. . . must come down?

If you’ve been following the Revolution for any length of time, you know not to get your hopes up. You keep your optimism in the closet and only allow it to peek out after the final whistle’s been blown. If there’s a way they can screw something up, they’ll find it, and then some, just to make absolutely sure potential wins turn into ties and ties become losses. So I wasn’t entirely surprised that after a good end to September, October started less good.

Saturday, October 3 vs. Nashville SC – 0-0 T – In the first ever meeting between New England and Nashville, nobody scored. It was a game that the Revolution could have won, but like so often happens with them, they didn’t step up to get things done. Nashville’s defense has been solid, especially for an expansion team, so not the worst result. It earned Matt Turner his season-best sixth shutout, at least.

Wednesday, October 7 vs. Toronto FC – 0-1 L – Toronto have been establishing themselves as possibly the best team in MLS right now, so I would have been happy with a tie. Alas, it was not to be. The Revolution were not great, but I won’t say they were terrible either. Toronto’s goal came on a breakaway that Andrew Farrell seemed to be handling until he was pushed. Former Revolution player and now color commentator Charlie Davies insists the Toronto player was just using his strength, but I still lean towards offensive foul. 1) Farrell had decent position on the Toronto player. There’s no reason he would fall unless he was fouled. (Maybe the one thing he should have done was just kick the ball out and concede the corner. I think he had enough time to do that instead of try to make the play and keep the ball in, but then again he wasn’t planning to get fouled.) 2) If the Toronto player had gone down like that, Farrell would almost positively have been booted off the field for DOGSO (denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity). 3) He gets pushed into the ball and trips over it, which makes it more foul-ish for me than just getting shouldered off the ball. Midway through the second half, Lee Nguyen was pretty obviously fouled in the box and earned a penalty kick. However, after the Toronto goal it felt like one of those games where the Revolution shoot themselves in the foot. And indeed, instead of Nguyen taking the penalty (and it would have been a birthday penalty), Adam Buksa stepped up to the spot . . . and missed the goal. I feel bad that Buksa hasn’t had a great season, but he absolutely has to put his penalty on frame. Just one of those nights.

Sunday, October 11 at NYCFC – 2-1 W – Somehow NYCFC got themselves back into Yankee Stadium and onto their *allegedly* regulation size soccer field (it’s basically the smallest size allowable by FIFA but feels even tinier than it should). The players appreciate the grass, but this must have been the slipperiest grass the Yankees could grow, because people were falling all over the place. Though the game had its shaky moments, the Revolution came away with another road win. After two games without scoring, who better to get things going again than Teal Bunbury? In the third minute of the game, New England gained possession in the middle of the field. Bunbury passed to Nguyen, who weighted his pass perfectly back to Bunbury to get him behind the defense. With two defenders behind him and the goalkeeper in front, he got the ball off his foot and into the back of the net. MLSsoccer.com analyst Matt Doyle insinuates his shot wasn’t entirely intentional, but Revolution fans know that Teal Bunbury never does anything accidentally. Ever. New England managed the game pretty well through the first half, then NYCFC started coming into the game early in the second half, but Arena used his substitutes to both regain control and manage minutes. Matt Polster made his first appearance since getting kicked in the head and seemed okay. He got himself fouled in the box, setting Nguyen up for a makeup penalty, which he made in the 80th minute. Turns out they needed the insurance goal, as NYCFC got a goal of their own in stoppage time, spoiling what could have been Matt Turner’s seventh shutout of the season. It felt like a solidly Revolution performance, with 10 of the 11 starters having played college soccer, 2 homegrown players getting minutes, no designated players starting (Gustavo Bou and Carles Gil were out with injuries and Buksa, well, Wednesday happened) and the entire backline + goalkeeper coming from the Superdraft. And as an added bonus, Nguyen’s assist makes him the first Revolution player to 50 goals and 50 assists.

Six games to go, and things are getting/remaining interesting. In the eastern conference, Toronto has already clinched their playoff spot. New England is five points back from the top four, who get to host, two points ahead of the seventh-tenth places, who have an additional play-in game, and seven points clear of the playoff line. They remain in decent playoff position, but can’t afford too many mistakes and still don’t look great against the top teams. The western conference has a bit of a coronavirus problem, with Colorado having players and staff members testing positive during multiple rounds of testing. They’ve only played 13 games to the 16 or 17 they should be at and are out of dates for matches to be rescheduled. Other games have been postponed in both conferences, but Colorado’s going to be the biggest problem. Hopefully teams stay on top of things and this doesn’t get any worse. If it does, the playoff seeds are going to have to be determined by points per game or something, and MLS cup 2020* is going to turn into MLS cup 2020*^*.