FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – By assisting on all four goals in the New England Revolution’s 4-0 win over Orlando City SC last Saturday night, Lee Nguyen joined a very exclusive group.
Nguyen became just the fifth player in Major League Soccer history to record four assists in a single game, joining Landon Donovan, Carlos Valderrama, Dwayne De Rosario and Chris Henderson. He also broke his own club record for assists in a single game, having held the previous mark with three assists (also against Orlando City SC) on September 5, 2015.
It was quite the return to action for Nguyen, who’d missed the previous two games through injury.
“It’s unfortunate when a player gets injured; you want players to step up, but obviously Lee’s a quality piece for us every time he steps on the field,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “I could tell [last] weekend, the way he trained [last] week, that he was going to have a big night.”
Nguyen’s big night – he picked up primary assists on the Revs’ second and third goals, secondary assists on the first and fourth – established a new career high for assists in a season (14), and tied him for first in the league with Toronto FC’s Victor Vazquez.
The sixth-year Revolution veteran has also added eight goals this season, while he’s fourth league-wide in chances created (72), and tied for first in assists from set pieces (4).
The Revs will continue to rely upon Nguyen’s creative spark throughout the next eight games as they make a late-season push to claim one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
“He’s a playmaker in there,” Teal Bunbury said of Nguyen. “He can create a lot of things and put off a lot of defenders. The runs he makes, what he does on the ball, and when he’s bringing energy, he’s a different type of player. He can change a game.”
