By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com Staff ReporterFollow @dannypicard
After Benny Feilhabers 45th-minute goal gave the New England Revolution a 1-0 halftime lead over the Eastern Conferences top teamthe Columbus Crewit looked as if the Revs would steal at least a point on Saturday night, prior to their two-game homestand which begins Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium against the Houston Dynamo.
But the Crew showed why theyre where they are in the standings, and the Revolution showed why theyre where they are in the standingseighth place in the Eastafter New England allowed three second-half goals, and lost to Columbus 3-1.
If soccer games were 45 minutes, wed be in first place right now, said midfielder Pat Phelan after Saturdays loss. We said it in the locker room at halftime, We cant fall into a shell, we have to keep attacking. I thought up until their first goal we were kind of getting at them.
But once they gave up that lead, it was all downhill from there.
The Revolution have now gone winless in their last four games, and they would like to prevent themselves from getting any closer to another nine-game winless skid that saw two whole months go by without a win a few months ago.
Theyll get back to action on Wednesday night against the Eastern Conferences fourth-place Houston Dynamo. Three days later, theyll host the third-place New York Red Bulls.
Keys to both games will be getting the first goal, but also, to play smarter with a lead than they did on Saturday in Columbus.
Its down to making decisions, said Revolution coach Steve Nicol after Saturdays loss. When youre defending, if you make good decisions and get in good positions, it makes it straightforward. When you dont get yourself in a good position defensively, theres going to be holes and that just encourages the other team to go into them. Thats pretty much what we did.
They better not be feeling sorry for themselves, because weve got a game on Wednesday, said Nicol. So we better get after it.
Danny Picard is on twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard.