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MLS New England Revolution

Revolution Rally to 3-2 Win vs. D.C. United

August 18, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
New England Revolution News Release


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution (14-3-4; 46 pts.) defeated D.C. United (8-9-3, 27 pts.), 3-2, in the second of three meetings between the two sides this season. New England came from behind after trailing by a goal at halftime and held on for the win despite going down to 10 men in the 72nd minute.

New England, now 8-1-1 at Gillette Stadium this season, has won seven of the last eight games. Against D.C. United, the Revs extended their winning streak to five games and are unbeaten in eight games in the series (5-0-3). The Revolution, whose 46 points, 14 wins, and 40 goals all lead MLS, have outscored opponents 18-7 during the eight-game unbeaten streak.

The visitors jumped out to an early lead as D.C.'s Paul Arriola took advantage of a New England turnover and finished past Matt Turner in the 10th minute. A strong, two-handed stop from Turner - one of seven saves on the night -- prevented D.C. from doubling the lead in the 16th minute. New England generated six shots in the first half, putting two on frame, but went into the halftime break trailing by a goal.

The Revolution took control of the match in the second half after Bruce Arena deployed three substitutes at the intermission. Tommy McNamara equalized in the 49th minute with a right-footed shot into the upper corner past D.C. goalkeeper Jon Kempin for his tally goal of the year. Arnór Traustason registered his fifth assist of the year, second most on the team, while A.J. DeLaGarza also earned an assist on the play.

Minutes later, Tajon Buchanan put the Revolution ahead, 2-1, as he volleyed home a cross from Emmanuel Boateng in the 53rd minute. The goal was Buchanan's fifth of the season and his third in the last five games. The Canadian international has now scored in consecutive games for the first time in his MLS career.

Traustason was ejected off by referee Ted Unkel in the 72nd minute as he picked up his second yellow card. Despite the dismissal, the Revolution added a third goal through DeJuan Jones to secure the team's eighth home win of the season. Ramón Ábila added a second goal for D.C. United late in second-half stoppage time.

New England will remain at home to host FC Cincinnati on Saturday, Aug. 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Pregame coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. on WBZ-TV with "Revolution Kickoff". The match then airs locally on WBZ, myRITV, 98.5 The Sports Hub, and 1260 AM Nossa Radio.

POSTGAME NOTES

New England Revolution 3, D.C. United 2

August 18, 2021 - Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)

Team Notes:

The first-place New England Revolution improved to 14-3-4 (46 points) on the season with today's 3-2 comeback win over D.C. United.

The Revolution extend their unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1), claiming 22 of 24 available points and outscoring opponents 18-7 during that stretch.

The Revs need only four more wins over the club's final 13 games to set a new club record for victories in a season.

The Revs have won five straight games against D.C. United and are an unbeaten 5-0-3 in the last eight meetings.

New England's league-best home-winning percentage improves to .850 (8-1-1). The Revs also had the best away-winning percentage (.682) in the Eastern Conference entering the day.

With three more goals tonight, the Revs upped their scoring total to a league-best 40 goals.

The Revolution have now won 10 points from losing position this season, fourth most in MLS.

Tonight's red card ejection was New England's second of the season and first since the season opener, April 17 at Chicago Fire FC (DeJuan Jones).

Individual Notes:

Andrew Farrell (22,932) became the Revolution's all-time leader in MLS minutes played, passing Shalrie Joseph for sole possession of fist place in the record books. Farrell recorded a team high six clearances on the night.

Matt Turner recorded seven saves in his 10th win of the season - a career high. Turner is now 10-2-4 on the season and 6-1-2 in his career against D.C.

Tommy McNamara scored the Revolution's first goal in the 49th minute, his second as a member of the Revolution and his 18th in MLS.

Tajon Buchanan tallied his fifth goal of the season in the 53rd minute, giving him goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his MLS career. Buchanan now owns three goals in his last five starts.

