Red Bulls wary of struggling Revolution (Jul 20, 2018)

Tyler Adams knows there's two sides to the coin.

On one hand, the New York Red Bulls midfielder is happy the New England Revolution lost Wednesday night to Minnesota United FC. The same would be true of any other Eastern Conference foe.

But he also knows the Revs will come to Red Bull Arena Saturday night with a little more bite, a little more conviction to get a quality result and make sure their losing streak doesn't stretch to three games for the first time in a calendar year.

"No matter if they won seven games in a row or lost seven games in a row, just like the environment when they come to Red Bull Arena, -- everyone hates us there - they're going to try to snag as many points as possible on the day," Adams said. "They have a good squad this year and obviously under a different coach, a different style of play, they've done really well this year."

Indeed, New England (7-6-7) have had a resurgence under first-year coach Brad Friedel and look a bit like the Red Bulls -- a team that likes to press and counter press and play forward quickly.

They also like to be organized defensively, but that has not been the case of late. The Revs have been punished for multiple defensive errors -- five in total -- in back-to-back losses to the LA Galaxy and Minnesota United.

Midfielder Kelyn Rowe said a quick turnaround is perhaps the perfect remedy for the Revs.

"We can reflect on the game tonight, have your sorrows, have your whatever, watch the films, but starting tomorrow we look toward Red Bull," Rowe said after the game Wednesday night. "It's one of those short memories and luckily we have a game on Saturday. It's a quick turnaround. We've got to get over this one fast."

New England has arguably been the better team in each of its last two games, but those miscues have cost them valuable points. Six additional points would put the Revs one point behind the third place Red Bulls, rather than one point in front of sixth place Montreal.

"If you keep putting yourself in these holes sometimes you can crawl out of them, sometimes not, but we've got to be far more resilient mentally," Friedel said. "It's been one of our strengths of the season, but the last two games it's definitely not been there."

New York (11-5-2) did well to bounce back from a derby loss to New York City FC and rallied to beat Sporting Kansas City at Red Bull Arena last Saturday. In his second game as coach, Chris Armas brought Marc Rzatkowski off the bench and the seldom-used German midfielder struck twice in a seven-minute span late in the second half to secure the 3-2 victory.

The Red Bulls looked more like themselves in the second half, pressing Sporting into mistakes and playing forward quickly for their fourth win in their last five games, improving to 7-1-1 at Red Bull Arena.

Conversely, the Revolution are 1-3-4 away from Gillette Stadium this season and 0-4-2 in their last six road contests.

But Armas knows better than to underestimate Friedel's squad.

"They'll be ready to play," Armas said. "They've bounced back on short rest many times and if you start thinking they won't be ready or might come with tired legs or might rotate players too much, I think you set yourself up in a bad way. We'll be ready on our end to expect a tough match against a conference rival and a team that's always up for it."