FOXBOROUGH, MA– The New England Revolution were held to a 2-0 defeat versus the Philadelphia Union in their second preseason friendly match in Lakewood Ranch, Florida.
The match that took place at the Premier Sports Campus kicked off at 12:00 p.m. and featured a rotated New England Revolution squad with just two of last season’s starters in the starting 11. The squad featured seven players that went for 60+ minutes with one player, No. 4 overall SuperDraft pick Joshua Bolma of Maryland that played the full 90 minutes. Notable missing players from the match included defenders Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell & DeJuan Jones along with midfielders Tommy McNamara, & Matt Polster who were sidelined due to minor injuries per sources.
The squad lined up in a 5-3-2 formation that featured goalkeeper Đorđe Petrović and had Dave Romney, Christian Makoun and Brandon Bye across the 3 central positions. The wingback positions were manned by Ryan Spaulding (left) and Joshua Bolma (right). The midfield positions were rounded off by Latif Blessing alongside Jack Panayotou and had Carles Gil in an advanced attacking position. Striker Jozy Altidore started the match up top alongside forward Dylan Borrero.
The match went Philadelphia’s way early on as the team managed to score a goal 64 seconds into the match before it taken back and marked for offsides. The first goal of the game was scored by Dániel Gazdag which was assisted by Julian Carranza. The shot into the far post in the 35’ minute resulted in Philladelphia’s 1-0 lead entering halftime.
Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution
The Revs made a few tactical changes entering the second half that resulted in substitutions of goalkeeper Đorđe Petrović (replaced by Earl Edwards Jr.), defender Ryan Spaulding (replaced by Emannuel Boateng), and forwards Jozy Altidore and Dylan Borrero (replaced by Justin Rennicks & Giacomo Vrioni).
Later on, in 62’ minute, a six man change in center of the park led to center backs Dave Romney, Christian Makoun & Brandon Bye exiting the match and led Omar Gonzalez, unsigned MLS SuperDraft pick Victor Souza & Revolution II center back Pierre Cayet to enter the match. Midfielders Carles Gil, Jack Panayotou & Latif Blessing were replaced by Noel Buck, Damian Rivera & Esmir Bajrakterevic.
Midway through the 70’ minute, Jesus Bueno scored an unnassited rebound goal off of a Mikael Uhre shot that was saved by Earl Edwards Jr and fired into the net. This second goal was the nail in the coffin for the Revs as the match ended 2-0.
Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution
With this defeat, the Revolution move to 0-1-1 in preseason and are pushing to get healthy and prepared as they have a quick turnaround versus Nashville SC on February 10th.
New England Revolution
Philadelphia Union