DeJuan Jones recorded the game-winning goal in the 83rd minute, his second goal of the year and the third of his career. Jones' six combined goals and assists are tied for second most among MLS defenders in 2021.

Arnór Traustason ranks second on the Revs with five assists on the season, along with two goals. He has played in all 20 games since joining the club in April, but will miss the next match as he serves a one-game suspension for his red card tonight.

A.J. DeLaGarza's assist was his first with New England and the ninth of his MLS career. His last assist came on June 1, 2019 with the Houston Dynamo.

Emmanuel Boateng, who made his 125th MLS appearance as a halftime substitute, recorded his second assist with the Revs and the 16th of his career on Tajon Buchanan's goal and had a pair of key passes on the night.

GAME CAPSULE

Referee: Ted Unkel

Assistant Referees: C.J. Morgante (AR1); Adam Wienckowski (AR2)

4th Official: Mark Allatin

Video Assistant Referee: Sorin Stoica

Weather: 75 degrees and cloudy

Attendance: 11,419

Scoring Summary:

DC - Paul Arriola 3 (Edison Flores 2) 10'

NE - Tommy McNamara 2 (Arnor Traustason 5, A.J. DeLaGarza 1) 49'

NE - Tajon Buchanan 5 (Emmanuel Boateng 2) 53'

NE - DeJuan Jones 2 (Unassisted) 85'

DC - Ramón Ábila 3 (Ola Kamara 3) 90'+6'

Misconduct Summary:

DC - Yamil Asad (Yellow Card - Time Wasting) 32'

NE - Arnór Traustason (Yellow Card - Dissent) 33'

NE - Wilfrid Kaptoum (Yellow Card - Foul) 43'

NE - A.J. DeLaGarza (Yellow Card - Foul) 61'

NE - Arnór Traustason (Red Card - Second Yellow Card - Foul) 72'

DC - Steve Birnbaum (Yellow Card - Foul) 78'

New England Revolution: Matt Turner; DeJuan Jones, Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell, A.J. DeLaGarza; Maciel (Tajon Buchanan HT), Wilfrid Kaptoum (Emmanuel Boateng HT; Christian Mafla 90'); Tommy McNamara, Arnór Traustason; Teal Bunbury (Adam Buksa HT), Gustavo Bou © (Scott Caldwell 75')

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Earl Edwards Jr., Collin Verfurth, Damian Rivera

D.C. United: Jon Kempin; Chris Odoi-Atsem, Frederic Brillant ©, Steven Birnbaum, Joseph Mora; Felipe, Yamil Asad (Ola Kamara 75'), Drew Skundrich, Paul Arriola (Yordy Reyna 14'), Griffin Yow (Julian Gressel 67'), Edison Flores (Ramon Abila 67')

Substitutes Not Used: Chris Seitz, Junior Moreno, Jovanny Bolivar, Moses Nyeman, Tony Alfaro

New England Revolution Team Statistics D.C. United

15 (7) Shots (on Target) 22 (9)

3 Blocked Shots 3

7 Saves 3

2 Corner Kicks 8

0 Offsides 2

12 Fouls 12

438 (79.7%) Passes Attempted (% Completed) 364 (78.8%)

54.2% Possession 45.8%

POSTGAME QUOTES

Revolution Sporting Director & Head Coach Bruce Arena

On Emmanuel Boateng's performance and the possibility of his role increasing going forward:

Arena: "Well, it's one game. I'm not going to be worrying about that stuff right now. Tonight, he did his job. I thought we needed a little bit more quickness in the midfield and inserting him and Tajon [Buchanan] I thought helped us in that regard. We needed a little bit more width on the left side of the field and more of a natural left-footed player to put a couple of crosses in. And obviously, mission accomplished on that first goal, for sure. So, Ema [Emmanuel Boateng] did very well. Give him a lot of credit."

On Tommy McNamara's performance:

Arena: "Tommy [McNamara] always does a good job. We put Tommy and Arnór [Traustason] in the central part of midfield. I thought we needed a little bit more bite in the midfield. We weren't getting around the ball at all in the first half and I think that they did a better job there."

