Sweeney: Hope remains, but it's now or never for Revolution

FOXBOROUGH — Admit it: back on June 2, you left Gillette Stadium — or read my column and match report the next morning — feeling pretty darn good about yourselves.

On that day, the Revolution had knocked off those Scarlet Steers from Harrison in come-from-behind fashion, 2-1, even though it could have been more had they known how to finish.

That win pushed the Sons of Brad Friedel out of sixth place for the first time in a while, getting the Revs into fifth. At the time, it was their first win in three weeks, having lost a heartbreaker to Columbus here in the rain, 1-0, on May 19, before the gaffe in Vancouver and the 1-1 draw to Atlanta United (and losing Chris Tierney) only a few days prior to New York’s arrival.

Seriously, at that point, things looked pretty good. Fifth place! Still work to do at that point, but the next three games — even though they were on the road — looked fairly winnable.

But what has happened since then? I’m sorry if I’m twisting the knife, but reality — and the results earned, not the way the Revolution have played — hurts.

June 5, at Louisville City in the US Open Cup: a 3-2 loss. Out of the tourney.
June 9, at Chicago: 1-1 draw. A come-from-behind effort.
July 13, at San Jose: 2-2 draw.
June 30, vs. DC United: 3-2 win.

But then, the summer swoon hit the Revs like humidity between the eyes.

July 7, vs. Seattle: Scoreless draw.
July 14, vs. LA Galaxy: 3-2 loss after going up 2-0 even while playing down a man.
July 18, at Minnesota United: 2-0 loss.
July 21, at New York: 2-0 loss.
Aug. 4, at Orlando City: 3-3 draw, blowing two leads.
And now, Aug. 11, vs. Philadelphia: 3-2 loss after coming from behind with two goals, then blowing that in an unbelievable way.

(Quick aside: Remember when I said I would take the week away from writing my own fictional storylines and try to come up with a new way to write about the Revolution blowing points? Yeah…. What happened Saturday wasn’t one of them.)

In all, since June 2, the Revolution are, in both competitions, in terrible form. One win in the last 10 outings. Seven points out of 27 (remember that the Open Cup isn’t points-based) possible points in the league.

One win. Four losses. Four draws. Plus a knockout tournament L.

Really, this is the soccer world we’re living in at the moment, and it isn’t pretty. I’m sorry to be the bearer of such bad tidings, all while we await the day the Revolution play mistake-free football for 90 minutes.

Please don’t hold your breath for that; I’d feel awful if one of my dear readers turned into a Smurf.

And I think we’ve beaten this to death, but when in Rome, we can’t stress this enough: If New England had buried their opponents… if New England didn’t find themselves in these predicaments… if New England was absolutely clinical like it can be… it would sit at 49 points right now. 49! With that total, the Revolution would be up there in not only the conversation for the Eastern Conference title, but would be in the mix for the Supporter’s Shield, too.

Think about that for a moment… the Supporter’s Shield. An actual trophy. Residing alongside the US Open Cup. Residing alongside the Superliga. Residing alongside five Lombardis.

Right now, the Revolution are so far from the Supporter’s Shield that it’s only a dream.

But alas, dear friends… there is hope out there. I know it doesn’t look like it given the morass of poor results The Boys In Blue have posted these last two-plus months, but there is hope.

Here. I’ll let Teal Bunbury tell you what that hope is:

“I think you just hear all the time, but it’s true, but we just need to stick together,” TB10 told Greg in the locker room. “These are the times that really test you. When things are going great, everyone’s laughing: the media, the fans … everything’s perfect. Now in times like this is when you really need to stick with each other in the locker room and we can’t start pointing fingers at each other, we can’t start pointing guys out. We have to continue to bump each other us. It’s raining hard, but can’t let it get to us.

“Sometimes it’s not easy, sometimes you can stick in a hole — I’ve been on teams where you get stuck in a rut and it takes a long time to get out of. But we need to get out quick. There’s only 11 games left in the season, we’re playing a lot of Eastern Conference teams, a lot of games on the road remaining. So these games are going to be important.”

Eleven games left in 2018. Eleven more games for the Revolution to re-discover the way to win, to put the hammer down, to close things out.

You wake up on this soon-to-be stormy Sunday morning with your favorite football club sitting in seventh place for the first time in 2018. The playoffs are now two and a half months away, with the Union standing in your way.

But not only that, Orlando City, Chicago, and Toronto are coming on strong. The Revolution need to start getting truly positive results, and they are capable of it.

The Revs can turn this around. There is still time. A tough stretch ahead, with DC and the third match with Philly scheduled over the next fortnight. A toughie against a Portland side that just doesn’t know how to give up. The trip to the Bronx. The visit to Lee Nguyen in his new digs.

Chicago. A visit to the defending champions. A trip to the potential champions. A re-match against Orlando City (so help me……), a trip to visit Mike Petke. And ending it with Montreal.

A tough stretch. One layup. The Revolution need to play their best football — better than they have — and they need to stick together to do it.