The New England Revolution lost 0-2 on Saturday to their opponents, FC Cincinnati after a “tale of two halves” kind of game for the NERevs. However, to their dismay it just wasn’t enough to make the scoreboard change. With the 4-3-3 formation, it seemed to look promising as New England’s fourth game into the season but it suddenly took a turn for the worse.
The first half it appeared as if many players were not mentally on the pitch, with many foul and careless mistakes in passing with little to no communication. An early cross to Edgar Castillo could’ve very well resulted in a leading point for the Revs but lost possession quickly. Despite also maintaining more of the possession through the first half, if New England had stepped up with the control of the ball there would’ve been more goal scoring opportunities.
In the 20th minute, a corner kick by the NERevs player Cristian Penilla crosses over to FC Cincinnati’s Garza, who concedes the Rev’s possible opportunity, by getting the ball out of their territory. New England was still on the pushed up defensive mechanism and it was working for some portions of what the eye could see, but unfortunately wasn’t enough for the NERevs to make something of it.
With a foul just outside the box for FC Cincinnati, a close free kick is given however rejected by an incredible save by Knighton of New England. Just moments later, an FC Cincinnati goal scored by Kekuta Manneh, hits a right footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom left corner with an assist by Kenny Saief.
With a brutal first 45 minutes for the New England Revolution, there was still another half to be played with hopes that the players could come out refreshed and maybe a bit inspired by whatever they heard in the locker room. Well, in the first 10-15 minutes of the second half came a yellow card in the 52nd minute after a foul committed by Antonio Mlinar and a substitution in the 53rd when Scott Caldwell came in for Wilfried Zahibo.
Later in the 60th minute, was the biggest play from New England in the whole game. A straight-away by Penilla to Carlos Gil who goes for a shot on goal, blocked by Richey (FC Cincinnati) that the block goes to the feet of Diego Fagundez with another shot and saved again by Richey. A incredible play with unfortunately very little luck. In an attempt to kick the ball out of the area from pressure by FC Cincinnati, Antonio Mlinar carelessly gives up a corner to the opponents ending into another goal by Kenny Saief assisted by Kekuta Manneh.
With two more substitutions from the NERevs, (65′- Juan Fernando Caicedo replaces Teal Bunbury and 77′- DeJuan Jones, makes MLS debut, in for Edgar Castillo), these reinforcements are just short of luck with much frustration out on the field to work together in making a miracle happen. Again, with not much changing ends the game with an embarrassing 0-2 defeat.
In a post-game interview, Coach Brad Friedel expressed his disappointment saying, “Right now we got ourselves down in a game, really, because we didn’t work hard enough. There wasn’t a lot more to it. As a player, whether you like your coach or your club or all of that, that’s an easy thing to do, is to work hard… I’m not saying that the players aren’t willing to go out and work… The disheartening thing in the first half was that all it took was the willingness to work hard… that’s it. And then your qualities can come out.”
So what now? The season is still very early on where the New England Revolution can push themselves to another chance at winning at home this coming Saturday and determined to get out of the last place. When you’re at the bottom, the only direction you have is up. With a handful of players unmotivated in this defeat, can we be certain there will be any sort of changes in the starting XI? Will this week’s practices be different as Saturday approaches when New England face Minnesota United? We hope to see a better result and a lot of smiling faces such as the ones below.
