Revolution's East final bid comes up short

Miscues in back, few attacking chances ultimately doom New England

Revolution forward Kheli Dube curled in a cross for Pat Phelan in the 88th minute. On a night when Edgaras Jankauskas hit the crossbar in the first half and the Revs generated few other chances, it was just about the best chance the Revs could have wanted to hand themselves a lifeline.

In the end, Phelan's header skittered just wide and the Fire eliminated the Revs from the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

"It was a little under a foot (outside the post)," Phelan said. "It skimmed off (Dasan) Robinson or (C.J.) Brown at the last second and it threw me a step off. That's the way it goes."

A late goal would have dragged the Revolution into extra time and rewarded them for their defensive commitment, but a couple of mistakes at the back and another stunted attacking performance instead ruled the night.

"In a way, you make your own luck," Phelan said. "We didn't do that tonight. We put ourselves in too big of a hole to come back in the last four minutes and get a goal."

It wasn't for want of trying. New England attempted to get players into the attack when possible at different points during the evening. Aside from an occasional Sainey Nyassi foray down the right wing and Jankauskas' header off the crossbar, little production resulted from it.

"We tried to move the ball and tried to push numbers forward, but we just weren't good enough at the end of the night," Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph said. "We defended way too much and gave them too much space. We had sloppy goals. We just gave up sloppy goals on the first and the second one."

All of the pressure finally came to bear on the Revs in two specific incidents that led to Chicago's two goals. New England gave away possession cheaply in the buildup to John Thorrington's goal to square the series before Emmanuel Osei presented Cuauhtemoc Blanco's series-winning strike on a platter by dithering on the ball in the right corner and allowing Patrick Nyarko to dispossess him.

"We were fighting," Revolution defender Kevin Alston said. "It's just one of those things where we had a little mental lapse and it hurt us."

Those mental lapses plagued the otherwise steady Revolution defense time and again this season. Ultimately, they condemned New England to a long winter's worth of pondering what might have been if not for the injuries to key attacking players Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman and the occasional mistake at the back.

"We fought and we fought hard," Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis said. "In the end, we didn't have it. Once again, it's a mistake of our own doing."

Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com.

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