Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

New England Revolution earn first home win, rout Montreal Impact 3-1

The New England Revolution earned its first home win of 2020 by beating the Montreal Impact 3-1 at Gillette Stadium in MLS action.
New England Revolution vs. Impact

Foxborough, Mass. — The New England Revolution returned to winning ways at home Wednesday night as they beat the Montreal Impact 3–1 at Gillette Stadium.

Henry Kessler opened the scoring with his first professional goal just before halftime and Gustavo Bou and Diego Fagundez added more in the second half as the Revolution recorded their first home victory since last September.

Wednesday night’s win snapped a five-game winless run at home to start the 2020 season and marked the first time this year that New England has scored more than twice in a single game.

“I think it’s important for players’ confidence,” said Revolution head coach/sporting director Bruce Arena. “We had chances to maybe score a few more goals tonight, and I think we were fortunate to run into a tired team in Montreal.”

New England (4–3–6, 18 points) jumps over Montreal (5–7–1, 16 points) and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

Montreal, which lost 4–1 to Philadelphia at Red Bull Arena on Sunday, entered Wednesday’s contest against the Revolution without Romell Quioto (suspension) and with injuries to Max Urruti, Matheiu Choiniere, Steeven Saba and Ballou Tabla.

The Revolution went after the Impact right away and out-shot the visitors 20–7 on the night.

That said, the breakthrough from Kessler didn’t arrive until the stroke of halftime. Nguyen’s corner reached Kessler in the heart of the box. Then Kessler chested the feed down and unleashed a drive with his right foot that rolled past Diop.

“[Bruce] makes fun of me quite a bit and says he wants me to score three or four goals a year…that’s a goal center backs should have to score around there,” Kessler said of opening his professional scoring account.

“It meant a lot. I was very obviously excited about my first goal. My teammates they all support me and I’m so thankful for that. They were excited for me too and that made the moment all the better.”

New England finds goals over Montreal

From there, Bou doubled the advantage on the other side of halftime with his third goal of the season. He took a pass from Tajon Buchanan at the top of the box in the 49th minute, controlled, and then fired for the far corner for the 2–0 lead.

Fagundez entered the game in the 63rd minute for Nguyen and procured New England’s third goal two minutes later. He took Buchanan lay-off near the left side of the penalty area and then slotted his first goal of the season past Diop and into the far corner.

Montreal notched a consolation strike in the 86th minute as Lassi Lappalainen, who sprinted forward on a counter-attack off an Emanuel Maciel through pass, finished past Matt Turner to make it 3–1.

“I’m happy with the win,” Bou said after the game through a Spanish Translator. “Obviously we need to convert, we need to score goals…this helps us gain confidence to continue creating chances and generating opportunities.

“I think we created about five or six solid chances tonight. As a forward, and as an attacker, I’m really happy with that and I think this is really going to help us move forward.”

 

 

Embed from Getty Images

Share:

More Posts

Send Us A Message