The New England Revolution opened up their 2018 season with 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union after having two players sent off.
After a decent opening performance from the Revolution, center back Antonio Delamea denied CJ Sapong of a clear goalscoring opportunity with a rugby-style tackle in the 24th minute. Shortly after captain Claude Dielna received a yellow card for a sloppy tackle outside the box. Things went from bad to worse in the 86th minute when Dielna dragged Philadelphia winger Cory Burke to the ground, resulting in a second yellow and a red card.
The Revolution will be without both defenders for their home opener next Saturday.
After the first red card, the Union dominated the game, setting up multiple great chances that were either saved by Matt Turner or sent wide. The deadlock was finally broken in the 43rd minute by new Union signing Anthony Fontana, who fired a home a pass from Sapong which Turner couldn’t get to because there were two players on top of him.
Coming out of the halftime break, the Revolution took control of the game and generated multiple offensive chances that were eventually stopped by Union keeper Andre Blake. The Revolution eventually got caught out by the Union, as Burke bodied Gabriel Somi off the ball and centered the ball for Sapong, who fired it passed Turner at the near post to make it 2-0.
3 Takeaways
Discipline- One issue for the Revolution at the tail end of last season was discipline. In their final four road games of 2017, the Revolution had four players sent off. Including this game, in their last five road games, the Revolution have received six red cards. Discipline was one thing that the team needed to work on in the offseason and clearly they did not do a good enough job. This not only affected the outcome of the game, but led to Cristian Penilla making an early exit from the game despite the fact he had looked promising on offense. If the Revolution want to get anywhere this year, they need to show more discipline.
Turner shows promise- Many people were surprised to find Turner’s name in the starting XI when the lineups were released. The 23-year-old made his MLS debut in tonight’s game and showed signs of promise despite the 2-0 loss. While he was bailed by multiple poor shots, he still managed to make some nice saves without two of his starting center backs in the game. While regular starter Cody Cropper was out with an illness, prior to the game, head coach Brad Friedel said that Turner was the planned starter regardless. It will be interesting to see if Turner gets the nod down the road because he certainly is worth of it.
Dielna not captain material- Dielna wore the captain’s armband multiple times throwout the preseason and was showing signs of being an emerging leader in the squad. However, in this game, he put out a lackluster performance. After the team went down to 10 men, Dielna made a questionable challenge which resulted in an early yellow. He was later let off by the referee multiple times when he could have been sent off for poor fouls, and was eventually sent off when the referee could not bail him out anymore. With the poor performance that he put in with the armband, it is safe to assume Dielna will not wear the armband any time soon.
Looking ahead
The Revolution will play their home opener next Saturday, March 3 against the Colorado Rapids. Kick off is at 1:30 p.m. and will be without both Delamea and Dielna.
