FOXBOROUGH — Following Sunday’s press conferences — including Antonio Delamea’s “We were not ready from Minute One” comment, which we noted in the Match Report — multiple fans wondered if the Revolution coaching staff did enough to prepare the team for FC Cincinnati, or if it was an indictment against the players themselves.
Some 42 hours later, Brad Friedel gave some context to his center back’s remarks.
“I spoke to Tony,” Friedel said prior to training Tuesday afternoon. “What Tony meant by that was that the players know exactly what they needed to do, and they didn't go out and implement what was asked of them. It was plain as day. The week of training was really good. There were no signs that (what occurred Sunday) would happen.”
The Revolution fell flat against the MLS newcomers, 2-0, at Gillette Stadium, and has The Boys In Blue reeling: New England sits last in the Eastern Conference headed into this Saturday’s inter-conference match with Minnesota United FC, with only three goals scored with eight yielded through four matches.
That can lead to a lack of confidence, and Friedel said that he and his staff have to restore that — hopefully in time for Saturday’s match with the Loons.
“There's no doubt the players all know that whatever we say, it's not personal. We're just trying to improve the group collectively,” he explained. “I stand by the fact that we have good players and I stand by the fact that once we put it together for 90 minutes, we will be getting results. I hope that starts on Saturday. But there were also some very worrying signs with some work issues in the first half on Saturday.”
He had acknowledged during Sunday’s presser that “five or six players” did not put in the work against the Blue and Orange, and that fact was addressed in a team meeting Tuesday morning.
“There's no getting away from the fact that the work rate from a few players was simply not there in the first half,” he said. “We had to address it. It's not never nice meetings, (and) we just got finished with that. It's there to see on the video, you can't get away from that fact.
“Like with any game, there's also positives in the game. It's not like we didn't have the chances. The second half was far better than the first, but those sound more like excuses made up. We're losing games in the first half of games. Now that we've set our peace as a staff, we have to look forward in a positive way to Minnesota.”
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