FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The parallels to last season are becoming a little bit frightening for the New England Revolution, especially when it comes to scoring their first goal of the season.
For the third time in three games, exactly as it went a year ago, the Revolution were held scoreless, unable to capitalize on a man advantage for the final 30 minutes of play against the Montreal Impact at Gillette Stadium.
“Things aren’t clicking the right way,” head coach Jay Heaps said. “I’m not worried yet because I think we’re having chances. I‘m happy with the chances we’ve created, we just need to make sure we finish them.”
The Revolution did generate a season-high nine shots and four on goal, but seemed to falter on possessions that offered a chance to test the opposing 'keeper, making extra passes when a shot might have been available.
New England was given a chance in the second half to try their luck against a 10-man Impact side when
Hassoun Camara
was ejected after picking up his second yellow card of the match in the 61st minute, but Montreal settled in on defense, protecting the box from penetration.
“When it was 10 men, I thought we were going to be able to score one,” said
Diego Fagundez
. “But they just went straight defense and it was kind of hard to get in the box. We were playing around the box and trying to get chances in, but we couldn’t get one in.”
- CHALKBOARD: All Lee Nguyen's touches as Revs fail to fire
The end result was another zero on the scoreboard under New England, leading to some discontent from some of the team’s key offensive pieces.
“It was frustrating,” said forward Juan Agudelo. “I had a feeling that some chance was going to come and was just trying to stay available for when that chance came. Unfortunately, it didn’t come. We just have to work on creating more shooting abilities.”
“We’re frustrated,” added Fagundez, who had three shots, one on target, in the match. “We’re all hungry for it because we know that it’s our chance to try to get out of it.”
New England’s next opportunity to break through on the scoresheet comes next Saturday when they host San Jose, the very team they scored their first goal against in Week 4 last season, albeit an own goal off the foot Victor Bernardez.
