FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Saturday night’s highly-anticipated clash with the LA Galaxy was a paragon of perseverance, a case study on resilience, a model of grit and determination.
Until it wasn’t.
For 90-plus minutes the New England Revolution did almost everything right; despite playing with 10 men for most of the match following the 23rd-minute ejection of Cristian Penilla, they were well on top of the visitors, taking a 2-1 lead into the late stages and threatening for a killer third goal.
But it all shockingly fell apart in stoppage time as Dave Romney and Chris Pontius scored just seconds apart to turn what would’ve been a character-building victory into a gut-punch loss, perhaps most heartbreakingly in front of a raucous crowd of more than 36,000.
“I’m very, very proud of my players and the effort that they put in tonight,” said head coach Brad Friedel. “To come undone on three goals in the manner that we did is heartbreaking. It’s sickening. But the players know that they put in a valiant effort. The players know that we were the better side.
“The players also know that we gave up three soft goals, and that’s sports. I really can’t say too many negative things other than about the three goals and the fact that we lost, because the players put in such a monumental effort. It would be wrong of me to come up and have a go at them, because the effort was tremendous.”
Luis Caicedo and Juan Agudelo were particularly immense for the Revs, the former assisting on Diego Fagundez’s opening goal before adding his first MLS goal later in the opening half, and the latter impressing in his first start since early May.
Those performances didn’t lessen the sting of the setback, though, as the Revs saw their seven-game unbeaten run come to a grinding halt in the most devastating fashion imaginable.
“To me, it was one of the worst losses that I’ve suffered at this stadium,” said Agudelo. “I think the most important thing was the resilience and the fact that we faced a lot of adversity going down a man, just the way the guys pulled through that. I saw a guy to my left, I saw a guy to my right sprinting – I had to sprint.
“For us to lose like that, I just hope we don’t forget that part of the game.”
While the Revs will lick their wounds on Saturday night, they’ll need to bounce back in short order as they’ll depart on Tuesday morning for a two-game road trip through Minnesota and New York.
They’ll also need to cope without both Caicedo and Penilla on Wednesday in Minnesota – both are suspended – where a positive result could go a long way in erasing the pain of a staggering loss.
“These points that we’re losing are the ones that may haunt us at the end,” said Fagundez. “Now we have to go away from home and make sure we get results.”
