Darrius Barnes earned his first start against Montreal on Saturday and subsequently helped the Revolution earn their first shutout and point of 2015. Photo/Kari Heistad
By Julian Cardillo
Diego Fagundez may be frustrated by the New England Revolution’s goal-less and winless start to the season, which continued on Saturday afternoon with a 0-0 decision versus the Montreal Impact, but he’s optimistic that with some persistence—and a little bit of luck—that the tide will turn.
Nevertheless, submitting a scoreless tie to the home-opener crowd of 14,189 isn’t what Fagundez and the Revolution had in mind.
“We were all excited for the home opener, we know the fans were excited, just tough to leave with a tie–not what we wanted,” said Fagundez. “The chemistry is there between all of us. We just need luck right now, a ball to bounce on someone’s foot and someone to tap it in. We’re creating so many chances, it’s just no one can finish one or no one’s had the chance to just touch one.”
The first one is always the hardest,” said Fagundez. After that, we can score many. We have talented players, we have a talented team, and we can score goals.”
Fagundez led the Revolution’s offense with three shots but was unrewarded for his efforts. And even though Montreal’s Hassoun Camara was ejected in the 61st minute for pulling down Juan Agudelo, thus reducing the visitors to 10 men, the Revolution were unable to take advantage of being up a player.
“When it was 10 men I thought we’d be able to score one,” added Fagundez. “But they just went straight defense and it was kind of hard to get in the box. We were playing around the box, trying to make chances, but just couldn’t get one in.”
Montreal seemed content to take one point away from Foxborough, even though they played well enough to win. That’s because they came into the game fatigued from their 2-0 win over Alajuelense in CONCACAF Champions League, which they had played only three days ago. Meanwhile, their star players, Ignacio Piatti and Marco Donadel didn’t make the trip, while regular starters Justin Mapp, Felipe, and Patrice Bernier are all out with long term injuries.
To further complicate tactics for head coach Frank Klopas, forward Cameron Porter went down in the 18th minute against the Revolution, tearing ligaments in his knee, and was replaced by Jack McInerney. Domic Oduro, who shot inches wide of the far post in the 44th minute after going in alone on goalkeeper Bobby Shuttlewroth from a Donny Toia cross, was substituted off for an undisclosed injury in the 62nd minute.
Losing Camara was just the last domino to fall for Montreal.
“They did a good job of playing to get the point,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “You give them credit for that. Our guys, their heads were down in the locker room, because we feel like we left a couple of points on the table. We had a couple of chances, didn’t take advantage, but we have to take the positives and keep moving forward.”
Montreal shut down the Revolution’s attack by closing down early on Lee Nguyen, Juan Agudelo, and Fagundez. All three players struggled with getting free around the penalty area and nearly always had three players ready to halt them in possession.
But chances did come.
Fagundez blasted a shot from point-blank range off of Montreal defender Victor Cabrera in the first minute. In the second half, Nguyen cannoned a shot off the gloves of Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush from 25 yards (69th), then headed a cross from Chris Tierney over the crossbar (72nd).
I’m not worried yet because we’re getting chances,” added Heaps. “The last two games we’ve been dangerous. We’re missing by inches, not by feet…I’m happy with the chances we’ve created. We just need to finish them.”
The Revolution’s defense, which was without starting center back Jose Goncalves (suspension), recovered from allowing five goals in its first two games and notched its first shutout of the season. Darrius Barnes slotted into Goncalves’ spot, playing the middle of the back line alongside Andrew Farrell, earning his first start of the season.
“I was really happy with Darrius,” said Heaps. “He’s the kind of player that helps the coach sleep at night. You can put him anywhere and he’s always up for the game. He brings it every day in training and he brought it today in the game. There’s a lot of minutes there for Darrius, and whenever he gets them he does well.”
Oduro’s chance was Montreal’s best bid in the first half, while Maxim Tissot fired from outside the box (60th) and forced Shuttleworth to dive left and make his only save.
The Revolution have started this season in an eerily similar fashion to how they started the last. Both seasons began with two losses—with five goals allowed—and a 0-0 result in the third game—against a Canadian club, in the home opener. Their next game—their fourth—is against San Jose, as it was last year. The Revolution won that game 2-1. And at this rate, with almost one month of the season gone, the Revolution will be hoping to have their upcoming match against San Jose be a repeat of last year.
“It’s always good as a defender to get a shutout,” said Barnes. “As a team we wanted the three points, we got one. It’s something we can build off of. It’s a building block, it’s a long season. Every point we get, we take it in stride. We’ll take this game and break it down and bring it into next week. We’ll see how we can improve for next week against San Jose.”
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