CHESTER, Pa. – With six potential starters missing because of international duty, injuries, and suspension, Sunday evenings’s visit to Talen Energy Stadium was an opportunity for several New England Revolution reserves to step into the spotlight.
Unfortunately, it was an opportunity that passed the Revs by as they suffered a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union, their third straight defeat in league play.
“Opportunities (were there) for guys to step up,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “There’s going to be no excuses from our end.”
“I just think too many guys weren’t up for the challenge,” added Donnie Smith, who played 53 minutes at left back in his first start since last April. “That was one of the keys that we talked about before the game; we’ve got to win the battle before we can play the game. There were too many pieces, and we just didn’t win the battle individually.”
New England’s quest to capture their first road win of 2017 was dealt a blow in just the fourth minute when C.J. Sapong converted from the penalty spot to put the visitors in an early hole. It was the fourth straight game in all competitions that the Revs conceded the first goal inside 20 minutes.
A similar slow start to the second half saw the Revs punished once again as Ilsinho pushed the Union’s lead to 2-0 in the 48th minute, before substitute Roland Alberg rounded out the scoring with a stunner in the late stages.
Conceding inside five minutes of both halves was a setback from which the Revs simply never recovered.
“We’re giving away games at the times when you need to be tighter, sharper and smarter,” said Heaps. “We’re lacking in all those capacities.”
The Revs will need a short memory moving forward, as they’ll be right back to work on Monday ahead of Wednesday night’s meeting with the New York Red Bulls at Gillette Stadium. It’s a game that kicks off a stretch of three straight league games at home – and four overall – through the month of July.
“It’s huge,” said rookie Brian Wright, who made his MLS debut off the bench on Sunday. “We definitely need to start picking up some points, especially at home. We’ve done pretty well at home, so we need to just keep up that intensity at home and just try to pick up as many points as possible in this stretch.”
