On a night where Revolution manager Brad Friedel answered a tough question about Lee Nguyen (and we think hinted about his future), perhaps the most insightful statement of the night came from another Brad in the building Saturday night.
“(Dallas goalkeeper Jimmy) Maurer has made saves,” Revs play-by-play man Brad Feldman said during the NBC Sports Boston telecast of New England’s 1-nil defeat at the hands of FC Dallas, “but the Revs haven’t made him work.”
Undeniably true. Every single word of it.
Maurer made six saves in this match, and on four of them – there was a 23rd-minute try by Teal Bunbury off a rather scorching sequence which saw the Georgian rise and deny the interior roof of the net – he only had to raise his hands to stop. None of New England’s shots had Maurer leaving his feet.
Juan Agudelo, who came on to start the second half in place of Scott Caldwell, had three touches on potential scoring tries in the first 12 minutes of his appearance: a failed bicycle kick that he scuffed (Maurer saved it) early in the 52nd minute, before he charged and one-timed Bunbury's curling cross from the touchline three and a half minutes later (it was low and just to Maurer's left); about a minute later, on a Revs' short corner, Diego Fagundez crossed through the 18 to Jalil Anibaba, who used his noggin to lay it off back to Agudelo.
Agudelo then proceeded to blaze over.
It was just part in parcel of a rather heavy-footed second half, especially after Dallas midfielder Jacori Hayes tucked it in for the lone goal in the 77th. Before then, it felt almost as if the Revolution weren't collected and weren't embroiled in a scoreless game; it felt like New England were down by two or three, and they needed to get goals in a hurry. By my count in the match blog, Dallas only had one foray into its attacking third in the time Agudelo had three sniffs of goal. That Dallas foray saw the Revs defense converge on the player, with Claude Dielna and Gabriel Somi both getting touches on the ball to end that particular threat.
And how heavy-footed was New England?
- End 46th: Somi crossed to Cristian Penilla... Penilla blazes into The Fort.
- Agudelo's one-timer in the 55th.
- 87th: Wilfried Zahibo blazes.
- Early 89th: Somi with a curling cross to Fagundez... Fagundez sends it to the lighthouse tunnel.
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