FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Prior to the New England Revolution’s home leg of their Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Quarterfinal meeting with Pumas UNAM, head coach Bruce Arena stressed the importance of the Revs taking a significant advantage to Mexico City for next week’s return leg.
It’s likely that Arena had something like Wednesday night’s comprehensive 3-0 win in mind, a result that puts the Revolution firmly in the driver’s seat ahead of the second and decisive leg at Estadio Olimpico Universitario next Wednesday night (10:15 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 2, TUDN).
“It’s very important,” Arena said of the 3-0 advantage. “This is a 180-minute game, basically, and away goals count. I think Concacaf is about a year behind the rest of the world with this stuff, so away goals count in this competition. So it was important to score goals, as well as not concede any, so we can go to Mexico City with a little bit of a cushion, but it’s not going to be easy.”
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor (mainly) snow could slow down the Revolution at Gillette Stadium, where fluffy flakes fell throughout the afternoon and evening, continuing throughout the first half and making for quintessentially New England playing conditions. But while neither side was particularly used to playing on a snow-covered surface, it was the hosts who dealt with the weather best, putting together a dominant performance from start to finish.
“I thought our guys actually weren’t too troubled by it,” Arena said of the snow. “We had no advantage. We haven’t practiced in the snow either. So it was as challenging for us as it was our opponent tonight, but it seemed to me that we adjusted a little bit better.”
“It’s difficult. I’ve never had that type of game,” admitted Carles Gil, who officially registered two assists but helped set up all three Revolution goals. “We know that it was hard for both teams, so we tried to play it, to play easy in the defense and try to keep the space behind the defense. Many crosses, you know? I think we did a very good job in the second half and without the snow, better to play.”
Gil set up Sebastian Lletget for the game’s first goal in the 19th minute, and although the Revolution outshot Pumas heavily in the opening 45 minutes, they weren’t able to extend their lead before the break, leaving the door open for the visitors to potentially climb back into the match. Pumas had one massive chance to do so midway through the second half, but a two-minute span proved a critical swing.
Earl Edwards Jr. – starting his third straight game to begin the campaign – made an absolutely stunning point-blank stop in the 71st minute to maintain the Revolution’s 1-0 lead. Just one minute later Adam Buksa scored his first goal of the night to extend New England’s lead to 2-0, before the Polish striker tacked on a potentially critical third goal in stoppage time.
“He had a tough time for large segments of the game,” Arena said of Buksa. “He kept working hard and pushing and hanging in there, and then he got two huge goals. That’s the sign of a good striker.”
“I think for sure it was our best game of the season,” Gil added. “We did an amazing job together in defense and in the attack. We created many, many, many chances. Maybe we could’ve won by more goals, and also they had two, three, four big chances. Earl did an amazing job. Very good result to go to Mexico.”
First the Revs will briefly turn their attention back to MLS regular season play as they’ll host Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Foxborough, but then it’s all eyes on Mexico City as the Revs will attempt to see out this series and advance to the Concacaf Champions League Semifinals for the first time.
“We know that if we score a goal there, we have many options to advance,” Gil said, referencing the fact that if the Revs score just once in Mexico, they’ll force Pumas to score five goals. “We’re very happy. We deserved this because we created many chances. They had a couple good ones, too. Now we’ll focus on Saturday’s game and then we’ll travel to Mexico.”
