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The New England Revolution suffered a heartbreaking, 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night. A pair of goals by the Galaxy in second-half stoppage time flipped the script to leave the Revs empty-handed.
Here are three takeaways from the Revolution’s loss:
Rally after Penilla’s red
First, the positive: Every player and coach to comment after Saturday’s game, regardless of team, praised New England for its response after Cristian Penilla was sent off.
To be clear, the Revolution almost never respond positively after losing a player for disciplinary reasons. Fagundez’s goal – which came five minutes after Penilla saw red – might be the fastest the Revs have ever scored after losing a player.
What was even more incredible was the Revolution sustaining the momentum. It was almost surreal seeing New England take the lead and boss the game despite being down a man. At certain points, it was easy to forget that it wasn’t an even 11-on-11 game.
Though the Revolution crumbled in second-half stoppage time, the team ought to reflect on the way it handled adversity, particularly in the first half. Remembering how they dealt with a challenge and harnessed the energy to overcome it should serve the players well down the stretch.
After the game, Juan Agudelo said he hopes his team can fall back on the way they played for most of Saturday night.
Preventable LA goals
Which of the Galaxy’s three goals stings the most?
Probably the third one, as it iced the game.
However, each one should sting. Every goal was highly preventable.
The Galaxy got on the board midway through the first half as Ashley Cole found Chris Pontius in the box for a sweet finish. Pontius entered the box unmarked. Claude Dielna was out of position when Pontius made his run and did nothing to pressure Pontius as he moved closer to shoot.
LA’s second goal came off a routine cross off a corner kick. Dielna got caught off-guard on that play, too.
The third goal was a calamity. New England certainly would have taken a tie over a loss, but the team lost concentration and gave possession away as play restarted. The ball fell into LA’s clutches in New England’s own third of the field, which culminated in Chris Pontius burying the game-winning goal.
Reva wasted lone 3-game home stand
Saturday’s loss to the Galaxy concluded the Revolution’s three-game home stand – their longest stretch at home this season.
The Revolution schedule through this point in the year has been fairly straightforward as 12 of their first 19 games have been at home. The last three games were against inconsistent teams: D.C. United, Seattle Sounders FC and the Galaxy.
New England took care of business by edging D.C. 3-2 and settled for a point in a drab 0-0 draw with Seattle, but clearly wasted points against LA. All in all, the Revolution have taken just four points of a possible nine from three highly winnable games at Gillette Stadium.
That the Revs had their largest home crowd of the year against the Galaxy only adds insult to injury.
Unfortunately for New England, the schedule gets tougher for the remainder of the season. Only one of the Revolution’s next six matches is at home; the Revolution have just five home games left for the rest of the season.
The dropped points could factor in big come playoff time.