New England captures a point on the road with goals from Brandon Bye and newcomer Sebastian Lletget
PORTLAND, Ore. – The New England Revolution (0-0-1, 1 pt.) opened the 2022 Major League Soccer season with a 2-2 draw on the road against the Timbers (0-0-1, 1 pt.) on Saturday night. Brandon Bye netted New England’s first goal of the season with a powerful header in the 41st minute, assisted by Carles Gil, to give the Revolution a 1-0 lead at halftime. Newcomer Sebastian Lletget added a 63rd-minute tally in his Revolution debut.
Three of the Revolution’s key offseason acquisitions – Lletget, defender Omar Gonzalez, and forward Jozy Altidore – made their Revolution debuts in the contest. Gonzalez, who collected his 240th MLS start, led the Revolution with two shots on target in addition to four clearances. Altidore entered the match as a 79th-minute substitute to see out the draw.
Brandon Bye scored the first goal of the game in the 41st minute, rising up to meet Carles Gil’s corner kick and sending his headed shot off the underside of the crossbar. Portland midfielder Dairon Asprilla tied the game in the 61st minute, before Lletget reclaimed the lead for New England just two minutes later. DeJuan Jones registered the primary assist on Lletget’s goal, with Tommy McNamara also picking up an assist. Portland’s Yimmi Chara delivered the game-tying goal on a bicycle kick in the 78th minute.
With tonight’s result, New England extends its unbeaten streak in the Pacific Time Zone to 11 matches since 2016. The Revolution’s all-time record against the Timbers shifts to 1-2-8, including five consecutive draws. New England has opened the season on the road in 14 consecutive years.
The Revolution return home to Gillette Stadium for the 2022 home opener on Saturday, March 5 against FC Dallas. The match kicks off at 1:30 p.m. ET at Gillette Stadium on WSBK-TV38, myRITV, 98.5 The Sports Hub, and 1260 AM Nossa Radio. CBS Boston’s exclusive pregame coverage live from Foxborough begins with “Revolution Kickoff” at 1:00 p.m. ET on WSBK-TV38.
POSTGAME NOTES
New England Revolution 2, Portland Timbers 2
February 26, 2022 – Providence Park (Portland, Ore.)
- New England played to a 2-2 draw with Portland on Saturday night at Providence Park, the second straight year they’ve opened the season with a draw.
- New England and Portland played to a tie for the fifth consecutive meeting and the eighth time in 11 all-time matchups.
- The Revolution extended their unbeaten streak in the Pacific Time Zone to 11 games dating back to June 18, 2016.
Individual Notes:
- Brandon Bye scored the opening goal of the 2022 season for New England, the sixth of his career and his first since July 31, 2021. Bye added five clearances on the defensive end.
- Carles Gil, the reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP who led the league with 18 assists last season, provided the helper on Bye’s opener. Gil’s 35 MLS assists are tied with Joe-Max Moore for sixth most in Revs history.
- Gil recorded a game-high six chances created on the night.
- Omar Gonzalez and Sebastian Lletget both made their Revolution debuts as part of the starting lineup after arriving in Foxborough this offseason.
- Lletget tallied a goal in his first match with the club, the first Revolution debutant to score in his first match since Gustavo Bou did so on July 17, 2019.
- DeJuan Jones made his 70th MLS appearance and surpassed 5,000 career minutes played. Jones marked the occasion with an assist on Lletget’s tally, the seventh of his Revolution tenure.
- Jozy Altidore made his Revolution debut, playing 11 minutes as a substitute, after signing with New England earlier in February.
- Earl Edwards Jr. made his Revolution MLS debut and his first league start since August 4, 2018. Edwards registered three saves as his career record moves to 1-3-2.
- Andrew Farrell had a team-high eight clearances on the night.
Referee: Chris Penso.
Assistant Referees: Jeremy Hanson (AR1), Cameron Blanchard (AR2).
Fourth Official: Brad Jensen.
Video Assistant Referee: Geoff Gamble.
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: TJ Zablocki.
Weather: 44 degrees and cloudy.
