FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – An old cliché says that the mark of a great team is finding ways to win when you’re not playing your best.
By that measure the New England Revolution should be thrilled with Saturday night’s 3-2 win over longtime rival D.C. United, overcoming a performance that head coach Brad Friedel and several players called their worst of the season, particularly the late stages of the first half.
“I thought up until we scored the first goal, we were the better team, on the front foot,” Friedel said, referencing the first of Cristian Penilla’s two goals in the 18th minute. “We were the ones creating the chances. We were the ones that had possession.
“After we scored the goal, we completely stopped playing. We gave them a little bit of confidence and they started playing through us almost at will, and we stopped moving when we had the ball.”
Despite the subpar performance the Revs went into the halftime break with a lead, as Teal Bunbury’s 10th goal of the season – which established a new career high for the ninth-year forward – answered Yamil Asad’s deflection just before the interval.
A stern halftime team talk preceded a pair of changes out of the break as Juan Agudelo and Kelyn Rowe replaced Krisztián Németh and Wilfried Zahibo, and although the visitors once again pulled level through Asad, New England dug deep to find a late winner as Penilla converted from the penalty spot.
“That’s been the motto this year – we’ve just grinded games out and found a way to get points in tough times,” said goalkeeper Matt Turner, who made five saves to pick up his seventh win of the season. “This was one of our worst performances of the season, and we still got three at home.
“Credit to the fans, credit to the guys – they kept us in it, kept us going, and we were able to come out with three (points).”
The performance leaves the Revs with plenty to work on as they’ll continue their three-game homestand next weekend against Seattle Sounders FC, but the result also gives them something to build on as they’ve stretched their unbeaten run to six games (2-0-4), hitting the halfway point of the regular season schedule comfortably above the playoff line in the Eastern Conference.
“Today was a tough game,” said Diego Fagundez, who became the youngest player in MLS history to make 200 regular-season appearances in the win. “I don’t think it was our best performance, but at the end of the day, we got three points. Now we have to keep going and prepare for the next one.”
