FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – After splitting the results over their two-game stretch on the road, the New England Revolution suffered a tough loss in their return to Gillette Stadium on Saturday night, falling to the Philadelphia Union, 3-0, at the hands of a brace from Dániel Gazdag following Julián Carranza’s opener. Despite showing early resolve, the Revs faced an uphill battle for most of the game after left back Ryan Spaulding was sent off in the 14th minute for a challenge made during a Philadelphia breakaway.
Head coach Caleb Porter said after the game that this individual mistake was the crucial moment that unfortunately took away from the hard work done by the team to prepare for this match.
“I feel for the guys, because we worked so hard this week,” Porter said. “We prepared so well. They trained so hard … It’s just an impossible task to go that long down a man.”
The coach said that he and the team were not going to let the result bring them down as they look ahead to New York City FC next weekend.
“We’ll put it behind us because the majority of the group understands that we lost the game because we had a red 15 minutes in,” Porter said. “No one is down in terms of their play … They are going to keep their head up, keep going. The team is on board. You saw how they were fighting, nothing is going to change. We’ll keep going back to work.”
Defender Xavier Arreaga echoed the importance of moving on from the result quickly and getting ready for the next game.
“We need to rest tonight, try to clean the mind,” he said. “Obviously, try to watch, again, the game and try to fix the mistakes, try to think about what in those moments are the causes for the issues for our team.”
One positive takeaway for the Revolution going forward was the return of left back DeJuan Jones, who played most of the second half as a substitute. Porter said that his return was another step toward locking in a consistent lineup week after week.
“I think we’re starting to develop a good core of guys,” Porter said, adding, “DeJuan, it’s positive that he’s in, but it’s impossible to evaluate anybody else. It’s impossible to say that our team didn’t do what they needed to do, when we made one mistake that cost us the game.”
The Revs will be back in action at Gillette Stadium next Saturday night against New York City FC, continuing a stretch in which they’ll play six of eight games at home through early July.
