KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The word “wild” is a bit of an understatement to summarize the nine-man New England Revolution’s 4-4 draw with Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night. In the midst of this crazy match, there were a lot of takeaways from New England’s performance, with one of the positives being rookie DeJuan Jones notching his first career MLS goal.
“It was an awesome feeling,” Jones said with a smile. “I’ve been scoring goals my whole career so to score one at the professional level for this team, it’s a special feeling.”
“We just really felt with them playing [Yohan] Croizet as a left back, that’s not his natural position – very, very talented player, very, very good on the ball – but left back is not his natural position,” said head coach Brad Friedel regarding Jones’ selection to start against SKC. “We thought the pace and stamina of DeJuan would really cause them problems, and thankfully, we were right.”
Jones validated the coaching staff’s thought process with a great personal milestone, and his goal came at an important time for New England.
The Revs led 3-2 when Carles Gil had his penalty saved, and when Juan Agudelo’s rebound attempt was also saved, thankfully Jones came in with the follow-up to finish it off. It was a must-score opportunity for the Revs, especially when minutes before they had been knocked down to 10 men.
“DeJuan didn’t give up on the PK,” said Agudelo. “We needed it. I went for the rebound, and so did he. It just shows the resilience there, and he put it away.”
These sentiments were echoed by many teammates in the locker room, knowing how crucial it was that Jones went in for the kill to give the Revs an advantage with an additional goal while they played without a full 11 on the field.
“DeJuan was really smart following up the penalty, and it just showed they’ve been working hard,” said Scott Caldwell. “It was really great to see [him] succeed tonight.”
“I thought the front four guys did an excellent job getting in behind. Tajon [Buchanan], DeJuan [Jones], Juan [Fernando Caicedo] and Juan [Agudelo] were excellent making runs in behind and their chances when they had the ball, they did well. They finished, they created, so that’s something to look forward to and build on, and that’s something we can do in Philly, as well.”
New England will look to build off of this performance next Saturday, when they’ll play their second of three consecutive road games against the Philadelphia Union. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Talen Energy Stadium.
