POSTGAME NOTES: Revolution Earn 21st Win in 3-2 Comeback at D.C. United

New England records 10^th road victory of the season with goals from Carles Gil, Gustavo Bou, and Adam Buksa

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The New England Revolution (21-4-6; 69 pts.) defeated D.C. United (12-13-5; 41 pts.), 3-2, on Wednesday night at Audi Field. All three Designated Players scored for the Revolution, as Adam Buksa and Carles Gil erased a one-goal deficit with tallies in the 61^st and 64^th minutes, respectively. Gustavo Bou, who provided the assist on Gil’s goal, added to New England’s lead in the 79^th minute. Ramon Abila closed the scoring with a goal for the hosts in stoppage time.

New England’s away record improves to 10-3-3, as the Revolution become the sixth team in MLS history – and the third coached by Bruce Arena – to record 10 road victories in a season. The Revolution’s 33 away points this season are second most in league annals. The club’s 69 points are tied for third most in any MLS campaign, and the Revs’ 21 wins are one shy of the record for regulation victors in a season. Three more points over the final three games would tie the all-time MLS mark of 72 set by LAFC in 2019, while four points would see the Revolution set a new single-season points record.

Tonight’s victory extends the Revolution’s unbeaten streak to 6-0-2, including four consecutive road victories. The Revs, winners of eight of their last nine games away from home, have now won six consecutive games against D.C. United for the first time in the series, as the unbeaten streak against D.C. improves to nine games (6-0-3).

The three-goal outburst in the second half saw all three of the Revs’ Designated Players score in the same match for the first time. With Buksa and Bou both scoring, the race for the MLS Golden Boot race – and the MLS scoring lead – continues to be tight entering the final three games. Bou now owns 15 goals on the season, placing him fourth in the MLS Golden Boot standings. The Argentinian strike has reached the scoresheet in five consecutive games with three goals and five assists. Buksa’s 14^th goal of the season, a header from the center of the box, giving the forward six goals and one assist in his last eight games played. The Polish striker led the attack with a game-high five shots, set a new Revolution record for shots in a season. Meanwhile, Gil’s go-ahead tally, a left-footed strike, gives the Spaniard four goals scored on the season.

Tommy McNamara provided helpers on goals from Buksa and Bou to collect his first two-assist performance since 2016. The Revolution’s four assists on the night raise the club’s total to 65 on the season, one away from matching the club’s all-time record (66).

Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena is now one win away from matching Sigi Schmid (240) for the most regular season victories in league history. Arena’s record with New England improves to 37-14-22.

In net, Matt Turner made seven saves to notch his 16^th win of the season, doubling his previous career high of eight. Turner’s 16 wins are tied for the most by a Revolution goalkeeper in a single season.

New England is back on the road on Sunday night to face another playoff contender in Orlando City SC. The Revs’ final away match of the season kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on FS1 and Fox Deportes. The game also airs locally on the radio on 98.5 The Sports Hub HD2 and 1260 AM Nossa Radio.

POSTGAME NOTES

New England Revolution 3, D.C. United 2

October 20, 2021 – Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)

Team Notes:

• The New England Revolution defeated D.C. United on Wednesday at Audi Field, 3-2, improving their record to 21-4-6 (69 points) on the season.
• The Revs’ 69 points are tied for the third most in MLS history – three behind LAFC’s record of 72 (2019).
• The Revolution maintain a 20-point lead in the Eastern Conference and grow their lead to 11 points in the Supporters’ Shield standings over Seattle Sounders FC.
• New England becomes the fifth team in MLS history to win 21 games in regulation (adjusted for shootouts from 1996-99). One more win would tie the MLS record for regulation wins.
• The Revolution are the sixth MLS team to win 10 road games in a season, and just the third to win 10 away games in regulation (adjusted for shootouts – Atlanta 2018 and LA Galaxy 1998). Two of the previous five teams were also coached by Bruce Arena (DC – 1997, 1998).
• New England’s 33 away points stand alone as the 2^nd most all-time behind the 1998 LA Galaxy (37 pts).
• New England’s unbeaten streak is now at eight games (6-0-2). The Revs have won four straight on the road and are victories in eight of their last nine away games.
• The Revolution are 6-0-3 over the last nine encounters vs. D.C. United. New England has won six straight games against the Black & Red for the first time ever.
• New England has won four straight away contests for the second time this season and for only the third time in club history (2008).
• The Revs’ 62 goals and 31 first-half tallies both lead the league. New England’s 62 goals are a club record.
• With only four losses on the season, the Revolution are guaranteed to at least tie the club mark for fewest losses in a season (7 – 2005).

