Revolution turn 4-0 mark in their favor

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Four-nil has plagued the New England Revolution for the past week.

A 4-0 loss at home to Joe Public FC, to send the team crashing out of the CONCACAF Champions League.

A 4-0 loss at Crew Stadium to watch Columbus build a five-point cushion atop the Eastern Conference.

Combine those two losses with two road losses in Chicago and San Jose by the same scoreline and the Revolution were fine with not seeing that particular numeral grouping for quite some time.

Then again, 4-0 looks a lot better when the four goals are in your favor. Goals from Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Khano Smith and Jeff Larentowicz ensured the Revs would hang their dreaded result on a battered Chivas USA side.

"The important thing for us today was to win the game," Revolution coach Steve Nicol said. "Four-nil has become the flavor of the month for us."

Flavor or not, the role reversal felt good to a team that had been hammered twice in the past week.

"It was good to put four on someone else," Larentowicz said.

The win snapped a season-high three-match winless streak in the league in emphatic fashion.

"It's been a while for us to be on this side," Ralston said. "It's a much better feeling. We wanted three points. We feel like we're getting our legs back and we think we can get something going moving forward."

Ralston helped propel the team forward following his return after missing three games with back spasms. With the veteran midfielder shifting between forward, midfielder and defender during the night, Ralston's versatility was missed almost as much as his ability to find his way onto the scoresheet.

"It's incredibly important," Larentowicz said. "If you saw tonight, you saw the many things that he does. He started up front and ended up at left back. He's kind of our heart and soul. He's our most controlling player out there besides Shalrie. It's great to have him back."

One goal and two assists announced that Ralston had returned and his form hadn't dipped.

"It felt great to be back," Ralston said. "Watching is so difficult when you have an injury. You want to participate and be a part of it. It was great to be back tonight."

Nicol lauded his captain for his ability to spark the team out of its tired stupor.

"He's a huge influence on and off the field here," Nicol said. "To have him back on the field is great with the quality he brings. The couple weeks' layoff has energized him. He has his legs back."

Legs were found all around the field as the Revs looked sharper in possession and more dangerous in the attacking third, but Nicol warned that the team still needed to improve in order to continue its playoff push.

"It was certainly better," Nicol said. "I think certainly we're far from the way we can play. But it was better. It was nice to get a wee bit more legs back after a few days off. We'll be off a few more days, so hopefully we'll be back even better before Tuesday. We still have a long way to go to where we can be."