On Arnor Traustason's performance:

Arena: "The beauty of Arnór and Tommy [McNamara] is that they're versatile players. They can play a lot of spots on the field. Over a season and on a week like this, where we've got players banged up and fatigued, to have those players with that kind of flexibility is important."

On the game management aspect of playing a game Wednesday and Saturday this week:

Arena: "You're referencing this game and Cincinnati on Saturday? Well, it's going to be the same for Cincinnati as well. I don't know the answer to that question right now. Hopefully, Saturday around [eight] o'clock or whatever time we kick off, I have the right answer, but it's going to be challenging. There's a lot of guys that have put in a lot of minutes over the last couple weeks. So, we've got to take some inventory in the next couple days and try to obviously get some fresh bodies on the field as well."

On having Revolution legend Matt Reis back around the building again for a day:

Arena: "It's great to have Matt [Reis] here, because if I want to go out for a beer, I can certainly call on Matt Reis. He's a champion of drinking beer. He's a great Revolution player from the past, part of Revolution teams that accomplished a lot and unfortunately didn't win an MLS Cup, but were right there for many years. So, it's always nice to have those players back. It was good to see Matt. Matt worked for me in L.A. and with the national team and we've developed a close relationship, our families, so it's great to see Matt."

On the adjustments made at halftime with three substitutions:

Arena: "Yeah, I thought they brought some energy. I think we picked it up to start the second half and certainly getting two goals early in the second half was big. But I think you roll the dice at times with substitutions. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. You know? Today, I think those three players that came in in the second half certainly helped our team."

On why he subbed off Emmanuel Boateng at the end of the game:

Arena: "Because it's the 90th-something minute, close to it, and we're just closing out the game. You bring in your last substitution and give your team a little bit of a breather. [Christian] Mafla should be able to help us defensively in the last five, six minutes of the game."

Revolution Midfielder Tommy McNamara

On starting the second half with more energy after three substitutions:

McNamara: "I thought the three guys that came on, Ema [Emmanuel Boateng], Tajon [Buchanan], and Adam [Buksa] - did a real good job right from the start of the half. At halftime, we talked about how we need to have a much better mentality, to be much more aggressive, to be positive, and to really fight for second balls and fight in the game. So, I thought me and Arnór [Traustason] dropping back into midfield helped a lot with the three guys that came on and we just had a much better attitude and mindset to start the second half, which was just to be aggressive and to fight for second balls. I'm not sure exactly how the ball went up to Arnór on the right-hand side of the box, but I was just screaming for him to turn and lay it back to me. He laid it perfect so I can strike the ball one touch and it went into the goal. It was important to get the early goal, because then they were going to feel a lot of pressure to hold on to the tie. We were able to follow that up pretty quickly with the second goal, which was very, very important."

On the key to the team's current eight-game unbeaten streak:

McNamara: "Sometimes, I'm not really sure. We just we just go into every game with the mindset that we we're here to get three points out of the game, especially at home and with our supporters. We're very grateful for them, because they put a lot of energy into us in the second half to respond positively and to get the goals back. Then, when we needed them to see the game out when we went down a man, they were there for us again. So, they played a lot into this result as well."

On Emmanuel Boateng:

McNamara: "I mean, Ema [Boateng] is a great player. He's super dangerous and he's really good with the ball. He's very quick and he's decisive one-on-one to get around outside or to come inside and make a play. He came in and he brought a ton of energy. He brought the ability to take players one-on-one and put the ball in the box and he put a lot of really dangerous service in. So, it [adds] a really good dimension to the team. The only other player on our team kind of like that is Tajon [Buchanan], so it's good to have multiple different options that do different things in games. And then it's up to the coaching staff to kind of figure out how to best utilize everybody."

