Last weekend, the New York Red Bulls encountered Lionel Messi in their trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and were promptly humbled due to their inability to stop the superstar from scoring once and setting up five other goals.
Coming off their worst loss of the season in an unsuccessful visit to the top team in the MLS, the Red Bulls hope to get back on track Saturday night when they host the struggling New England Revolution in Harrison, N.J.
New York (4-2-5, 17 points) was 2-0-4 in a six-game unbeaten streak and then took the lead at halftime when Dante Vanzeir scored in the 30th minute. Then the Red Bulls gave up two goals in a span of two minutes early in the second half before giving up four more in a stretch of 19 minutes, winding up with a 6-2 loss at Inter Miami.
"The feelings in the locker room, the reactions were of course not good," New York captain Emil Forsberg said. "I think we're very disappointed about the second half. I think we played a perfect first half; we did very well."
The poor second half cost the Red Bulls a chance to move within one point of Miami in the Eastern Conference, and they enter this weekend seven points out of the top spot.
New England (2-7-1, 7 points) is tied with the San Jose Earthquakes for the fewest points in the MLS. The Revolution also have scored a league-worst seven goals.
Despite their woes, the Revolution will try to attain back-to-back wins for the first time since July 12-15.
Last week, New England broke a three-game losing streak with a 1-0 over the Chicago Fire that also stopped an 0-11-5 road skid that dated to a 2-0 win at Toronto FC last May.
Tomas Chancalay scored for the second straight game when he struck in the 62nd minute, and goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic made three saves in his New England debut.
"It's great we got a win and had a good performance, but we can't relax," New England coach Caleb Porter said. "We have to stay hungry. We have to keep focused on improving every single day, like we did last week."
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