Individual Notes:    

• Bruce Arena improved his career record to 239-135-111, one shy of Sigi Schmid’s all-time MLS record of 240 regular season victories. Arena’s record with New England also climbed to 37-14-22 (.655).
• Arena’s record against D.C. United, his former club, improves to 13-4-8.
• Matt Turner recorded seven saves to win his 16^th game of the season, tying the Revs’ single-season mark for a goalkeeper (Matt Reis – 2005; Bobby Shuttleworth – 2014). The victory was also his 40^th in MLS and improves his all-time record against D.C. to 7-1-2.
• Gustavo Bou made his 50^th MLS start on Wednesday night, finding the scoresheet for a fifth consecutive games with a goal and an assist. Bou has a team-high six game-winning goals on the season. Bou continues to lead MLS in combined goals and assists (42) since he entered the league on July 17, 2019.
• Bou’s 29 goals for New England are now tied for 10^th-most in club history.
• Carles Gil made his 60^th MLS start for New England, scoring his fourth goal of the season. Gil added a team-high four chances created, moving him to 117 on the season, just seven shy of Diego Valeri’s league record of 124 chances created in a single season (data since 2011 – per Opta).
• Adam Buksa recorded five shots on the night, surpassing century mark on the season and setting a new Revolution single-season high of 102 (Wolde Harris – 101 in 2000).
• Wednesday’s victory marked the first time all three of New England’s Designated Players – Bou, Buksa, and Gil – scored in the same match.
• Tommy McNamara recorded two assists, the second multi-assist game of his career and first since July 7, 2016. McNamara completed a team-high 49 of his 57 passes (86 percent), including three key passes.
• Matt Polster made his 125^th MLS appearance in Wednesday’s match. Polster was cautioned in the first half, meaning he will miss New England’s next match on Sunday due to yellow card accumulation.
• Tajon Buchanan played 81 minutes, surpassing 3,000 minutes played for his MLS career. Buchanan marked the occasion by winning a team-high 11 duels.
• Brandon Bye played 90 minutes, eclipsing 8,000 minutes played in MLS.
• Andrew Farrell recorded team highs in recoveries (13) and clearances (5) as well as one key pass in the attack.
• Henry Kessler had team highs in interceptions (3) and tackles (3), also pitching in with four clearances and 12 recoveries.
• Luis Caicedo played in his third match since returning from injury, putting in a 45-minute shift, completing 90 percent of his passes, and adding three tackles.

GAME CAPSULE

Referee: Nima Saghafi.

Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson (AR1); Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho (AR2).

Fourth Official: Thomas Snyder.

Video Assistant Referee: Geoff Gamble.

Attendance: 13,387

Weather: 66 degrees and clear

Scoring Summary:

DC – Nigel Robertha 4 (Unassisted) 51’

NE – Adam Buksa 14 (Tommy McNamara 5) 61’

NE – Carles Gil 4 (Gustavo Bou 8) 64’

NE – Gustavo Bou 15 (Adam Buksa 3, Tommy McNamara 6) 80’

DC – Ramón Ábila 3 (Kevin Paredes 1) 90’+3

Misconduct Summary:

DC – Felipe (Yellow Card – Bad Foul) 17’

NE – Matt Polster (Yellow Card – Bad Foul) 42’

New England Revolution: Matt Turner; DeJuan Jones, Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell, Brandon Bye; Matt Polster (Luis Caicedo 45’), Tajon Buchanan (Arnór Traustason 81’), Tommy McNamara (Scott Caldwell 89’), Carles Gil © (Emmanuel Boateng 86’); Adam Buksa, Gustavo Bou (Teal Bunbury 86’).

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Jon Bell, A.J. DeLaGarza.

D.C. United: Bill Hamid; Chris Odoi-Atsem (Tony Alfaro 81’), Steve Birnbaum ©, Donovan Pines; Julian Gressel, Russell Canouse (Júnior Moreno 73’), Felipe, Drew Skundrich (Adrien Pérez 68’), Joseph Mora; (Kevin Paredes 68’) Ola Kamara (Ramón Ábila 81’), Nigel Robertha.

