FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena says he was pleased to have seen his side grind out three points despite a below-par showing against Toronto FC.
The Revolution made club history to move into second spot in the Eastern Conference and Supporters’ Shield standings, tallying a 10th straight game unbeaten at Gillette Stadium in 2023 to record their best-ever start to a campaign at home (7-0-3).
The hosts had to fight back from a goal down to claim victory, as Bobby Wood’s first-half effort canceled out Deandre Kerr’s early header, before halftime substitute Giacomo Vrioni turned the game on its head with his fourth goal of the season seven minutes after the break.
Though glad his team were able to battle back to clinch a third straight win and sixth consecutive game unbeaten, Arena admitted he was left disappointed with the level of performance, crediting Toronto for their part in a cagey contest.
“The best thing I can take out of the game is that we walked off the field with three points on a night that we didn’t play well,” he reflected. “Last year, we lost those games frequently.
“I give Toronto a lot of credit – they played hard, and they made us earn the three points. Whether we ‘earned’ them or not is subject to an argument for sure, but we did not have a good night.
“We knew Toronto were going to give us a good effort. They’re a well-coached team, they have some very good players, and they made it difficult. We just weren’t good.
“We didn’t play well, we had a poor game and we were fortunate to get all three points.
“It’s a fine line: winning and losing in our league. I warned our guys all week this was going to be a real difficult game, and that the notion of whether them [Toronto] playing on Wednesday would be a big factor … It’s not, and never has been in all the years in this league.
“You can see it in the league: it’s a tough time of the year – teams are tired, they’re losing players … It’s just an awkward time.
“The month of July is going to be crazy in the league with the Gold Cup, and then the [Leagues Cup] competition that starts in July. It’s going to be crazy, and you can see it’s affecting teams – you can see it in some of the results … You’d never pick those results.
“Every team is probably going to try to hang in there, and collect points as they go.”
The triumph over Toronto was achieved with two moments of attacking quality. Wood netted a superb equalizer for his seventh goal of the season with a well-struck, near-post effort, and crafted a fine assist for Vrioni, who made a crucial impact from the bench to bag the decisive go-ahead goal with a cool finish.
“It was a big goal,” Arena said of Wood’s strike. “He’s our leading goal scorer, he’s pretty active.
“He had a solid performance, and certainly being part of the two goals says a lot.”
Discussing Vrioni’s positive contribution, the head coach also noted the forward’s work rate and progression, declaring: “He got the winning goal. He’s still learning in this league and with our team.
“He’s got a way to go but he works hard, and he’s making progress.”
Arena also shared an update on Gustavo Bou, who was replaced at halftime with "muscle discomfort", and praised the returning defensive duo of Djordje Petrović and Ryan Spaulding.
In his first game back from international duty, Serbian goalkeeper Petrovic produced a career-high nine key saves to help his side to victory despite late Toronto pressure, while Spaulding (who was recalled from a loan spell with the Tampa Bay Rowdies this week to help cover DeJuan Jones’ absence) completed the full 90 minutes on his 2023 Revs debut.
Analyzing Petrovic’s performance, Arena said: “He did okay. He made a big save at the end of the game. His distribution could have been better maybe in the closing 10-15 minutes.
“But Djordje is always good. He’s been good for us, there’s no question about that.”
On Spaulding’s display, he added: “He did fine. We asked an awful lot of him to be able to start and play 90 minutes. He did fine, he did well.”
