FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The weather forecast for Saturday afternoon’s home game against the Houston Dynamo calls for temperatures in the low 50s and a mix of sun and clouds.
It’s a far cry from what unfolded the last time the Dynamo visited the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium back in August 2015, when a pair of lightning delays totaling almost three hours pushed the final whistle well past midnight and into the wee hours of the following morning.
Despite the chaos it was ultimately a happy end for the Revs, who used second-half goals from Jose Goncalves and Juan Agudelo to down the Dynamo, 2-0.
As the Revs prepare to welcome the Dynamo back to New England for the first time since that frenzied evening, I asked a few of the players and coaches involved to recall that weather nightmare.
New England Revolution forward Teal Bunbury
“I think that’s the craziest (game I’ve experienced in MLS). I feel like every Open Cup game there’s always something crazy with delays, but that was something that I’ve never experienced before – having to wait in the locker room and then, ‘Oh no, 30 minutes,’ and ‘Oh no, there was another lighting strike.’ That was something I’ve never experienced and this is my eighth season now in the league. That was crazy. I’m hoping – and I’m sure – that it won’t happen again.”
New England Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe
“That was a very long night for all of us. I think we came in multiple times and had to wait and wait and wait. As a player, that’s hard to do. You wait all day for the game – that’s hard to do – and then you have to wait during the game and that’s even worse. That was a big mental challenge and we came out on the positive side of that, and I think that was a huge take on how that team was. I think this team is even stronger.”
New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
“We wanted to finish so very badly, and I don’t think they wanted to as much. I remember them after the game saying, ‘Why is this game going on?’ We just wanted to make sure that we had every minute played at home, so we pushed hard to have that game continue on.”