Scoring Summary:
NE – Brandon Bye 1 (Carles Gil 1) 41’
POR – Dairon Asprilla 1 (Santiago Moreno 1) 60’
NE – Sebastian Lletget 1 (DeJuan Jones 1, Tommy McNamara 1) 63’
POR – Yimmi Chara 1 (Unassisted) 78’
Misconduct Summary:
POR – Jose Van Rankin (Yellow Card- Bad Foul) 22’
POR – Dairon Asprilla (Yellow Card- Dissent) 28’
POR – Bill Tuiloma (Yellow Card- Bad Foul) 54’
POR – Gio Savarese (Yellow Card- Dissent) 54’
NE – Tommy McNamara (Yellow Card- Bad Foul) 70’
NE – Matt Polster (Yellow Card- Bad Foul) 76’
POR – Claudio Bravo (Yellow Card- Dissent) 84’
New England Revolution: Earl Edwards Jr.; DeJuan Jones, Omar Gonzalez, Andrew Farrell, Brandon Bye; Matt Polster, Tommy McNamara (Maciel 74’), Sebastian Lletget (Wilfrid Kaptoum 79’), Carles Gil ©; Adam Buksa, Gustavo Bou (Jozy Altidore 79’)
Substitutes Not Used: Jacob Jackson, Jon Bell, A.J. DeLaGarza, Ryan Spaulding, Emmanuel Boateng, Justin Rennicks
Portland Timbers: Aljaz Ivacic; Zac McGraw, Jose Van Rankin, Bill Tuiloma, Claudio Bravo; Dairon Asprilla (Marvin Loria 86’), Christhian Paredes, Diego Chara ©; Santiago Moreno (Sebastian Blanco 83’), Yimmi Chara, Jaroslaw Niezgoda
Substitutes Not Used: David Ayala, Justin vom Steeg, Blake Bodily, David Bingham, George Fochive, Justin Rasmussen, Diego Gutierrez
|
Portland Timbers |
Team Statistics |
New England Revolution |
|
17 (5) |
Shots (on Target) |
16 (7) |
|
6 |
Blocked Shots |
3 |
|
2.09 |
Expected Goals (xG) |
1.12 |
|
5 |
Saves |
3 |
|
4 |
Corner Kicks |
9 |
|
2 |
Offsides |
1 |
|
6 |
Fouls |
8 |
|
495 (79.6%) |
Passes Attempted (% Completed) |
390 (75.9%) |
|
54.6% |
Possession |
45.4% |
POSTGAME QUOTES: New England Revolution 2 at Portland Timbers 2
CLICK HERE for matchday media assets including photos, highlights, and postgame interview footage.
New England Revolution Sporting Director & Head Coach Bruce Arena
On how difficult it is to win on the road and his evaluation of New England’s newcomers:
Arena: “Well, in all of sports, playing away is difficult. I think when you get a point in the opening game against a team that was in the MLS Cup Final last year, it’s not a bad result. I obviously would have liked three points, but I thought the result was fair. The newcomers you mentioned, I thought they did well. Obviously, Omar [Gonzalez] and Sebastian [Lletget] played considerable minutes and Jozy [Altidore] got about 15 minutes at the end and I thought he did well. We’ve just got to get him on the field and get him some time.”
On Brandon Bye scoring off Carles Gil’s corner kick:
Arena: “Well, obviously, just a good goal. It was a corner kick I believe, second ball coming back in, and obviously a great header, right? And I think Brandon [Bye] had one or two goals last year on corners as well, so give him a lot of credit there.”
On goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr.’s performance in tonight’s match:
Arena: “He did well. He can’t be at fault for any of the goals. They scored two good goals. We made some mistakes in the back on both of the goals, but I think for Earl, his first game with us, he did very well.”
On Sebastian Lletget’s goal and what that could mean for the midfielder going forward:
Arena: “Well, it’s game one. There are 33 more games left in the regular season. We’ll just let that play out a little bit before we can analyze it too much but give him credit. It was a good goal. He played pretty well, played hard for about 75 minutes. I think he’s a good addition to our team.”
On the challenges preparing for tonight’s match after the team’s opening games in the Concacaf Champions League game were canceled:
Arena: “Well, I think we did well given the circumstances. Not having any real games before this hurt us a little bit. Our whole preseason schedule was based around the CCL competition, so losing those two matches set us back a little bit. So, I’m happy to see that we were able to give a pretty good effort today and get the result on the road.”
On how it felt to get back into game action and how the team can build on this moving forward:
Arena: “Well, it’s good, but you know, we have a lot of difficult games now ahead of us, obviously starting with our first home game of the season next week, so it’s going to be challenging. But we had to get some competition under our belt, so tonight was a positive in that regard and hopefully we can be better next week.”
New England Revolution Goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr.:
On making a pair of key saves:
Edwards Jr.: “Yeah, I think in general throughout MLS games, keepers are going to be called upon to make plays and you hope to step up when those times come. I was happy to do that a couple of times tonight, and we were fortunate to get the point.”
On the importance of making a save in the fifth minute:
Edwards Jr.: “Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, it’s a situation where it’s a pretty solid goal-scoring opportunity. So, to make a save like that, I was definitely getting my feet wet and building confidence off of that. I think that played a big factor going into the rest of the game.”
