
Though New England held control for most of the game and took a 58th-minute lead off Scott Caldwell’s first goal of the season, Portland rallied for an equalizer against the run of play to extend the Revs’ winless run to nine matches.
Portland’s goal came from poor defending on a corner kick. Lack of concentration in general, but particularly on set pieces, has been New England’s Achilles heel in recent weeks. But with just eight games left in the season and the playoffs looking increasingly less likely, it’s not the time for the Revolution to be giving away cheap goals.
“They get a corner kick, we need to defend it,” Revolution coach Brad Friedel said. “Either the goalkeeper comes out, punches it, catches it, or a defender heads it away and players follow their runner. It’s not that difficult of a scenario to set up on a set piece.”
“That there comes down to down here,” Friedel said, pointing to his heart, “And in here,” he added, motioning toward his head.
Though stoic, Friedel did not hide his displeasure at his team’s recent form during a postgame press conference that lasted just under six minutes. The Revolution locker room was quiet, too, with players seemingly befuddled at the team’s recent form.
Some of Saturday night’s bench players entered the locker room minutes after reporters filed in. Revolution left back Gabriel Somi, who did not play on Saturday, shook his head as he changed out of his kit.
“Can’t defend a corner kick,” Somi muttered as he grabbed a towel before heading into the shower.
A few Revolution players sat at their lockers and stared off into nothing, appearing to let the lackluster result and performance sink in.
One was Diego Fagundez, who Friedel removed at halftime for Juan Agudelo.
“He wasn’t playing well,” was all Friedel said during his postgame conference when asked about the move to take off Fagundez, who is supposed to be one of the Revolution’s top attacking players.
Caldwell, who addressed the media first on Saturday night, also stared off; He decried his team’s inability to go after a second goal and properly defend the corner that led to Portland’s goal. He also stated that the Revs are better than their current form suggests.
Kelyn Rowe, who helped set up Caldwell’s goal, was just as frank. Rowe, who has been with New England since his career started in 2012, said the Revolution dug themselves into a hole yet again.
“I wouldn’t say I’m confused,” Rowe said. “You can see each game. You can go back and watch the past three, five, seven years that I’ve been here. It’s been a mentality. It’s been how we’re playing. It’s about guys stepping up and doing our job maybe a little bit more. Sometimes, the balls go your way, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the goals go your way, sometimes they don’t and the calls as well. The game of soccer is very up-and-down. Unfortunately, this is our down spot and we need to find a way to get back into the up.”
Meanwhile, Friedel is just getting up to speed with how the players operate. He questioned the mentality of some of his players and said everyone – including the coaching staff – is fighting for their contracts.
“We’re also learning—learning a lot about the players, learning a lot about what’s happened here the last few years, learning the mentality of a lot of the players,” Friedel said. “We want winners. Actually, I’ve said it many times: We’ll have winners here. And that’s how it’s going to be.
“The staff and myself won’t accept things of this nature for long. Once you have your squad together, you persevere through the season and then, ultimately, you’ll change personnel come the next season and we’ll aim to be better.”
Does that mean Friedel doesn’t have what he needs to be successful in 2018?
“We don’t know,” Friedel replied. “We’re still learning. We’re still learning. We have eight games. If you go on an eight-game unbeaten run in this league, which we and anybody else is fully capable of doing, then you never know. Then we’ll talk after 34 games. But if we don’t make the playoffs and we’re not successful, there will be changes. If we make the playoffs and we’re successful, they’ll be less changes. That’s normal.”