It was a rough night for the New England Revolution against Dallas FC, as they lost to Dallas FC at home 4-2, in front of nearly 24,000 fans in attendance. It was not a good night for the defense as they allowed 4 goals against, including a penalty kick in the 2nd minute,  a whiff by in an attempt to clear the ball defender Samba who was making his first start.

Right from the start, in the 2nd minute after Revs goalie Bobby Shuttleworth fouled Dallas’s Michel Barrios in the penalty box, resulting in a penalty shot that Dallas scored, were down and had an up hill battle to climb. After this game it was clear their defense just couldn’t deal with Dallas’s speed, especially from players like Fabian Castillo, and needed to do much better and step up in the future.

But all the blame cant be put on the defense alone. Half way through the first half, Revs defensive midfield Gerhson Koffie went down with an injury and couldn’t finish the game. For someone of his abilities to go down and out, most teams would struggle as well.

“It was a tough blow for us, we are assessing him now (post game) He makes the game for us a little bit more physical, and so yea his presence was certainly missed.”

“I thought we did a very good job until the third goal, and with that mistake (Samba’s whiff on clearance attempt) if you make a mistake like that on the top of your 18, the good players in this league will punish you and he is certainly one of those good polayers and he punish us tonight (Fabian Castillo’s goal)” Heaps post game about Fabian’s speed and losing Koffie

 

NONE OF THE PLAYERS, OR MANAGER JAY HEAPS WERE IN THE MOOD TO LAST FOLLWING THE LOSS

The Revolution certainly had their chances to score goals in the 2nd half when it was still tied at 2-2. They had two good chances, one from a Juan Agudelo header, which bounced off the turf and over the bar, and another from Daigo Kobayashi, a shot that was just over the bar. Both chances came when it was tied.

THE BAD:

But it wasn’t until the 70th minute when Dallas took the lead for good when Dallas’s Fabian Castillo took advantage of Samba’s whiff on an attempt to clear the ball, get passed Samba and shot the ball passed goalie Bobby Shuttleworth, to make it 3-2 Dallas. Up until that moment, Samba was having a decent game in his first start, but his whiff on the third goal will be remember by fans. Bobby Shuttleworth was another player who had a rough game. The first two goals could be put on him as his fault. The first being the penalty call against him, although in those moments it is tough for the goalies to make the right choice. Despite getting the ball he also took Michel Barrios, and right from the start of the game, New England were down.

THE GOOD:

Despite not making the final 23 man roster for team USA Copa America this summer, Lee Nguyen continued his good form. He scored and had an assist in this game, once again showing that the Revs offense goes through him. Another player who is continuing his good form is Juan Agudelo. In four straight games Juan has either a goal or assist, which is nice to see since he had a rough start to this season. If the Revs are to have hope of a good summer, he needs to keep scoring goals.

THE FUTURE:

For the future, it will be interesting to see how much more time Samba has on the field of play. With Jose Goncalves out for some time, and Darius Barnes back on the game day 18, it will be interesting to see how many more starts Samba will get as long as Jogo is out. With the arrival of Kei Kamara, last seasons golden boot winner, and Juan’s current form, how much longer Jay Heaps will stick to a 4-4-2 before deciding, if ever, to go back to a 4-2-3-1. For the game against Dallas, Diego Fagundez was benched in favor of keeping Juan and Kei together up top.