Sweeney: Revs hanging on but barely, plus other takeaways from Saturday

FOXBOROUGH — Let’s get down to brass tacks, ladies and gents. Lots to cover while the Gillette crews change over from soccer to football for the next couple of weeks — and prep for the addition to The Banner End:

Revs really need to be devastating from here on out

I’ll pump the brakes here a little bit: We know that if you get into the playoffs, anything can happen (hello, Red Sox 2003, Red Sox 2004). And with the way things are going right now, New England’s favorite soccer sons aren’t going down without a fight in 2019. The Revolution are hovering over the playoff line, sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference.

In some ways, it’s fair to say the Revs are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Saturday’s 1-1 draw to Toronto FC is New England’s third draw since the 3-3 draw in Seattle, marking six points lost over the last four weeks. If The Boys In Blue came away with W’s, that’s 45 points, the Revs would be fourth, and if the season were to end today, would host a playoff game for the first time in five years.

And with results going the Revs’ way yet again this week — DC United thumped Montreal, 3-0, while the Red Bulls lost to Colorado (say whaaaaaaat?!?!), 2-0; as I’m writing this, Orlando City is getting its lunch handed to it by San Jose, 3-0, in Cali — it feels as though New England is, dare I say it, completely safe.

Yet even though I say that… the last two matches, New England is leaving things way too late —  it was an 86th-minute winner for Gustavo Bou against Chicago last Saturday, and an 86th-minute equalizer for Bou this Saturday night — for anyone’s cardiac conditions. And as I’ve said ad nauseam for five years, this team has, on paper, a solid amount of scoring talent that can make the onion bag burp.

And at 41 goals for in 2019, we think they can do better.

So let me pose this question to the hive mind: did they waste goals against Vancouver and Orlando City last month, where they popped in four apiece in those two games? Or do we have to tip the cap to the opposition in recent weeks?

If the Revs want to go deep — hell, win a game — in the postseason, they really need to start putting better quality shots on frame, need to challenge goalkeepers, and do a better job of finishing.

Toronto owned the midfield

You know that Tom Benedetto and I text back and forth, and we had this exchange midway through the first half Saturday night:

Me: “TFC is owning the midfield right now.”
Him: “Agreed.”

Not necessarily astute analysis by the Big Nosed Irish-American Twit.

And in the post-match presser, I had asked Bruce Arena his thoughts as to where Toronto really controlled play, as he had finished off his first answer by saying, “Toronto really played well tonight and gave us a lot of trouble.”

His answer to me?

“They were a little bit better, I think, in the middle third of the field. They picked up a lot of second balls, they pushed numbers up on our backline. That made a little bit difficult and opened up a little bit more room for them in the midfield and I think there was a little bit better than us and picking up some loose balls.”

It makes me wonder, albeit slightly, with TFC having such joy in the midfield that the Revolution didn’t bring on Diego Fagundez earlier, or a Scott Caldwell, or a Tajon Buchanan — the midfield options off the bench from Saturday — instead of bringing on Juan Fernando Caicedo in place of Wilfried Zahibo as the first sub to take away a little of that joy? Yes, the game was absolutely begging for a goal right about then, but let's be real: JFC hasn’t scored since the Fourth of July, and before that hadn’t scored since May 4. That’s two goals in four months. He has not been as reliable as his YouTube clips had led the prior regime to believe.

And the midfield play has been something Arena has mentioned in pressers before this, so it’s making me wonder just how much of a makeover this midfield is going to get this offseason.

And no… this is not the time for the Kelyn Rowe diehards to say, “Well, if Kelyn Rowe were still here, that would have solved everything.”

No. Just, no. He made his first start for RSL Saturday night at the MLS level in how long? Three months? Maybe four? Enough with that talk. Move on. That ship has sailed.

I’m also getting the feeling that certain other players are gone this offseason, too

Remember last September 1 — wow, 364 days ago — where now-ousted manager Brad Friedel said that “We will have winners here” and the New England front office proceeded to bring back -- and thoroughly against my advice -- 19 players from last year’s team?

I’m thinking that a good chunk of them are finally waving bye-bye come November — and that will include some defenders, too.

The Revolution are now at 47 goals allowed so far in 2019, not including the goals yielded against Chelsea or in the two US Open Cup games, and we’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — not all of them are laid at the feet of the New England goalkeeping troika.

And if I'm being honest... one of them could be a fan favorite. Just readying you for that possibility now before you make that walk to the Tobin when the contract options are declined.

I'll leave it at that.