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New England Revolution

Revolution Defeat Charlotte FC, 2-1

April 16, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
New England Revolution News Release


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution (2-4-1, 7 pts.) defeated Charlotte FC (3-5-0; 9 pts.), 2-1, on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. Forward Adam Buksa opened the scoring with a header just eight minutes into the match. Midfielder Matt Polster added to New England's lead with a right-footed deflection into the net in the 72nd minute. Midfielder Christian Ortiz scored for the visitors in the 85th minute.

Tonight's win marked New England's first victory in league play since the home opener on March 5 against FC Dallas, ending a four-game losing streak in MLS play. New England raced out to a swift 1-0 lead when Buksa, who returned to the starting lineup following a one-game red card suspension, converted on a cross from defender Brandon Bye. Buksa's tally was his 25th goal from open play in the MLS regular season or playoffs, tied for second most in the league since he arrived in 2020.

Polster, who surpassed 10,000 career minutes played in tonight's match, also registered an assist on Buksa's goal and later doubled New England's lead on an unassisted tally in the 72nd minute when he blocked a Charlotte clearance near the goal line. This marks the 28-year-old's first goal-and-assist performance in MLS.

Goalkeeper Brad Knighton, who collected his first win of his club-record 12th season with New England, logged a season-high five saves in his third consecutive start. Defender Andrew Farrell made his 275th MLS start, guiding New England's backline with a team-high six clearances. Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena collected his 40th league victory with New England tonight, improving his record with the Revolution to 40-19-24 and his MLS-record wins total to 242.

The Revolution are back on the road next weekend with a visit to D.C. United at Audi Field on Saturday, April 23. The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET and airs on WSBK-TV38, myRITV, Cozi TV, 98.5 The Sports Hub, and 1260 AM Nossa Radio in Portuguese.

POSTGAME NOTES

New England Revolution 2, Charlotte FC 1

April 16, 2022 - Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)

Today's Starting XI features four changes from last Saturday's match at Inter Miami CF with Omar Gonzalez, Brandon Bye, Emmanuel Boateng, and Adam Buksa starting in place of Henry Kessler, Ryan Spaulding, Tommy McNamara, and Arnór Traustason.

The Revolution snapped a four-game losing streak with tonight's win, dating back to a 3-2 loss to Real Salt Lake on March 12. New England improved its home record to 2-2-0 this season.

Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena logged his 40th win with New England as his record with the Revs moves to 40-19-24.

Adam Buksa netted his first goal of the 2022 MLS season, and his third of the year across all competitions, with a header in the eighth minute, assisted by Brandon Bye and Matt Polster. The goal was Buksa's 10th MLS tally at Gillette Stadium.

Buksa has scored 25 career goals in the MLS regular season or playoffs, tied for second most in MLS since 2020. He now has eight headed goals in MLS regular season action, tied for second most in MLS since 2020.

Polster, who led New England with two shots on goal, opened his 2022 account in the 72nd minute on a right-footed deflection inside the box. The midfielder's goal-and-assist performance in tonight's victory marked his first in MLS.

Polster eclipsed 10,000 career minutes played in the MLS regular season with his 90-minute performance.

Andrew Farrell collected his 275th start in MLS tonight, a club record. The veteran center back logged a team-best six clearances in addition to six possessions gained and one interception.

Goalkeeper Brad Knighton, a native of Hickory, N.C., tallied a season-high five saves en route to his first win of the season. Knighton has started the last three consecutive games in net for the Revs.

Carles Gil paced New England's attack with game highs in chances created (5) and successful crosses (7) in his 75th career MLS appearance. Gil also led the Revs with 84 touches.

Homegrown Player Justin Rennicks featured in the Starting XI for the third consecutive match, while registering his fourth appearance in a row.

In addition to his assist on Buksa's opening goal, Brandon Bye, who returned to the Starting XI after missing last weekend's match at Inter Miami CF due to a minor leg injury, led New England with 11 possessions gained.

