All you need to know about the Revolution’s 5-0 loss to the Chicago Fire Wednesday night in quickie form, complete with BSJ insight and analysis:
HEADLINES
Revs now winless in last four following — and stop me if you’ve heard this one — yet another disaster: Did we say eight points out of 33 coming into midweek? Yeah, no: make that eight out of 36. After a first half that saw New England play uninspired football for most of it, the Revolution had a little oomph coming into the second half and cut into the possession — but that didn’t last long. Chicago went on to score three more goals, all in the last quarter of an hour to put the capper on this one. With Wednesday’s 5-0 defeat, the Revs have now gone winless in their last four, have conceded 30 total goals this season, have a goal difference of minus-19, and have yielded 18 goals in the last two weeks. It's simply dreadful, and they just don't know how to stop this death spiral which started last July.
Two set-piece goals by Chicago get the Fire out on the front foot: How many times did former Revolution defender Alexei Lalas note during last year’s World Cup that set pieces are going to kill a team if they’re not switched on defensively? That’s the first half in a nutshell for New England, who appeared thoroughly disinterested in defending the Fire — and Nemanja Nikolic in particular. Nikolic scored twice off set pieces — a 28th-minute free kick, and a 40th-minute corner kick — to give the Fire a deserved lead as the hosts had upward of 70 percent of the ball in the first 45 minutes.
Take a look at the defending in these two videos from the first half:
.@niko_nemanja will take that, thank you very much.
1-0 to @ChicagoFire! #CHIvNE https://t.co/cbhxVx0Dm1
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 9, 2019
Back post. Nikolic. AGAIN. #CHIvNE https://t.co/1z0a6sald2
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 9, 2019
