Let’s expound on a few of the things in the Match Report -- which is paywall-less, I'm told -- this evening, shall we?
Better defensive play on the corner kicks: Now that’s how you keep set pieces from biting you in the butt. For what feels like the first time since before this winless skid began, the Revolution managed to keep the ball out of the back of their own net on corners — and they had plenty to defend in the South Bronx on Wednesday night. With New York City FC (66 percent possession) controlling the run of play for a majority of the contest on East 161st Street, there were tons of opportunities for set pieces. In all, New England had to defend 14 corner attempts by the Bronx Blues. Not only that, there was a bit of a bend/don’t break at play with the Revs back four on counterattacking play. There were times where they were burned by NYC, but managed to get back just in the nick of time on several occasions to keep Brad Knighton safe from harm's way. And seriously, tip the cap toward Knighton, who had a phenomenal game with the exception of tracking that ball in second-half stoppage time which could have led to an unfortunate-yet-typical equalizer. He earned his paycheck the hard way this week.
Revs desperately needed Diego Fagundez’s hand in this match: I know there are a bunch of folks out there who have called for DF14 not to play in the No. 10 position, and you know that I am a Fagundez apologist; that means you’re not going to get me to put Diego down often, since I’ve thought he should have been moved to central attacking midfielder two years ago. I will admit that he’s had some off nights in '18, but not enough to fully supplant him. So let’s be absolutely real here: how much better did the offense flow with him in there Wednesday? A touch better than it did in the first half, where the Revolution’s passing left a little too much to be desired. Granted, Yankee Stadium’s soccer dimensions are the smallest in Major League Soccer and are the smallest allowed by FIFA, which plays into NYCFC’s hands; in the 13 home matches played there this season, the Cityzens had allowed seven goals before Brian Wright popped it in, and were 10-0-3 entering this game. That meant the Revolution had to get used to the up-tempo style that NYC uses — seriously, you can’t get any faster than the way it played in the first 45 minutes. But once Diego entered — he got right in on Sean Johnson in the first minute or so — The Boys In Blue had things moving their way.
Brian Wright deserves a gold star: Wright had barely shown anything in his previous MLS appearances entering Wednesday night. Of course, when you have certain players ahead of you on the depth chart, you don’t have a lot of opportunities to play, and it’s hard to get into a rhythm when you finally get out there. So with 70 minutes in front of him, Wright told NYCFC who he was. He pressed high in the first few minutes and picked up a couple of fouls. No harm done, just introducing himself a bit. He nearly scores on what would have been a killer sequence in the 25th minute, but it went off the near post and caromed across the face of goal and off the other post.
Inches away from the opening goal! ? #NYCvNE pic.twitter.com/anBSaee9AE
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 5, 2018
Right place. Right time. ?@brianwright777 scores his first MLS goal to put @NERevolution up. #NYCvNE https://t.co/eL8RQwMxeD
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 6, 2018