GAME CAPSULE

Referee: Pierre-Luc Lauziere

Assistant Referees: Kyle Atkins (AR1), Walt Heatherly (AR2)

Fourth Official: Sergii Demianchuk

Video Assistant Referee: Younes Marrakchi

Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Tom Supple

Weather: 60 degrees and raining

Attendance: 15,344

Scoring Summary:

NE- Adam Buksa 1 (Brandon Bye 1, Matt Polster 1) 8'

NE- Matt Polster 1 (unassisted) 71'

CHA- Christian Ortiz 1 (Sergio Ruiz 1) 85'

Misconduct Summary:

NE- Matt Polster (Yellow Card- Hard Foul) 29'

CHA- Christian Makoun (Yellow Card- Hard Foul) 57'

NE- Brandon Bye (Yellow Card- Hard Foul) 87'

New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; DeJuan Jones, Andrew Farrell, Omar Gonzalez, Brandon Bye; Matt Polster, Sebastian Lletget (Arnór Traustason 88'), Carles Gil ©, Emmanuel Boateng (Tommy McNamara 74'); Adam Buksa, Justin Rennicks (Wilfrid Kaptoum 89')

Substitutes Not Used: Earl Edwards Jr., Jacob Johnson, Jozy Altidore, Noel Buck, A.J. DeLaGarza, Damian Rivera

Charlotte FC: Kristijan Kahlina; Guzman Corujo, Christian Makoun, Christian Fuchs ©, Jaylin Lindsey; Jordy Alcivar (Christian Ortiz 73'), Brandt Bronico, Ben Bender, Alan Franco; Karol Swiderski, Daniel Rios (Yordy Reyna 73')

Substitutes Not Used: George Marks, Harrison Afful, Adam Armour, McKinze Gaines, Joseph Mora, Sergio Ruiz, Anton Walkes

New England Revolution Team Statistics Charlotte FC

13 (6) Shots (on Target) 8 (6)

2 Blocked Shots 0

1.25 Expected Goals (xG) 0.33

5 Saves 4

6 Corner Kicks 2

1 Offsides 0

14 Fouls 13

338 (77.2%) Passes Attempted (% Completed) 551 (84.8%)

39.3% Possession 60.7%

POSTGAME QUOTES: New England Revolution 2 vs. Charlotte FC 1

Revolution Sporting Director & Head Coach Bruce Arena

On tonight being possibly the team's best performance of the year thus far:

Arena: "Well, for the year, for sure. I think hopefully we learned something from the previous games in 2022, in that we need to be a more collective unit on the field, and I thought tonight we got a great effort from everyone."

On the issue of conceding goals late in games and if it comes down to communication or positional errors:

Arena: "Maybe that's part of it, but there's some pretty bad mistakes, some individual mistakes, as well as, obviously, the group as well. Some of those things happen. Over a season, you would think it happens once over a season. We've had a bunch of them fall together over the last three or four weeks. So, that part has been disappointing, but hopefully we can learn from it. Tonight, again, that's a little unlucky, the goal. What are you going to do? - the goal they scored against us."

On how it feels to pick up a win and what is needed to maintain this form throughout the rest of the season:

Arena: "We'll try to figure that out. We've done it before. So, there's no reason to believe we can't do it again. I thought we'd win another game at some point. I'm happy it was tonight rather than a month down the road. You know, winning is important for teams. And I think the guys will respond well as we go to D.C. next week, but I haven't been too overly concerned about the recent events, because some of it was just freaky stuff. I think the game that we really got beat was the game against Charlotte, when we played them whenever it was, three weeks ago. The Red Bull game was just a fluke and last week is another example, we should get a point. We should have a point against Red Bull. And then the horror shows against Salt Lake here, was just, we're playing in a blizzard. I think every game we've had this year has been challenging for the weatherman. It's been absolutely a crazy start to the season. So, I can't explain it, but I do know that there's a lot more games ahead, so you can't be getting too high or too low at this point."

On Adam Buksa's performance:

Arena: "It was good. This Charlotte team is a very good team, and they really press frontrunners really hard, and I thought Adam [Buksa] did a great job of holding balls up tonight in a game that was real difficult. And the first goal was a goal that, Adam, we've seen score a number of times. Great service by Brandon [Bye] and obviously Adam did a great job getting at the end of that ball and putting it in the back of the net. That was a real positive. He had a really good workmanlike performance tonight."

On Matt Polster's performance:

Arena: "Real good. Matt [Polster] usually needs some games under his belt to get in form. I thought the last two games against Red Bull and Miami, Matt played well, and you could see his fitness improving and tonight he was pretty sharp over ninety minutes. He got that yellow card in the first half and was smart not to put himself in a bad position for the rest of the game and then the second goal was obviously the winning goal of the game. A very good effort, won some tackles obviously. His passing was good, and he scored the winning goal. So, that was an outstanding performance."

On the injury status of Gustavo Bou:

Arena: "He's moving along. That's about the only news I can give you. I don't know when he'll be ready to play, but he's improving."

