After going down three goals in the first 55 minutes against the Colorado Rapids, it looked like the New England Revolution were about to lose their third game in a row, all at home.
The Revs though put together a comeback rare for this side, scoring three unanswered goals over the final 40 minutes of play to come away with a 3-3 tie.
The feat was something never accomplished before by a Caleb Porter coached team.
“I’ve been in this league now for 400 games and I’ve never had a team come back from three goals down to get a point,” Porter said. “They were saying its been at least 15 or 16 years that this club has done that or more, because they went back to 2010 and didn’t see up to that point any team that had done that.
“So it’s an unbelievable thing to do and it takes a resilient team, it takes a team that’s mentally tough, and its amazing, I think it could be a turning point for us for sure.”
It gives New England its first point in June after dropping the only two other matches they played in the month.
For more on how the Revs charged back and what it means going forward, here are five takeaways from the match.
One streak ends, another continues
Entering Saturday, Caleb Porter’s squad had lost 14 matches in a row when they trailed at halftime,
While defense has typically been the team’s strength throughout the year, it can’t post a shutout every match.
When the back line does crack first, the uneven attack makes comebacks rather difficult for the Revs.
Against the Rapids though, the Revs put that streak to bed, coming away with the draw.
“Most teams down three to zero the game’s done and what I’m proud of is the group refused to lose,” Porter said. “We clawed three goals back and took a point.”
One streak that did keep going however is New England’s winless stretch at home.
The Revs have not won a match at home in over two months, last defeating New York City FC on April 19.
While the Revs have played the fewest home matches in the MLS so far this season, it has now been four matches since the team won at Gillette.
New England is back at home on July 9 against Inter Miami after traveling to face Portland next Saturday.
A rotated back line struggles early
After giving up three goals in a loss to Nashville on Wednesday, Porter opted to change up his defense, replacing three of his five defenders for the match against Colorado.
Stepping in for Tanner Beason and Mamadou Fofana in the middle were Wyatt Omsberg, and Keegan Hughes. On the right side, Brandon Bye replaced Ilay Feingold.
“I made quite a few changes, it wasn’t because I wanted to punish guys, it was because I trust them,” Porter said. “I trust my squad and my bench and I just felt like the break that we had, has created a really strange rhythm for us over the last few weeks.
“We’ve lost a little sharpness and probably a little of the fitness too, so I felt playing more of the same guys two games in four days would have been difficult with the long break we had, and I thought Wyatt had done well and Keegan had done well.”
The change for the Revs did not provide a spark for what was one of the best defensive units in the MLS up until this week.
Between Wednesday’s match and the start of Saturday, New England allowed five goals over a span of 90 minutes of match play.
The first goal for the Rapids came off a rebound which was buried by Calvin Harris. The second was Rafael Navarro simply beating four New England defenders by himself to make the lead 2-0.
The defense didn’t respond much better in the second half, giving up another goal in the 55th minute to go down 3-0.
“Obviously I’m disappointed in the three defensive plays,” Porter said. “It was a game with their tactics, they were looking to sit in and counter us. I thought we came out in a really good way, a positive way with the ball, but then we gave away the first two real chances they had in transition so that part wasn’t good enough.
“Obviously the third goal, we have to do better. For me it’s our rest defense. When we’re looking to score and break a team down we have to have a better rest defense.”
Entering the match, the Rapids were not among the most formidable goal scoring teams in the league. Colorado had scored just 22 goals in 20 matches, the fifth fewest in the Western Conference.
Leo Campana returns but so do his offensive struggles
In theory, the return of striker Leo Campana should give a much needed boost to New England’s attack. Unfortunately against Colorado, that was not the case.
In Campana’s 62 minutes, the Revs scored zero goals on their own. The first goal for New England came in the 58th minute via a Colorado own goal.
The Rev wingers struggled to hit their strikers on crosses and even Carles Gil had trouble connecting with Campana in the contest.
When Campana or another forward did find themselves in a dangerous spot early in the contest, they were thwarted by Colorado goalkeeper Nico Hansen. The 23-year-old American tallied eight saves in the contest and was particularly frustrating for the Revs in the first half.
Porter though was not too concerned with the early showing from Campana.
“He just needs time, he’s been injured I think three times now this year so we just need him to get a run of games,” Porter said. “We just need to give him a run of games so he can get confident and he can just get chemistry with everybody.
“He did have some good moments today. I think early in the game we got a ton of crosses from Brandon and Peyton (Miller) and I still think there were times we could’ve been more aggressive attacking the ball and not waiting for it, so we’ll look at that.”
In the end, it was actually Campana’s replacement, Maxi Urruti that played the hero for New England.
After Carles Gil scored his fourth penalty of the year to make the game 3-2, Urruti received a beautiful cross from fellow substitute Tanner Beason in the 93rd minute.
Soaring towards the net, Urruti connected on the header and tied the game 3-3 with his second goal of the season.
Injury bug hits again
As soon as the Revs get one player back from injury, another goes down. Against the Rapids, Campana made his first start in over a month.
Not even 40 minutes into the match however, fellow striker Tomas Chancalay suffered a groin injury and had to be substituted.
While each position group has had its nicks through the year, the forwards cannot catch a break when it comes to injury luck.
Ignatius Ganago is still on the Injured List and if Chancalay is out for another extended stretch, Porter is left with just four forwards again in Campana, Luca Langoni, Maxi Urruti, and Luis Diaz.
Campana is also still not at full strength for the Revs.
“There were still a lot of challenges today with the subs we had,” Porter said. “We had to take Leo out, but I would’ve preferred to keep him in. (The training staff) wanted 45 out of him, we played him 65 so we played him as long as we could and probably more than we should’ve to be honest with you, it was a bit of a risk.
“Then Chancalay goes out so we put in Maxi and Luca and Luis Diaz and I thought Luca who was up top initially, playing as a left wing back was very interesting. Luis was up top so I think that gives us a little bit of a formula at the very least to chase a game.”
Set piece momentum halted
One of the main struggles for New England’s offense this season was scoring on set pieces. The Revs appeared to turn a corner against Nashville, netting both their goals off set pieces.
Against Colorado, New England found plenty of chances to take advantage of set pieces, highlighted by eight corners in the first half, but failed to convert on any of them.
In the second, the Revs took three more but still were thwarted. Much of it can be attributed to the fantastic play of Nico Hansen, clearing the ball coming in but the result is still disappointing for a unit in desperate need of continued momentum.
