FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The last start Juan Agudelo got for the New England Revolution was back on July 11 against the New York Red Bulls, a 4-1 loss that happened to be the former club’s last defeat.
On Wednesday night, in a key match-up against the very same Red Bulls, Revolution head coach Jay Heaps inserted the 22-year-old forward back into the starting lineup and it paid big dividends in a 2-1 victory that placed New England atop the Eastern Conference table.
“He really led the charge tonight,” said Heaps. “Not just getting the assist on the first goal, but just the way he was able to extend plays for us and get us up the field.”
That assist came just two minutes into the game when the tone-setting Agudelo keenly set up Diego Fagundez for an early Revs lead.
“It was good to get involved there,” said Agudelo. “It gave me a lot of confidence to go on and continue the game.”
Agudelo has been making the most of his time off the bench in recent weeks, scoring twice in the four prior matches. And with the Revolution playing three games in a seven-day span the time was right for Agudelo to get the start, especially since he is fully recovered from a knee injury suffered while with the US national team back in June.
“I’ve been itching every single training session to get a start,” said Agudelo, who also noted the other changes to the lineup that Heaps made. “I’ve been working as hard as I could. All credit goes out to coach, not even for just me starting, but [also] guys like London [Woodberry] and Kevin [Alston] and Daigo [Kobayashi].
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"Everybody did a great job, and knowing that we had three games this week, I think that it was huge that the whole team played a part in this. It’s great for the chemistry and it’s awesome for the team.”
In a physical match of two top teams in the conference on Wednesday, it was Agudelo’s ability to be strong against the imposing central defense duo of Matt Miazga and Damien Perrinelle, and his ability to hold the ball up for his team that impressed his coach the most.
“He was physical,” Heaps said. “I think that it showed and he played against two guys that are physical. I take my hat off to Juan because he’s put in the work since his little bit of an injury he had, and fell out of form in terms of fitness and not getting on the field as much as he’d like. He battled tonight.”
