Revolution Offense Silenced In Philadelphia

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Matt LaPan, GoLocal Worcester Sports Reporter

The New England Revolution fall to 0-2-0 as they dropped a 1-0 decision at PPL Park to the Philadelphia Union. The Revs' scoring issues persisted once again as they have now been held scoreless in both of their games this season, losing by a combined 5-0 score.

The Revolution made a number of changes in the starting-11 with five new players cracking the starting lineup. Those five were Donnie Smith, Andy Dorman, Darrius Barnes, Lee Nguyen and Andrew Farrell. With the changes, the Revs were without midfielder Kelyn Rowe and captain Jose Goncalves.

When asked about the absence of Goncalves following the game, Revolution coach Jay Heaps said, "Our focus is to put the best players on the field to win this game." The answer coupled with the actual absence leaved Goncalves' status in the air for next week's home opener against Vancouver. Andrew Farrell was given the start at center back with the absence of Goncalves.

Even with the absence of their captain the Revolution did come out of the opening whistle much better than they did last week in Houston, but were unable to keep that momentum through the first half.

The scoring got started by the Union as they found the back of the net in the 31st minute. The goal came off the foot of midfielder Sebastian Le Toux off of a good feed from midfielder Leonardo Fernandes. Fernandes won the ball on a 50-50 ball which he and Revolution center back Andrew Farrell went after. Farrell was bumped off the ball and fell to the ground, leading to the scoring chance for the Union.

The Revolution had a great chance to equal the scoring in the 39th minute with Teal Bunbury and Diego Fagundez creating a two-on-one chance which Fagundez could not connect on. Fagundez was denied by Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath and Fagundez missed a wind-open net on the follow.

The Revolution had another great scoring chance early in the second half but were again denied, this time by their own devices. The Revs put the ball in on net but between Teal Bunbury, Jerry Bengtson and Diego Fagundez the Revolution could not find the back of the net.

The Union almost made it 2-0 in the 80th minute on a great counterattack off of a Revolution corner kick. The Union sprinted ahead of the Revolution defense but an entry pass for forward Jack McInerney was too high as he faced an open net and the ball floated out of bounds.

In the end the Revolution were dominated in the possession game, with Philadelphia winning that battle 5.97% to 40.3%. That number is skewed as well, as the Revolution possessed the ball for a good portion at the end of the game as they pressed, looking for an equalizer.

The Revolution were also outshot 13-to-5 in the match.

The Revolution will look to get their offense rolling next week as they play in front of the Gillette Stadium crowd as they host Vancouver Whitecaps FC at 2 PM.