The New York Red Bulls "just weren't good enough" on Saturday in New England, according to Head Coach Jesse Marsch.
Falling 2-1 to the Revolution, the Red Bulls had a tough talk after the game to put it in perspective.
"We were pretty honest with ourselves after the game: not enough good performances, not enough desire on the field to take care of the game, not enough sharpness to create chances," Marsch said.
New York jumped out to an early lead, with Bradley Wright-Phillips burying a header in the 8th minute with authority.
"Obviously, we got off to a decent start, but I think to sum up the game, there's not enough good performances or final play creation," Wright-Phillips said. "There just weren't enough today."
The Red Bulls held the lead until just before halftime, when Diego Fagundez found the equalizer. Teal Bunbury buried the winner in the 78th minute for the Revs.
"We played like we just thought we were going to be able to take care of the game, and in some ways, maybe that early goal fed to that," Marsch said.
The head coach said the game plan got away from them and they weren't executing the things that make them play well.
"I don’t think we got enough out of our pressing and counter-pressing," Marsch said. "I don’t think we got enough out of our play with the ball. I don’t think we got enough out of our game plan. I don’t think we did well on set pieces. We gave up two goals off of throw-ins – one at the end of the half. In a lot of ways, just short. Just short in a lot of areas. If you combine that with not having good performances, then you’re going to probably be on the wrong end of the result.”
And when the Red Bulls don't do what makes them great, it's tough to find points -- especially on the road in New England.
“Individually, we need better performances," Wright-Phillips said. "We've got a tough week coming up. We wanted to start off this week with a win and unfortunately we didn't, but we've still got two games to make it right. I think we win the Open Cup game and get a good result in Columbus, it's a successful week, but it's just disappointing tonight."
Going into a tough week, with New York City FC coming up in the 2018 U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, and an away-day at Columbus Crew SC on Saturday, New York will have to battle back to salvage the week.
“It doesn’t get easier. It gets tougher. We know that," Marsch said. "We knew that going into this two-week-stretch that it was going to be very difficult. We got to call on a lot of different guys to be prepared, and be ready to go and have better performances. Not a good start to the four-game-stretch, but we’ll find a way to learn from it and get better and be ready for Wednesday – a big Open Cup match against New York City."
Tickets are available for Wednesday's match for $25 online or by calling 1.877.727.6223.
