FOXBOROUGH — Revolution manager Brad Friedel has mentioned time and again that he doesn’t care what has happened with this team in the past, and that it has no bearing on how he operates. It’s been a hallmark of his first year here at Gillette Stadium.
Yet after his comments Saturday night — “(We’re) learning a lot about the players, learning a lot about what’s happened here the last few years,” he said — it was relatively easy for anyone who knows the history of this club to draw a line between that comment, the Revs’ current slide, and the last two years of playoff-less football under former manager Jay Heaps.
When BostonSportsJournal.com asked for clarification about his comments on Tuesday morning, Friedel refuted any thought process which suggests his comments were directed at anyone but the players.
“Don’t even start with that. The last regime? Don’t be silly. It’s not pointed at that at all,” he said, even-keeled as usual. “It will be pointed directly at players when you’re used to going into slumps, when you’re used to certain times of year always having those slumps, when you’re used to continuously being on losing sides. This is a player scenario, and it’s a mentality we want to get out of the players because there’s no need for them to have that mentality.
“They are good enough players to be on winning teams, they are good enough players — and I mean technically-speaking — to be in winning organizations, but you also have to have the mentality to do the winning. This game is not only about the skills you possess. It’s about a lot more than that.”
The Revs had held a 1-0 lead over visiting Portland Timbers FC on Saturday night when the tourists from Oregon scored on a poorly-defended set piece, the second corner kick of the game for the Timbers and, as it turned out, Portland’s lone shot on goal.
It also represented New England’s ninth consecutive match without a win, extending the annual summer swoon a little further than anyone wants.
“All in all, we had about 20 goal-scoring chances when you look at crossing positions and things of that nature,” Friedel added. “It was a game that we should have killed off, but we didn’t.
“We put in a very good shift, especially in the second half. It came down to the mentality of the team to be resolute on set pieces.”
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