Revolution Forward Adam Buksa

On setting the tone early in the match:

Buksa: "Yes, you are right. We wanted to start very hard and wanted to press them up high. We knew there are qualities they can play, they can build up from the back. They're very good at it. But, we could not let them play. That was the basic thing we were applying for the game. It worked out because we scored an early goal and it kind of set the tone. There were some parts of the game when they also had control of it and we dealt well with defending. I'm not sure. I said in an interview before I came here, I'm not sure if it was a fully deserved win, but we definitely played better than last games. We are heading in the right direction".

On Charlotte's physicality and dealing with it:

Buksa: "This is the work rate we need to keep up every game, because every team that comes to play us knows our qualities. We won the Supporters' Shield last year and we were probably the best team in the league, even though we did not win the MLS Cup. We were a very efficient team with high quality up front and also in the back. Now, we also need to add something extra to start winning game by game. I think today we showed the commitment besides the quality that we need every game and that was setting the basic thing that we brought into the game, but we have to build on it."

On Matt Polster's goal:

Buksa: "Well, it doesn't really matter how we score. It's important that we score. And I'm happy for Matt Polster, because he's a player that works very hard for the team, sets the tone, had the most touches. Usually, we say Carles Gil, and he does the job that not many people will appreciate because he rarely is on the scoresheet. He doesn't have many assists, but he works very hard for the team and I'm happy every time when he gets on the scoresheet, because he deserves it."

On fighting hard for wins:

Buksa: "That's soccer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The last couple of games, we weren't the team that you remember from the last season. We were getting slowly, slowly into the season. We've made a couple of changes in our roster. We also had to adjust to kind of new tactics. So, it all took more time than expected, but sometimes it's a part of the process. I think we could see in the beginning of the week of training that guys were hungry - hungry for a win. We knew that things need to change, that our commitment needs to be greater, and I think we showed that. As I said, we have to build on it, but it's not going to be easy. We play against D.C. United, so it's a very tough opponent. We need to bring even more quality, take control of the greater part of the game, and then things will be fine."

Revolution Midfielder Matt Polster

On his goal and overall performance:

Polster: "I think first and foremost I'm just happy we played really well as a team. I think to play well as a team, you have to do your part individually first. I thought I played well, but I thought as a group, individuals played really well tonight, and that's what it took to get three points."

On whether the team is still as intense in the locker room as they were last season:

Polster: "No, same characteristics. I can tell you, there's no music being played in the locker room. People are pretty focused for next week against D.C. [United]. It's just one win. We have a lot more losses in the column than wins right now, so the boys are focused already on D.C. and what it's going to take to get three points."

On the confidence boost a win can give the team going into the next game:

Polster: "Yeah, I think obviously when you're winning, there's a little bit of confidence that's added to that, but I think we've been playing with confidence the whole time. I think for the most part, we've been a bit unlucky. I think we can obviously look at the work rate and in moments and maybe individual mistakes, but I think we've always been in all the games that we've played. Things just haven't fallen our way and maybe a mental lapse here and there. So, like you guys said, it's going to take a full 90 minutes to win games like we did last year, and you saw that tonight. It felt like a game that we would win last year, and that's what we needed."

On team staying focus in the closing minutes of game:

Polster: "Yeah, obviously, I know the stat, I'm pretty sure you [Jeff Lemieux] tweeted it or something. It said that we've given up goals in the last 5-10 minutes. So, we know that as a group, we know we need to be mentally there and prepare the entire game. And like I said, that's probably where we've fallen short. And I think if we can focus on those moments a little bit better, you know maybe we have a couple more points. But that's not the situation we're in, so now we just have to go to D.C. [United] and do exactly what we did tonight."

On team's performance this season:

Polster: "Yeah, I generally think we played well in just about every game. I mean, I thought we played well in the Red Bull game. Look, I don't want to go back, I think we played well the whole season. I think we've just fallen short mentally in small moments. And that's the difference between winning games and losing games. So, we just need to keep the intensity. I think that's what we need to focus on most right now. It's just keeping that intensity, because I think the players that we have are more than capable of winning games on a consistent basis."

On the team's composure after a slow start to the season:

Polster: "They're definitely not a panic button. Look, like I said, there's always going to be times during the season where you're going to struggle. We've had that run and we just need to keep grinding and working hard and we've done that throughout the week. I think if you look back at the Red Bull game, we worked really hard. I think the Miami game we worked really hard, and we've fallen short because of mental lapses. Tonight, we didn't have that. Obviously, it was a deflection goal and I think for 90 minutes everybody was engaged. And that's what it takes to win games consistently in MLS."

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