Friday, November 20 vs. Montreal Impact – 2-1 W – With one win in their final five games, the Revolution fell in the standings and played themselves into a play-in game against the Impact. At an empty Gillette Stadium, the teams met for the fifth time in 2020. The Impact won the season opener in Montreal all the way back on Leap Day, but New England followed that up with victories at MLS is back in Orlando, at home in Foxborough, and away at Red Bull Arena. Would the Revolution be able to take a fourth win from the Impact? As it turned out, yes. They were the better team through most of the first half, and were moving the ball pretty well with Carles Gil, Gustavo Bou, and Adam Buksa all starting. As halftime closed in, Bou put in a cross to Gil, who volleyed the ball into the back of the net to put the Revolution ahead. It was his first goal of the season, and a very nice one at that. Montreal evened the score on an unmarked header off a free kick (never seen that before, Revolution /s). That left New England most of the second half to push for a go-ahead goal. They tried, had some shots, but it wasn’t until the last minute of stoppage time that Bou was given too much time and space outside the top of the box, shot, and scored. And though he didn’t score, Buksa had a good game – he had a couple headers saved off the posts; Tajon Buchanan had a decent shot and looked okay at right back for about half the game (he was subbed off and Matt Polster took over there); and Teal Bunbury had a chance to put the Revolution ahead in the middle of the second half, took time to aim, and shot over the crossbar. Would it be a Revolution game otherwise?
Tuesday, November 24 at Philadelphia Union – 2-0 W – “Hello Philly our old friend/We’ve come to face you once again/Because the Impact we have beaten/Now the seeds say ‘play the Union’/In the playoffs where strange things can happen/All the time/Within the game of soccer” (thanks and apologies to Simon and Garfunkel and “The Sound of Silence”). In their sixth meeting of 2020, the Revolution finally came away from Pennsylvania with a victory, upsetting the top seed in the eastern conference and ruining a lot of brackets. Nashville, the other play-in game victor, also upset their opponent, number two seed Toronto, leading people to wonder if giving the top seeds a two-week break while the play-in teams were coming in with momentum was actually a good idea. Over in Pennsylvania, after the teams settled in, the Revolution struck twice in quick succession in the 26th and 30th minutes. After a good game against Montreal, Adam Buksa got his goal, a header off a Carles Gil free kick. That was followed minutes later by Tajon Buchanan receiving the ball, again from Gil, on the right side of the field, getting around his defender, and putting the ball in the back of the net. With a two-goal lead, New England proceeded to mostly (minus one ridiculous shot by Gil that almost curled straight into the top right corner of the goal but hit the crossbar) play bunkerball for the remaining hour plus of soccer. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done, to the relief of Revolution fans everywhere. Two funny things about this game – 1) limited numbers of fans were present, but the broadcast covered them up with the fake tarps/ads they’ve been superimposing over the stands all season, and 2) the broadcast team placed a microphone really close to Bruce Arena, providing us with such great quotes as “we’re killing the game off, Kelyn,” “get up, Henry,” and “clear the ball.”
With that, the Revolution moved on into the bracket, to face Orlando City SC in Orlando. After throwing everyone’s predictions into disarray, the feeling around the team was “why not?”
No comments:
Post a Comment