164 matches, 1 goal for New England Revolution defender Andrew Farrell (photo credit: Kari Heistad)
New England Revolution 4-Montreal Impact 0
It took 164 games across five-plus seasons, but former first overall pick Andrew Farrell finally got to do something he’d never done as a professional: score.
Deep in first half-stoppage time, the New England Revolution right back latched onto a pass from DIEGO Fagundez and sent it through to help steer his team to a 4-0 shellacking of the Montreal Impact on Friday.
“It’s really funny, because sometimes I talk about it before games, that I’m going to score,” Farrell told the media after the match. “I talk to my girlfriend about it and it never happens.”
But it wasn’t for lack of effort. Since joining the Revolution as a blue-chip prospect out of the University of Louisville in 2013, the affable Farrell has come close on a couple of occasions. Close, but not close enough.
At one point early in his career, Farrell vowed to keep growing his beard until he found the back of the net. But after an extended stretch without that elusive strike had passed, the Revolution defender eventually trimmed it, a promise cast aside as goal no. 1 seemed too far in the distance to truly grasp.
Enter Friday, a day of the week not typically reserved for MLS fare, and a match in which the stars – or at least the circumstances – finally aligned for Farrell.
“We were talking about it with Teal [Bunbury], and he was like ‘What are you going to do? Are you going to celebrate? How you going to do it?’,” Farrell said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know, I’ll probably explode.’”
A 14th minute red card to Montreal’s Saphir Taïder allowed Revolution defenders to make deeper runs into the attacking half. Farrell, for his part, certainly didn’t miss the invitation.
With eight minutes of stoppage time added to the first half due to Taider’s red card and a lengthy review of a penalty call against the Impact, Farrell struck only moments before the halftime whistle. And when he did, well, he celebrated it with the energy and excitement of a player who’d never punched one through.
“It was a lot of fun,” Bunbury, a teammate of Farrell’s since 2014, told the media after the match. “You could see that everybody was very excited for him. All the hard work he puts in, sometimes we give him a hard time that he still hasn’t scored yet but we can’t say that anymore. I’m proud of him.”
While Farrell’s goal was the feel good story of the evening, Revolution coach Brad Friedel was quick to note its importance on the team’s overall success against the Impact.
“When we missed the penalty (in the 36th minute) it was still only one-nil,” Friedel told the media after the match. “I think the second goal was definitely helpful. And it took us into halftime with even more confidence from a half that we were well and truly on top.”
Even so, the goal’s significance to one of the longest-tenured Revolution players was not lost among Farrell’s teammates. In fact, Fagundez retrieved the game ball after the match and presented it the right back as they walked back to the locker room.
“I’m just going to put it in my room somewhere,” Farrell said. “It feels really good to score.”
Did it ever. And on a raw and unseasonably chilly New England night that hardly seemed the perfect backdrop for the realization of a long-held dream, Andrew Farrell finally found himself front and center of a Revolution strike.
“It felt really good to get the goal, get on the score sheet,” Farrell said. “It’s been a long time coming for me.”
NE Revolution
Montreal Impact