Substitutes Not Used: Jon Kempin, Frédéric Brillant, Griffin Yow, Yamil Asad.

POSTGAME QUOTES: New England Revolution 3 vs. D.C. United 2

CLICK HERE for matchday media assets including photos, highlights, and postgame interview footage.

Revolution Sporting Director & Head Coach Bruce Arena

On the improvements the team made in the second half and whether his halftime speech had an impact:

Arena: “Well, I think the players had more to do with it than the coach talking at halftime, to be honest with you. That’s my opinion. I talked to them before the game too, so am I responsible for that first half? The players know how to play. They know what they need to do. They just had to pick it up and they picked it up a notch, and our top three attacking players got the job done.”

On his overall thoughts on tonight’s match:

Arena: “Yeah, an odd game, a sloppy game, on our part. I think we were outplayed in the first half. Conceding the first goal is not a formula to win games, yet we showed the kind of character we’ve shown all year. I thought Adam [Buksa] had a great goal. Certainly, the next two by Carles [Gil] and Gustavo [Bou] were outstanding goals as well. But the guys picked it up. I think Luis Caicedo came in and gave us some bite in the midfield, won some tackles which are important. For the most part, our two center backs had a good night. I thought [Andrew] Farrell defensively was very good tonight and Matt Turner had to make a couple saves. I would’ve liked to walk off the field 3-1. We got a little sloppy at the end again and conceded that second goal. Overall, it was inconsistent, but our last 30 minutes in the game were good.”

On Adam Buksa’s performance in tonight’s win:

Arena: “It was a tough game. I think in the first half they played him real hard. Our two front runners, Adam [Buksa] and Gustavo [Bou], had a hard time holding the ball. They got a little bit more physical in the second half and got their bodies in on a bunch of plays and were able to hold balls up and gave us some advantages. That was similar in the final third of the field. I thought Adam did a good job at times, holding some balls up and some of their combination play was good.”

On what D.C. United did well in defending New England’s attack in the first half:

Arena: “I just think they were man-marking Carles [Gil] all over the field with Felipe, for the most part, and continued that in the second half. But you can’t do that for 90 minutes and you can’t do that on every play. I thought they played our top two guys pretty hard, and we weren’t able to hold the ball up. I thought they were more physical. They won more second balls in the middle third of the field. In the second half I think Luis helped us turn that around a little bit. Luis and Tommy. I thought Tommy McNamara had a very good game.”

On taking Matt Polster out of the game at halftime due to a yellow card and what has impressed him the most about Luis Caicedo:

Arena: “Luis is an aggressive player. He can get around the ball. He won some tackles and he got it off his feet quickly to our front runners, so he did a good job there. Matt Polster picked up a yellow card in the first half. I thought he had a sluggish first half. He didn’t look very sharp today. He was a step slow and we couldn’t afford him getting sent off. So, it was important that we got him off the field and had a fresher play at half.”

On New England registering 10 road wins this season:

Arena: “It’s very good. I don’t know what I can say about that. That’s certainly outstanding. We play 17 on the road and typically teams in our league have losing records on the road. It’s an exceptional record.”

On his thoughts on the officiating in tonight’s match and the stoppage time added to the end of the match:

Arena: “I have no idea why there was that [much] stoppage time. The officiating was the officiating. It was a young referee. It was a physical game and I think, for the most part, he was really consistent. He wasn’t calling a lot. What more can you say? I think it was a tough game for an official because there was a lot of contact throughout the game.” 

Revolution Midfielder Carles Gil

On the build-up to his goal in tonight’s match:

Gil: “In the second half, I changed my position because of the one-v-one defense against Felipe. I was on the right. I tried to get my space and with the left, you know. I’m very happy for the goal, for three points, for the second half. I think the first half was difficult, but I think we did an amazing second half and we keep the three points.”

On whether it feels like the team can turn a game around at any moment:

Gil: “Yes, I think we are in that moment. All this season, we’ve had so much confidence in everyone, in every teammate. Yes, of course, we know it’s a difficult league. We had a difficult moment, but we always have confidence. We know we can score in every moment. I think we had a very good second half. We conceded two goals, but I think we defended very good and we’re very happy.”

