The crayon flags faced off against the snowflakes/Oreos on Sunday night
The clouds covered Gillette Stadium (for at least the first half) but at least it wasn’t raining as the New England Revolution faced off against CF Montreal.
With Montreal currently in sixth place, this had the makings of a good match. After New England defeated inferior teams in Atlanta United and Inter Miami.
The weather didn’t deter fans as over 18,000 fans were in attendance.
The Revs made some more changes in the starting XI after making six against Miami. New England fielded a much stronger squad getting all three DP’s out on the field.
Andrew Farrell also earned his 255th MLS appearance while Jon Bell got his second straight start alongside the veteran. Also Arnór Traustason and Christian Mafla maintained their starting positions.
So what do you need to know about Sunday’s matchup? Here are three thoughts.
1 – DP’s dominate
After VAR took away a goal from the Revolution, fans might have been a little down, but that didn’t last long.
Just a few minutes later Gustavo Bou rocketed home his eighth goal of the season and now leads New England in goals.
This is the Bou that Revolution fans know and love. With one strike he can change the outlook of a game.
With Buksa and Bou being paired up top, it was promising to see the duo work together. In fact all three Designated Players look good together.
This is what Revolution fans expected with three DP’s. That these players would make an impact on the scoresheet and in play.
Sadly for New England this wouldn’t last long as one of these players was forced to leave the game.
Even after Buksa was out Gil and Bou were able to connect on the second goal of the game. It was a great night for the striker who seems to have found his scoring touch.
2 – Adam Buksa could be out for a while
There was a scary moment in the first half as Adam Buksa collided with James Pantemis. On the replay you saw Buksa get clocked and he was down for a few moments. The keeper was trying to punch the ball and connected with Buksa’s head.
Buksa was able to walk off the field and come back to play but something looked off. Around 15 minutes later Buksa would go down on his own and trainers came to his aid as he sat up. Buksa was gesturing as though his vision might have been impaired or just that he was simply confused.
When looking at the replay of the collision combined with those gestures, it appears as though Buksa was concussed but we will just have to wait for official news from the club.
If he is concussed New England could be without Buksa for quite a while. Seeing that they are already missing Tajon Buchanan on the attack, the Revs would be dealt with quite the blow.
But with these types of injuries extreme caution needs to be taken. A head injury is nothing to rush back from.
Hopefully the Polish striker is feeling well and fans will see him back on the pitch relatively soon.
3 -Christian Mafla gets some increased playing time
It wasn’t all fun and games for Christian Mafla.
Let’s start with the good. Mafla played the most minutes that fans have seen him in a Revolution uniform. After all the injuries he has had to deal with it’s simply great to see Mafla play.
As a left back he had some solid moments. He made a key play to stop what would have been a sure-fire goal in the second half.
But there are still some problems in Mafla’s game. He commits a lot of fouls and has been caught out of position multiple times. This has left the rest of the back line out to dry and almost cost New England on the scoreboard even towards the end of the game. These injuries ended up in Scott Caldwell replacing Mafla.
While Sunday night was another successful night for New England, the slew of injuries will definitely have fans worried with a jam packed schedule in August and September.
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