New England Showcase Grit & Spirit

It can be pretty easy to get into a bit of a funk in any and call corners of the beautiful game, because let’s face it, no one team is immortal and everyone faces adversity from time to time. However, it’s safe to say that some clubs and franchises face a lot more scrutiny and ‘tough times’ than most – which certainly applies to the New England Revolution this season.

When you don the same name as the famous six-time world champion New England Patriots, it can often be difficult to replicate their success (which is putting it lightly). The Revolution aren’t exactly expected to be world beaters in the realms of the MLS this season with none of their fans having particularly high hopes for the campaign, but as you can imagine, being situated at the bottom of their conference isn’t exactly the dream scenario either.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective

However, as reported by MLS Soccer and ESPN, they were able to showcase the kind of grit and determination that you need to succeed in this game when they played out a phenomenal 4-4 draw with Sporting Kansas City in their latest fixture. It was a game full of the kind of drama that we all love to see at this level, but as you can probably imagine, it was a bit more of a nightmare for fans who had to endure the tension of these insane 90 minutes.

In these type of shootout games it can often be really difficult to keep your head and stay focused, but somehow, New England were able to maintain their drive despite Sporting coming right at them after every goal they conceded. It was clear to see that the home side had much more natural quality than New England, but that didn’t mean a thing when it came to getting the job done.

The Revolution even had two red cards by the end of the game to deal with, and still managed to hold on for the draw. Now we are condoning the fact that they went down to nine men and we aren’t suggesting that they should be applauded for getting red cards, but adversity is adversity, and they faced it head on today.

Pulling the trigger

The best part about football/soccer and the best part about the MLS is seeing teams rise up and do things that would otherwise seem impossible for them. New England were the underdogs coming into this game, and yet they showed no fear, and threw everything against the wall because they knew that they had nothing really to lose.

This season is far from a write-off for them, and we believe that this result showcased that perfectly. They probably aren’t going to be able to sneak into the playoffs and even if they do then they probably won’t go that far, but why not keep pushing the tempo in order to see where it takes them?

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the Patriots’ dynasty, so let’s just take this development one day at a time.