FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The injury-enforced decision to omit New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis from Saturday's 1-0 defeat to FC Dallas came at some point last week.
The scenario may have thrown off a few goalkeepers with more limited experience in these sorts of situations, but Bobby Shuttleworth understood the demands ahead of him. Shuttleworth knew he needed to step into the breach with Reis once again sidelined by left knee irritation.
“By this point, I'm pretty much used to it,” Shuttleworth told MLSsoccer.com. “I'm not in my first or second year in the league now. This is five years in. It's nothing new for me. Whenever I'm called upon, I'm more than willing and ready to play. Hopefully, we can start to get better results.”
Unfortunately for Shuttleworth, his second appearance of the season yielded the same result as his season debut at Philadelphia did on March 16. Shuttleworth replaced Reis for the trip to PPL Park for similar reasons. This match unfolded along the same broad strokes as well, though FCD generated a bit more in the final third than the Union did on that day.
One late lapse at the back – in this case, the time allotted to David Ferreira to prompt Blas Pérez's decisive header in the waning moments – allowed FCD to atone for some earlier misses and punish the Revs for letting their attention slip in the late stages.
“It's frustrating,” Shuttleworth said. “There's no other way to put it. I think we didn't give away a whole lot. We give away a half-chance in the [87th minute] and we are punished for not moving forward for our chances. It's definitely frustrating.”
Shuttleworth and his teammates will hope to process their frustrations about their home form during this bye week and take the necessary steps to improve matters ahead of a trip to Seattle on April 13.
“We have to take the positives away and build on that,” Shuttleworth said. “We have to try to make this place difficult for people to come in and play. We can't drop points at home. It has to be better all the way around.”
