FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As far as Diego Fagundez can remember, he hadn’t had the opportunity to get behind a free kick since his Revolution Academy days.
With the New England Revolution entering Sunday’s game with both Lee Nguyen and Chris Tierney, their two main options on set pieces, serving red-card suspensions, Fagundez worked tirelessly throughout the week to hone those skills. And when he got the start against the LA Galaxy, he was able to show off his hard work.
“Diego is a very good player,” said coach Jay Heaps on his decision to start Fagundez. “We thought we would slot him in there, and he’d get a good start for us.”
Practice paid off for the 20-year-old midfielder when he lined up over the ball in the 37th minute, about a yard outside of the Galaxy box.
He saw an open side, and bent his right-footed effort over the wall and into the net just past the fingertips of Jaime Penedo for his first goal since September 7 of last season.
“Yesterday I probably hit it, maybe 30 times right from that spot,” said Fagundez of his efforts in training during the week. “Then today, right before warmups I hit one and I stopped with that one.”
Said Heaps: “Diego does those in practice quite a bit. This week he’d been really good on set pieces and I think that was something that we were looking forward to. When he took it, I think a lot of guys thought he was going to make it.”
Fagundez wound up taking seven corner kicks for the Revolution on the night and put in a solid 77 minutes at the central midfield position that is normally occupied by Nguyen.
While others around him have been scoring consistently, Fagundez has struggled to gain major minutes. But in taking advantage of tonight’s opportunity, he and his coach are hoping this helps open the door for more.
“It feels great,” said Fagundez of getting back on the scorer’s sheet. “It feels like something’s come off my back a little bit. I’ve been looking for a while, but it hadn’t happened.”
After a dazzling start to his pro career, the youngster has been challenged more recently, and his coach can point to Saturday’s outing as a sign of forward progress.
“I think Diego rides the wave, and unfortunately rides the ups and the downs,” said Heaps. “We’re trying to get him to be a little more consistent, so I hope that it takes him in the right direction and keeps him fighting for more starts.”
