MLS New England Revolution

Revolution Top FC Dynamo Kyiv, 3-1, in Spain Finale

Published on February 6, 2019 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
New England Revolution News Release


MARBELLA, Spain - The New England Revolution defeated Ukrainian Premier League power FC Dynamo Kyiv, 3-1 at Marbella Football Center on Wednesday. New England went into the halftime break trailing by one goal to the UEFA Europa League contenders, but three goals in the second half from Juan Agudelo, Carles Gil, and Diego Fagundez secured the Revolution's first win of the 2019 preseason.

Dynamo opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when a low cross found its way through the box for a simple finish at the far post. Early in the second half, the Ukrainian side nearly doubled the lead when the Revs conceded a penalty, but Matt Turner dove to his left to deny Olexandr Andriyevsky. That marked one of several key saves from Turner in the second half, as he made three stops in quick succession over the game's final 10 minutes. Soon after the penalty attempt, Agudelo leveled the scoreline in the 54th minute with a headed finish on an in-swinging cross from Cristian Penilla.

Head Coach Brad Friedel made eight changes to the lineup at the 60-minute mark, including the entrance of Gil and Fagundez. Gil gave New England the lead in the 64th minute with a low strike from approximately 25 yards out, as the Spaniard's shot skipped past the Dynamo goalkeeper. Fagundez put the match out of reach in the 87th minute by dribbling through a Dynamo defender and finishing into the far corner with the outside of his right boot.

The Revolution will return to Foxborough on Friday, Feb. 8 before departing on a two-week trip to Florida on Feb. 12. New England will play four matches during the second leg of the 2019 preseason, taking on Louisville City FC (Feb. 14), Minnesota United FC (Feb. 16), Orlando City SC (Feb. 20), and KR Reykjavik (Feb. 23). The matches against Louisville and Reykjavik will take place at IMG Academy in Bradenton, while the MLS contests will be hosted by Orlando City at the Lions' inaugural Orlando City Invitational tournament.

New England Revolution 3, FC Dynamo Kyiv 1

February 6, 2019 - Marbella Football Center (Marbella, Spain)

Scoring Summary:

Dynamo - Nazariy Rusyn 33'

NE - Juan Agudelo (Cristian Penilla) 54'

NE - Carles Gil (Wilfried Zahibo, Justin Rennicks) 68'

NE - Diego Fagundez (Unassisted) 87'

Misconduct Summary:

Dynamo - Vitaliy Alibekov (Yellow Card) 43'

NE - Teal Bunbury (Yellow Card) 43'

New England Revolution (1st Half): Cody Cropper, Edgar Castillo, Jalil Anibaba, Michael Mancienne, Andrew Farrell, DeJuan Jones, Scott Caldwell ©, Luis Caicedo (Zachary Herivaux 32'), Juan Agudelo, Cristian Penilla, Teal Bunbury

New England Revolution (2nd Half): Matt Turner, Andrew Farrell (Brandon Bye 61'), Antonio Delamea, Jalil Anibaba (Trialist 61'), Edgar Castillo (Gabriel Somi 61'), DeJuan Jones (Justin Rennicks 61'), Scott Caldwell © (Diego Fagundez 61'), Wilfried Zahibo, Cristian Penilla (Tajon Buchanan 61'), Teal Bunbury (Carles Gil 61'), Juan Agudelo (Juan Fernando Caicedo 61')

POSTGAME QUOTES

New England Revolution Head Coach Brad Friedel

On the match against FC Dynamo Kyiv:

Coach Friedel: "We said last night that now this is our fourth game in preseason, and as we're getting our fitness and getting our sort of feet under the ground, we wanted to press on winning, so it was really nice. Nice to come back from a goal down as well, against another very, very good team. Can't complain with the competition here, can't complain with the weather, the hotel, the field, and most importantly, we as a coaching staff can't complain at all about the amount of work the players are putting in. Things are coming together nicely and hopefully there are some good things to come this season for us."

On closing out the game with the lead:

Coach Friedel: "It was something that happened to us last season a few times and it's all a learning experience. You have to make the right decisions at certain times in games and today it was really good to see in the second half that once we got the lead, we killed the game off. Again, I have to reiterate, we played another very, very good team. Been together for a long time, been a very strong team whether it be [in] Champions League or Europa League, and our boys did very, very well."

On how the attacking chemistry is coming together:

Coach Friedel: "The fitness helps a lot. You're coming over here playing teams - we can take Shanghai Shenhua out of it, they're in their preseason - but the other three games we had, the teams are at peak fitness. It takes a couple games to get your lungs back a little bit. It's very difficult to make the right options all the time when you're just concentrating on breathing. Again, we're happier as each day goes by where the team is. We'll head back in a couple days to Boston, head down to Florida, and we'll really start preparing for that first game in Dallas."

New England Revolution Midfielder Diego Fagundez

On his goal in the 3-1 win vs. FC Dynamo Kyiv:

Fagundez: "I thought it was pretty nice. I think overall I've been doing well this preseason, trying to finish all my chances. Today I got a good one and all I knew I had to do was just finish it off. I don't really have a good left foot, but I knew the outside of my right was going to be good enough."

On building chemistry with Carles Gil:

Fagundez: "I think we're all trying to see what he's got, how we can combine with him. He's a player that I definitely like to play with. He likes to touch the ball, move around, and hopefully that chemistry keeps going throughout preseason and hopefully we can keep it going throughout our season. Definitely looking forward to it. Little by little, chemistry's going to get even stronger, but for right now, I think we're doing great. Everybody's welcomed him well, everybody knows what he's got already, and we just want to see more now."

On coming from behind and closing out the game with a lead:

Fagundez: "It's huge. I know you always want to be winning games, because once you start winning, your mentality stays as a winning one. Yesterday we started talking about it, that we need to win games, and today we definitely came out here and stepped it up. ... Matt Turner saves a huge PK for us, so we're still in the game, and then it was our game again. We came in and we changed it up, and that's what we want to see."

New England Revolution Goalkeeper Matt Turner

On defeating FC Dynamo Kyiv:

Turner: "Coach [Friedel] made it a point in our meeting last night just saying how now it's time to really focus on winning rather than just getting fitness or getting the tactics right. I think that's important as we establish the culture that we need here to get wins. To come from behind and to score three unanswered goals, it was really just a good performance overall."

On saving the penalty in the 47th minute:

Turner: "It was my own mistake, so it was massive for me to be able to pick myself back up and then I just grew in confidence throughout the game. Once I saved that I knew I wasn't going to get beat for the rest of the half. [I was] just establishing myself out there. Coming in at halftime is never easy, but I need to be better, be more mentally switched on when I come into games and I can't put my teammates in bad positions where they're going to be fouling and giving away penalties. I was happy to give my team a little morale boost, keep the score at 1-0 in [striking] distance, and then we capitalized on it."

On closing out the game with a lead:

Turner: "That's another thing that we really were disappointed with ourselves last year. There were games where we were up, games where we were up 3-0 and we won 3-2. There's just a lot of times where we need to just be a little more resilient and to get a test like that in this game, where you could tell it meant a lot to the guys out there, get some demons out, and we just keep building off this one."

On the team's chemistry:

Turner: "There's just a good togetherness of this group already. We're the only ones together in the hotel, so everyone's getting to know each other and that kind of chemistry, you can't force that kind of chemistry. It just kind of happens. Teams that I've been on that are really successful, they always have good chemistry. That's something that we'll take out of this trip for sure. It's halfway through preseason so there's still a lot of work to be done, a lot of spots to play for, and we're just building towards Dallas."

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