Greg M. Cooper – USA TODAY Sports
The New England Revolution lost a heartbreaker to Toronto FC on Sunday, and they desperately need to find a way to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat against the lowly Canadian squad. The Revs were riding a two-game winning streak before Matias Laba‘s individual effort gave Toronto the only goal that they needed to secure a win at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
Lack of finishing plagued the Revolution through the entire match. Revolution’s midfielder Lee Nyguyen said it correctly when detailing the main issues of the Revolution’s loss to Toronto. “We created plenty of chances in the first half and none of them were able to fall,” said Nguyen. “We just kept putting ourselves in a deeper hole in the second half by continuing to not be able to finish. It was a frustrating night, but now we have to focus on next week.”
It was satisfying, though, for Revs fans to see the midfield and forwards breaking out into quick, effective counter-attacks and maintaining possession in the opposing end. Nevertheless, it was painful to watch the Revolution’s persistent attack create no goals.
One player who stood out in the Revolution’s defeat was their young Uruguayan-American midfielder Diego Fagundez. Fagundez seemed to have a nose for the ball in this match, but he couldn’t finish any of his threatening efforts. Saer Sene and Dimitry Imbongo were noteworthy for the Revs as well; however, similar to Fagundez, they couldn’t exercise the scoring touch.
Against Sporting Kansas City this Saturday, the Revs have to start the match off purposefully. They must show intent to score, so when the ball is loose in Sporting KC’s box, every Revolution player should be hustling to it, looking for any sort of contact to get the ball in the back of the net. The more men they bring forward as they pressure the opponent’s back lines, the higher their chances are of netting a goal.
Let’s see if the Revolution can get back on the winning track against a talented Sporting Kansas City team.
