FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution are a perfect three-for-three at Gillette Stadium after another shutout win in front of their fans in Foxborough. Playing in honor of the Olivia Knighton Foundation, New England’s 1–0 victory over D.C. United carried added meaning as they walked off the pitch with all three points on Saturday night.
“It was a huge motivator,” defender Will Sands said of dedicating the night to the late Olivia Knighton. “The work they are doing at the Foundation is incredible. I think knowing that we were playing for something bigger than ourselves is really powerful and something that was extreme motivation for this game.”
It was a full-team effort that secured the result, but it was midfielder Alhassan Yusuf who put the Revolution ahead with a goal to the bottom right corner in the 35th minute after a setup from Dor Turgeman. It was the second goal of the season for the Nigerian, who now leads the Revolution’s tally alongside Peyton Miller and Brayan Ceballos.
“Not every single win is going to be beautiful, especially at this point in the season. So that resilience, that ability to grind from the players, that is also a major component of teams being successful over the long run,” said assistant coach Michael Morris, who was part of a group that led the Revs as head coach Marko Mitrović served a suspension following last weekend’s red card against CF Montréal. “Of course, we want to find ways to win in the most beautiful, attractive way possible, score as many goals as possible, but in games where it’s either not our best day or the opponent is posing a lot of problems defensively, we have to find the ability to grind out results like we did today.”
Matt Turner delivered another standout performance between the posts, maintaining the clean sheet with his signature late-game heroics. For the second straight week, he preserved the shutout with a decisive save in the final minutes. In a match with thin margins and late pressure, Turner once again brought the home crowd to their feet.
“At the end of the game, obviously, that’s an amazing save that Turner had. And the bravery that he showed to come off his line and make that save with his foot,” said Morris. “We have to give a lot of credit in terms of our defensive behavior of the backline, but also the willingness of the center midfielders to recover, to block shots, to block crosses, because that's the volume of the attacks that they generally create. I think it's always a relationship from back to front. Matt does an amazing job when he's called on to make those saves, but we also try to create as much clarity as possible for him to stop the opponent from getting into dangerous areas, so he doesn't have to make consistent saves like that.”
The match marked the second of a three-game homestand for New England. Before closing out their April home slate at Gillette Stadium against the Columbus Crew on April 18 at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Revolution will host Rhode Island FC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 on Tuesday night. Though the match will be played at Centerville Bank Stadium, the Revs will serve as the home team.
It remains a busy month ahead for the Revolution – with at least four games remaining across all competitions – but if the results keep coming, the Revs could mount a climb in the Eastern Conference standings.
