ATLANTA – For the second time in five days, the New England Revolution fought to a comeback victory on Wednesday night in Atlanta to mark their fourth consecutive three-point result. The 2–1 win over Atlanta United FC was their first road victory of the season, finally breaking through away from Foxborough.
New England thought they had opened the scoring in the first half after a banger from Alhassan Yusuf, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside call. Atlanta capitalized soon after, taking the lead in the 38th minute. The Revs remained down through halftime, but once again refused to fold, fighting through the second half with an unwavering belief that another comeback was within reach.
That belief paid off in the 73rd minute when defender Will Sands headed home the first goal of his MLS career, teed up by a Carles Gil corner kick. With another set-piece goal, New England now lead the league in that category with five overall.
“It felt really good. I think that moment of the game was really important, and I think it gave us the momentum to go on and get three points, which is above all the most important thing. So, I’m just happy that we could get a win away from home and kind of keep this momentum going,” said Sands.
The fight didn’t stop at the equalizer. Just five minutes later, Peyton Miller doubled the Revolution’s tally to secure the game winner. With three goals through six appearances, the 18-year-old now leads the scoring for New England.
“It’s great to win four games in a row and it’s really not easy. It’s a massive achievement. However, we are still not going to give up on what we want to do, which is to go day by day, and game by game,” said head coach Marko Mitrović. “I think this is the second time in the season we’ve come from behind to win. However, we had the game in St. Louis, where we were up 1-0, and then lost 3-1. Again, we have to play games from the very beginning until the very end. In any given moment, there is a possibility that some of the teams can have opportunities to score goals. So, no matter what the score is, we just have to keep going.”
While New England ended with the upper hand at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the second year in a row, it wasn’t always a pretty contest. The Revs faced a whopping 23 shots from Atlanta and only put four of their own eight attempts on target.
“We are blocking first shots, second shots, third shots. For me, that’s a relentless mentality. We are not giving up. Today I felt that our lines were a little bit wider and more open than they usually are, and in certain moments we gave them situations to easily progress the ball,” explained Mitrović. “They have some very technical players where if you give them time and space, they can execute those passes, and obviously finish the attack. That’s something that we definitely have to work on, how we can stop that progression. But, it is what it is and we move forward.”
Although the stats weren’t completely tilted toward New England, at the end of the day, it’s all about the team who finds a way to win.
“I think we’ve been 1-0 down in the last two games, no one really thinks we’re down and out and no one is holding their head down. I think there is a belief that we will come back and win. And I think the mark of great teams is finding a way to win, so I think we just need to have a performance to kind of back that belief. I think this team has the potential to do great things,” Sands said.
New England will search for another way to win on Saturday night in Miami as they continue a two-game road trip down South. The Revs will kick off for the first time at Nu Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET in a duel against the Herons. Following Wednesday’s results, the two teams stand neck-and-neck in the Eastern Conference table, with the Revs sliding into the third slot, just under second-place Miami.
“We have to recover ourselves. We have a game in 72 hours. We all know who Lionel Messi is. I think people have been trying for 25 years to figure out how to play against him, and with not much success so far. But I know one thing is we have to behave as a team in that game, knowing that we are facing a great team that is an [MLS Cup] Champion, and that has arguably the best player in the history of this game,” Mitrović explained. “That’s another challenge that we are going to embrace and face, and another opportunity for us to grow our mentality and our game.”