On consistently getting results from losing positions:

McNamara: "Yeah, I think it's a lot of experience in the team. First off, there's a lot of guys that have been professionals for a long time. Not only that, they've been at this club for a long time. We've got a lot of guys that have been here for a while. So, everybody has kind of been there and done that for a lot of people, and that's part of the experience. But also, just the confidence and the belief in our abilities. We've got a very talented squad and we need to show up for games. We didn't show up to start the first half. Thankfully, we showed up to start the second half and we were able to claw ourselves back into the game. It's unacceptable to start games like that."

On the halftime message from the coaching staff:

McNamara: "It was just to change our mentality, to be much more aggressive, to fight much more for balls, and not to be loose and lackadaisical. With the changes we made, how we changed the team, and the message at halftime, I thought right from the first whistle we were very aggressive, and we had the correct mindset to fight for the game. Fortunately, that produced the results for us, but we can't be starting games like that because we're going to give games away. Teams aren't going to let us into games."

On choosing not to do a backflip like Tajon Buchanan:

McNamara: "I think that I would be in the hospital if I tried to do a backflip. I don't have the same athletic ability as Tajon has."

Revolution Midfielder Emmanuel Boateng

On Bruce Arena's message to him despite not getting much playing time this year:

Boateng: "I didn't get discouraged. There were some tough times, but just lately, [Bruce] has been telling me to be a little bit more aggressive on the offense and try to take guys on. So, I just came in today and tried to do that."

On how the three halftime substitutes impacted the game:

Boateng: "It was great. Adam [Buksa] made a lot of great runs that helped stretch the defense. Great volley by Tajon [Buchanan], making those runs. I think we just brought the energy and even the guys that were on the field before also responded. The eight guys that were on the field when we came on, it just feels like an energy shift and everyone stepped their game up a little bit."

On seeing more action this season:

Boateng: "That's up to the coach. I'm just going to come in every day and work hard. Obviously, games that he feels like he needs me, just do my best to be ready and to help the team. So, I'll just keep working hard in training and when I get my chances, I'll try to do what I can to help the team."

On the team's resiliency coming from behind and holding on for the one-goal win:

Boateng: "It's important. If you look at our wins this year, I think most of them have been by just one goal, maybe except the Miami game. So, we just know how to protect the lead, especially late in games. We rely on that. Earlier in the season, I think we conceded some late goals in games - Philly to tie a game when we were up 1-0 and stuff. That's something the coaches have been really emphasizing on and we did well. Scotty [Caldwell] came on after the red card and really had the midfield - stopped a lot of the attack that they brought. Unfortunate that we gave up that goal in the end, but happy we get the win and hopefully look at the game tape and correct that, too."

On the team's belief that every player on the roster can contribute:

Boateng: "We just like to compete. In training, seeing how well we're doing in the table doesn't change anything. Everybody really wants to play, so when you get your chances, guys that come on, everybody's trying to prove their worth. So you work hard, the guys that are on the field get their chances, and if you look at our games, too, we've been rotating a lot. That's not because Bruce just wants to rest guys. He knows that there are other guys that are on the bench who are doing well in training and deserve the opportunity, too. So, just compete hard in training and leave it up to the coach to make the decision of who plays."

On this team compared to last year's and taking the rest of the season one game at a time:

Boateng: "Definitely, the team has improved. For me, personally, I don't think a lot of the guys are looking to the playoffs yet. We're just taking it each game one at a time. Guys are working hard and trying to take it. From everything, what it looks like, it looks like we're really pushing to do something great this year. So, the focus is just on each game, to get better, and try to do better than we did the year before, so we are ready."

On the special qualities in this team that make the Revolution on top of the table:

Boateng: "I think there's a lot of quality in the team. Scoring goals and creating chances, but we're also a very resilient group. Down one-zero, come [out] in the second half and be up by two goals, it just shows the character of the team. So, you just work hard and you just keep fighting. Just like the answer that I said before, we just fight to the end and try to grind out results. One-goal wins most of the year, so we just keep doing that."

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