On the physicality in tonight’s match:

Gil: “We know it’s a very good team, a strong team. They win tackles. They’re a good team in set pieces. It was a difficult game. I think they win many games at home. It was a difficult game, a difficult moment for this team. I think in these types of moments we are very good. We feel good. We enjoy these types of moments. We had a bad, difficult 60 minutes but in 30 minutes we scored three goals, we created many chances and we defended well. So, we’re very happy.”

On finding the ball in deeper areas and whether that’s something he’s trying to do more often:

Gil: “Yes. Today was hard for me because in the first half I had one-v-one defense against Felipe. We decided in the second half to put me in the right side and see what happened. If he went with me, we’d have more space in the middle and I’d have more space on the right side. I think we have very good attacking players with the runs, scoring goals with Gustavo and Adam. I think we had a very good second half and we scored three big goals.”

On Luis Caicedo’s performance tonight and the importance of getting him back on the field:

Gil: “We are very happy for him. He had a difficult moment with the knee, and he worked very hard. We are very happy with him. He’s a very good player. He did an amazing job today. It was a difficult game, and he did amazing. We have one more player, a top player, and we’re very happy for him.”

Revolution Midfielder Tommy McNamara

On the team’s performance over the final 30 minutes:

McNamara: “I think the circumstances of the game kind of just changed a little bit. [D.C. United] puts a lot of energy into pressing and closing people down. They play almost like a little bit man-to-man and so they expend a lot of energy across the field. Then they scored the goal, and I think the circumstances of the game kind of changed at that moment and they changed a little bit what they were trying to do, and I think it allowed us to kind of express ourselves more and then the game opened up for us. I’m not sure why on their end, maybe they put so much into it they started getting tired, so from our side of things we needed to keep ourselves in the game until that happens, and it did. And the game opened up and then we had more time and more space for our quality to come through.”

On the team being able to find another gear at key moments:

McNamara: “Yeah, I think it’s a little bit of everything. I think it’s certainly the quality that we have across the field. We have a lot of good players on the field, a lot of good players that can come off the bench and change games for us, and they all have different qualities and can bring different ways to play and to attack the game on the field. So, I think that’s part of it. I think the other side of it is also just experience. We have a lot of experience on the team and so maybe when things are going against us or things aren’t quite how we want it to be, we kind of have experienced that before and as a group, we’re like, ‘Okay, it’s all right, we can come through this. We just need to survive this period and then we’ll shift the momentum back into our favor again and we’ll have opportunities.’ So, I think it’s just the overall quality that we have, and the different characteristics give us a lot of different ways to play. And then I think it’s just the experience of the group.”

On how the team responded after Saturday’s match:

McNamara: “Yeah, I mean we were disappointed and frustrated with ourselves after Saturday’s game and it was kind of lingering over us the past couple of days preparing for this game. So, this game was very important. It was good to get the win tonight and have the correct approach to the game and the correct mindset, not so great that we went down a goal at first but to win the game was very important for us and the way that we did and in the fashion that we did it. Hopefully, we can kind of continue to improve and fine-tune our performances, because we can still be better as a group.”

On Luis Caicedo:

McNamara: “Yeah, I’m very happy for Luis [Caicedo]. He’s had a rough couple of years with the injuries and everything, but he’s another player and he brings a different quality to the group so it’s great to have different attributes and different options to play in different scenarios. It’s not easy coming off the bench in such a fast-paced game and coming on in midfield, but Luis adapted to the game very well. He helped kind of solidify things for us in the midfield and so we’re very happy.”

On his time with New England since joining the club in 2020:

McNamara: “Yeah, I’m very grateful that that trade came about. I’m very happy to be here. The club, top to bottom, suits me well since my personalities suit the qualities that I have as a player, and I’m really enjoying my time here. I’m very happy to be here. So, I’m just very grateful, the fans have been incredible, it’s been great. I think just sometimes certain teams, the makeup of the club, and kind of the style of play that the club has, you as a player are going to fit different clubs better than other clubs, and I think that’s all it is. I have a lot of appreciation for the people in Houston, the people I worked with, and the fans. I just think it wasn’t as good of a fit as it is here so I’m very happy to be here.”