“You have to, at some point, make good decisions in tough times in games, and we didn’t do that.”
A Gustavo Bou goal had New England Revolution fans believing that their club would be able to walk away from Subaru Park with three points but things changed quickly.
In the 75th minute, Djordje Petrovic misread a corner and left an open net for Mikael Uhre and four minutes later, Henry Kessler pushed down a Daniel Gazdag in the box leaving Gazdag to slot home a penalty kick.
New England’s 1-0 lead quickly evaporated to a 2-1 deficit.
“I obviously think in the second half we played very well and we just blew the game,” Head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena said. “First goal [for Philadelphia], a mistake by our goalkeeper who runs into our own player and obviously, we didn’t do a good job on whoever headed the ball in [Mikael Uhre]. And then the second goal, it’s just a really poor play on the part of Henry Kessler. There’s no reason for him to be fouling a player. So, at the very least, I think we deserved a point today and didn’t get it. Philadelphia was a smarter team on the day.”
Arena later was asked by The Bent Musket how the Revolution could limit or mitigate these costly mistakes.
“Well, you would like to believe that through experiences, players can make better decisions. Djordje [Petrović] is still young. As a young goalkeeper, you’re going to make some of those mistakes. Henry [Kessler] should have enough experience at this point to make better decisions on those type of plays. Those are not plays you can work on in training. You have to, at some point, make good decisions in tough times in games, and we didn’t do that.”
Unfortunately, this has been a theme for New England. Over the course of the 2022 MLS season, the Revolution have lost 24 points in matches where they held the lead at one point in the match after the loss to the Union.
For center back Jon Bell, the team as a whole simply needs to perform better.
I feel like that’s been an ongoing thing for us this year,” Bell said. “Myself, I’ve made mistakes that cost us the game when we had the momentum and were playing really well. So, it’s just a self-reflection thing on all of us. We’ve just got to be better and limit our mistakes, because really, I think most teams can’t beat us until we make our own mistakes.”
During the match, Bell had a collision with Alejandro Bedoya when the two players went up for a header. The front of Bell’s head connected with the back of Bedoya’s and the two players were evaluated by their respective medical staff’s. After the match, Bell stated that he was feeling “a little doozy” but that he will be alright.
With the loss, New England is currently sitting at 10th in the Eastern Conference and out of the playoff hunt. They will get a chance to rectify their mistakes on July 23 when the Revolution head to Columbus to face the Crew.