FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Sunday afternoon’s regular-season finale – a comprehensive 3-0 win over the Montreal Impact in front of 39,587 raucous fans at Gillette Stadium – was a stark reminder of what could’ve been for the New England Revolution in 2016.
Diego Fagundez, Juan Agudelo and Kei Kamara scored to help the rampant Revs to their fifth win in their last seven games, but ultimately it proved to be too little, too late, as the Philadelphia Union edged New England out for the final playoff spot on goal difference.
“It’s disappointing that we waited too long to really find ourselves and express ourselves throughout the last part of the season,” said head coach Jay Heaps, who saw the Revs struggle through a 2-8-2 stretch in the middle of the campaign. “Five (wins) out of seven is really good, but we just didn’t do enough.”
New England certainly did enough on Sunday, outshooting the playoff-bound Impact by a margin of 25-7 and hitting the woodwork four times in a match that could’ve been over by halftime.
The victory was the Revolution’s fourth straight at home – all by multiple goals – and Agudelo couldn’t help but wonder what kind of damage the in-form Revs could’ve done had they managed to reach the postseason.
“That’s what I was thinking the whole game,” said Agudelo, who finished the season as the Revolution’s leading scorer with seven goals, edging out Kamara on the assists tiebreaker. “We’re such a good team. We could’ve gone so far. It’s very disappointing that it’s all come to an end.”
There were plenty of positives to take from Sunday’s finale as the Revs look forward to 2017, not the least of which was another stellar showing from 23-year-old Agudelo. Young goalkeeper Cody Cropper also made his MLS debut, making two saves in a shutout effort.
But there will be a time and a place to look forward to 2017, and on Sunday the Revs were simply left to rue the missed opportunities that saw their 2016 campaign end far too soon.
“Our season was relying on the Chicago game (last weekend) and we didn’t do well that game,” Agudelo said. “Our season ended today on a positive note, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the game that we needed to win.”
