Nicol hails 'complete performance'

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The frustration kept building and building for the New England Revolution as the victories and draws came, but the performances did not.

In Saturday night's 2-1 victory against Toronto FC, the performance finally arrived.

When it came, it brought fluid passing in the midfield, increased distribution to the wide areas and expansive diagonal balls to stretch out the defense.

Revolution head coach Steve Nicol was pleased that his team came out and strung together the type of performance to sweep aside an improved TFC side.

"I think against Houston and tonight are the two of the most complete performances that we've had," Nicol said. "We've had a lot of changes and a lot of things disrupting us, but tonight we've passed the ball as well as we've done all season."

Much of the credit for the performance falls at the feet of captain Steve Ralston, who scored twice and roamed all across the field to conduct the Revolution performance.

Ralston deflected much of the credit and focused on how his team improved at the start of the game.

"We needed to be better from the opening whistle," Ralston said. "The last couple of weeks, we talked about it but we didn't do it for some reason. We were frustrated, especially last week in Salt Lake. Hopefully, we can continue this."

One thing the Revs won't want to continue is the tendency to let teams hang around for little reason. Shalrie Joseph's own goal made the last 11 minutes harder than it should have been.

"We did make it hard on ourselves at the end. It's a rotten goal to lose," Nicol said. "They never looked like scoring before that. When a team gets a goal, it's always going to be backs to the wall. We'd have rather kept a clean sheet and made it easier on ourselves again, but we got three points." Nicol wants his team to cut out the nervous moments at the end of the game, but lauded the team's overall performance.

"It was certainly a long last 11 minutes," Nicol said. "But if we can pass the ball like that and make chances like the way we did tonight on a regular basis, then we'll certainly be happy."

Nicol also wants to see Taylor Twellman back on the field on a regular basis. The striker returned after missing seven games with an ankle injury. While Twellman was quiet in his brief stint, Ralston thinks his teammate will have an important impact in the coming weeks.

"I know their defenders noticed him when he was on the field," Ralston said.