FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Saturday night’s 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls extended the New England Revolution’s unbeaten run to seven games, but it was a fifth draw in that stretch, and this one was particularly frustrating.
“I’m disappointed,” said assistant coach Richie Williams, serving as head coach for the third straight game as Bruce Arena finished his suspension. “I know the players are disappointed. We expect when we’re at home to get three points, and I think we played well enough to get three points on the day, so it’s disappointing.”
New England started slow and conceded the opening goal for the first time this season when Omir Fernandez gave the visitors a lead in the 35th minute, but the Revs responded with an equalizer just six minutes later when they beat RBNY’s offside trap and Teal Bunbury squared for Gustavo Bou to finish.
From there the Revs were well on top, and although they attempted 515 passes to the Red Bulls’ 332 and outshot the visitors 14-8, they weren’t able to find the breakthrough that would’ve given them a second straight win after Tuesday night’s triumph vs. D.C. United at Audi Field.
“You can take positives out of the game,” said Williams. “We were down a goal and came right back and scored the tying goal, but we just need to, again, with these opportunities that we are creating in the final third of the field, having the ability to take these opportunities and score goals so that we can come away with three points.”
“It wasn’t the result we were looking for at home,” said Bou, who scored for the second straight game and now has a team-leading three goals on the season. “We knew they were a good team that likes to pressure. We knew it would be difficult. We played the crosses and we played the long ball. In the second half we tried to keep our rhythm. We had a few chances there at the end, but ultimately we fell short.”
In terms of positive individual performances, Matt Polster was again solid in his third straight start in defensive midfield, while Tommy McNamara provided a spark off the bench in his Revolution debut, playing the final 17 minutes in midfield.
Now the Revs will look to stretch their unbeaten run to eight games when they host New York City FC at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday night, but with the offensive breakthrough they’ve been craving and three points to show for their efforts.
“We didn’t lose the game [against RBNY], but it’s another draw,” said Williams. “And we definitely need to be winning these games.”