On his mindset before making his first MLS start since 2018:
Edwards Jr.: “I haven’t played a game since 2018 at this level, but with that in mind, it left me a lot of time to prepare, and I felt nothing but prepared going into this game. I had a lot of confidence going into it. I’m happy with my performance and hope to build on it moving forward.”
On his emotions after making his first save:
Edwards Jr.: “For me, I try to stay level-headed throughout games. [Andrew] Farrell and I had a moment during the second half after the double save where we got pretty amped, but I tried to stay pretty level-headed, and I had a lot of confidence going into the game. So, I think it was good to be able to make that save and I think kind of instill confidence in the team that I can hold it down for us when need be. Yeah, it was a good moment for us.”
On the general mood of the team following tonight’s result:
Edwards Jr.: “I think guys are pretty positive. I mean, we always come out and play for three points. So, we do feel like we wish we could have pulled that off, but to understand that we are playing the Western Conference champs from last year and to get a point on the road is a great start to the season and there were a lot of good things today. So, I think it’s a good starting point and we’ll build on it from here.”
On how good it felt to play a game after having two matches canceled:
Edwards Jr.: “Yeah, it was a great start. I know it’s a great place to start and get a point on the road. We did have a couple of hiccups throughout preseason, but we adapted, and things come up and you got to adapt and persevere. To come here and see the work that we put in through preseason come to fruition, I do think, again, it’s a solid point on the road and a great start to the season.”
On how he plans to maintain his starting spot:
Edwards Jr.: “As long as I’m called upon. I’ll be ready when I’m called upon, so we’ll see how it goes.”
New England Revolution Midfielder Sebastian Lletget:
On fitting in with New England and his performance in his first match with the Revs:
Lletget: “It’s always a transition. I’ve had a couple weeks now with the team. There’ve been some really good moments in preseason. I’m definitely trying to see where I can fit in and how I can add value to this team. Tonight was really tough. It’s a grinding one, you have to just grind it out. Playing here, I played here with the Galaxy many times, the fan base is incredible, the intensity never drops. They have a good team, but I thought we fought hard and thankfully we walked away with a point.”
On his first match with New England:
Lletget: “I’m kind of grateful it was a really tough one. Sometimes you can have some easy games. You can have some really good moments. It was a tough one and I’m glad it was. I’m grateful for it. I think I saw the character of the team. It’s always a transition. It’s tough. I went from one end of the country to the other, so finding a place to stay, things like that, I’ve never had to do that before. It’s been an experience, but I love these guys, the team has embraced me and thankfully we pulled one out together.”
On his celebration following his goal in Saturday’s match:
Lletget: “I mean, you always kind of blackout when you score, if I can say that. It definitely came from within. I want to make my mark on this team. I want to do well. I want to help this team win a championship. I’m here to create things and I’m here to add value to the team. To score a goal in the debut and just build on that, that’s kind of where that message was. It wasn’t anything personal against Portland fans or anything, but it was nice to hush them up a little bit.”
On scoring in his Revolution debut:
*Translated from Spanish*
Lletget: “I’m very happy, I’m very happy for the team. We came away with a point in a very tough place to play. I’m very happy because of that. I scored a goal and I want to build on that, continue creating chances for my teammates, and getting accustomed to my team. It’s my first real game. But honestly, I’m happy.”
On goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr.’s performance in net:
Lletget: “I thought he was incredible. He kept us in the game. I thought they had a chance very early on, maybe five minutes in. You need your goalkeeper to make those saves to keep you in games. I thought that on such short notice, to come in and play, it was big time from him. We needed that.”
On how the team has welcomed him in:
Lletget: “They’ve embraced me since day one since I got here. This locker room is probably one of the best I’ve ever seen. In such a short amount of time, I can definitely tell you that with certainty. I just want to keep adding value to this team. Last year, as a team, it wasn’t the best year collectively. For the team, individually, I know I could’ve done better. It’s one of my goals to come here to the New England Revolution and just do better and add value.”
On how the team handled the cancelation of the opening round of the Concacaf Champions League:
Lletget: “We were a little disappointed to not have those games. Especially Bruce, and also myself, because I wanted to get an opportunity to keep gelling with these guys. Thankfully we fit in some closed-door scrimmage games, but other than that, I didn’t really have that much time to gel with the guys. It was a shame but sometimes you just have to grind it out. You have to use your experience and try to find a way. Today was really tough for everybody. We know we can do better and the fact that we walk away with a point, I think it’s a good sign.”
