Sweeney: The Revs in crisis early, facing a lack of confidence and Sunday's result didn't help

FOXBOROUGH — If there was any night out of the last 23-plus years where a New England soccer fan could wear a paper bag over their heads and not feel one iota of shame about it, that night was Sunday night.

On Sunday, the Revolution welcomed the new kids on the block, FC Cincinnati, to Gillette Stadium. On paper, the Revolution should have walloped the Blue and Orange, given that, 1) their point man in the attack, Fenundo Adi, was missing due to injury, and 2) four other starters were on international duty. That meant that FCC bench boss Alan Koch had to make five switches for this mid-afternoon match on Route 1.

Essentially, Cincinnati fielded half of a B squad Sunday. The Revs only made one change to their XI.

That said, New England’s first-choice side should have made the MLS new boys look like The Bad News Bears, the Cleveland Browns, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, and the Major League theatrical version of the Cleveland Indians, all rolled into one. Note the phrasing: should have.

That’s not what happened on the Gillette carpet Sunday.

In a somewhat incredible role reversal, New England had no answers — no teeth in attack, no energy, and no interest — as they fell to FCC, 2-0.

The loss puts The Boys In Blue in a massive hole after 360 minutes of play in this 24th season: One point earned out of a possible 12, and will enter Match Day 5 — this Saturday afternoon at home to Minnesota United — in the position no one wanted to find themselves in this early in the season.

That’s right: the Revolution are embedded in the Eastern Conference cellar. 12th place.

If you’re looking for words of comfort, look elsewhere. I have none to give you.
The Revolution were purely shambolic when they had so many chances to be so much better. The numbers, of course, look somewhat OK, but they aren’t: 53 percent of the ball, a little better than the 50.6 percent of it they had in the first half (granted, in the last half an hour, they were chasing two goals). Passing accuracy of 76 percent — and that may be high, given the way they had difficulty in connecting in the final third (68 percent). And in the attacking half, 66 percent.

But the biggie: of the Revolution’s 17 shots in this two-hour timeframe, only two — 2! — were on frame, and it took an hour to happen.

This is a team that started Teal Bunbury (47 career goals), Diego Fagundez (50 goals), Cristian Penilla (12 goals in 2018), and Carles Gil (three goals in 2019) … and it needed a full hour to get shots on frame? Not good.

But let’s also give credit where it’s due, as Cincinnati — much like Columbus was in the home opener two weeks ago — is a rather stout defending club. And like against the Crew, New England had difficulty in breaking FCC down.

Penetrating into the box? Sure, they had numbers in the box, but getting many passes into the box was tough to do, given FCC’s tendencies to shift and batter the Revs off the ball.

And some of that could come down to the work rate, which Brad Friedel was not happy with post-match: “The two halves were completely different. You had one half that we probably had five or six players that lacked any kind of desire to work. You know, it’s as simple as that. When you’re playing a team that will hit the amount of long passes that they do, and only play for second balls, (Victor) Ulloa and (Leonardo) Bertone. I’m not trying to take away from their points at all and all they do is win the second ball and then break. You have to work through that. It doesn’t matter what team you are in the world. Take the biggest of the biggest names. You have to work to earn the right to get the ball.

“In the second half, I think, you’d put it down to a couple times good goalkeeping, a couple times lack of the final ball, a couple times lack of the final cross. But we were in much better positions in the second half to actually hurt them. There was a lot more urgency to our play.”

And yes, the Revs had that, at least — when they were chasing the game. But still, it’s not a good look. The team needs to start better, and they need to maintain that for a full 90 minutes.

Right now, the Revolution are not a good team. They’re just not. They are a team that’s in utter crisis right now. Four games down, with one point taken in those four. There are — if this can be considered a positive — 30 matches remaining. It’s still early, and this can turn around. I’m not saying it will; I’m saying it can.

Right now, the Revs are playing right into the MLS pundits’ hands. They are right where the pundits feel the team should be, even with the moves made. In the basement. The cellar. Where bad teams go to rot.

And it’s not looking to improve any time soon. They are a side that has no confidence, and they are playing like that, too.

If that’s to change, it has to happen soon — or else there will be plenty of paper bags in the lower bowl of Gillette over the next month and a half.

And we wouldn't blame any of them for wearing them.