MONTRÉAL – One always wants to be careful when dubbing a result to be “a statement win.” The energy of such a moment can be easy to get caught up in, and the expectations that are set can consequently become a bit too high.
But even with those risks in mind, it is safe to say that the New England Revolution’s 5-0 trouncing of CF Montréal at Stade Saputo was a statement win. A club record-tying away victory that saw returning players and a marquee debutant all shine brightly, Saturday’s performance marked the beginning of the club’s playoff push and displayed for the league exactly who they intend to be through to Decision Day and beyond.
Before tonight, New England had yet to record a win by multiple goals in the league this season, even during their hot streak back in June. But with Carles Gil back running the midfield, Bobby Wood keeping up his goalscoring form, and Giacomo Vrioni, Dylan Borrero and newcomer Luca Langoni all contributing from off the bench and continuing to build match fitness, head coach Caleb Porter feels that his team is firing on all cylinders and ready for the challenge in front of them.
“Great win, great performance,” Porter said after the full-time whistle. “Very comprehensive on both sides of the ball. Going into the game, we talked about having 11 games to go, and every game is going to be like a cup final for us. Obviously, it’s great to get the three points on the road in the first one. We’ve got 10 more to go. Very pleased, but it gets tougher next week. So, we’ve got to rest, get back to work, work just as hard or harder next week, and throw ourselves again into the next game.”
Keeping up the pressure after netting the first goal is something that the Revs had been struggling to do in recent matches. For the Revolution to get two unanswered goals in the first half, let alone close out the game as strongly as they did, was exactly what Porter wanted to see out of his team, and he said that he expected them to keep up that mentality in the coming weeks.
“That’s what I want,” Porter said of the team pushing after going ahead. “I want early goals. In a lot of ways, when you look at some of the wins we’ve had, we scored two goals in the first half in a lot of those games, and then in some cases we conceded to go 2-1, or with Vancouver we conceded to go 3-2. So that’s still in our evolution for me. I thought there were periods in the second half where we still kind of fell in. I don’t like that, I don’t want that … I don’t want to see my team bunker up one goal or two goals. I want to see us go for the jugular; I want to see us get that third goal, fourth goal, stick the knife in and turn it.”
Excitement had been high for club-record signing Langoni to make his introduction on the pitch, and it hardly could have gone better for La Langosta, becoming the franchise’s first-ever player to notch a goal and an assist in their regular season debut. Captain Carles, whose return to the squad also generated plenty of excitement over the last couple weeks, said that Langoni’s addition was already proving crucial as the team enters this pivotal final stretch of the season.
“It was a very good debut,” Gil said as he remarked on the Argentinian’s assist for Vrioni. “He’s a very fast player. In that moment, winning 3-0, with space – he’s a very good player. He’s good for us to have, a new player and a star like this. He gives us confidence for what is coming.”
Of course, what is coming is still an uphill battle for playoff qualification, and New England’s next stop in that push is none other than Western Conference high-fliers Real Salt Lake. So, despite the nature of this win, Porter was keeping clear-eyed on the task at hand and the difficulty ahead.
“We’re just scratching the surface,” the coach said. “We have to keep pushing and stay really hungry. This is one that we don’t have time to celebrate on and get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to go back to work and work even harder next week, we have a very difficult game against Salt Lake on the road.”
