“Who knows. The referees, who knows what they do, how they’re supposed to do things. Who the hell knows.”
With the match tied at 1 in extra time, the New England Revolution appeared to have one more chance to try and walk out of Gillette Stadium with three points.
New England won a corner and was hurrying to lineup for one last chance at goal but the referee blew the final whistle and the Revs had to settle for one point.
The fact that the game came down to a late corner was a result of New England once again failing to close out a game. After a Gustavo Bou penalty gave the Revolution a lead, an Omar Gonzalez gaffe evened things up at got the Union back in the match.
Still, the fact that the referee refused to let New England take their final corner was a move that had players and coaches confused.
“Who knows,” Bruce Arena said when asked about the decision to end the match. “The referees, who knows what they do, how they’re supposed to do things. Who the hell knows.”
Captain Carles Gil said that he didn’t understand the decision and fellow midfielder Sebastian Lletget also thought that it was weird how the match ended.
“Yeah, that was a bit of a weird one,” he said. “I’ve never seen a corner given, and then he just calls it. It’s a bit of a weird way to end. I’d get it if we take the corner, they clear it, and then he calls it. That would be a bit more normal, but you’ve got to give us a chance there. Again, it is what it is, and we just have to deal with it.”
With how the game ended, New England will be kicking themselves for not converting on earlier chances, The Revolution finished with 22 shots but only had four on target. Also ending the match with an xG of 3.02 according to FotMob, the club clearly needs to do better in the final third.
One player who had a boatload of chances was newly acquired winger Dylan Borrero. The 2o-year-old entered the match in the 63rd minute and finished the match with 18 touches, three shots, and an xG of .52. There were multiple opportunities for the Colombian to find the back of the net in his home debut but he failed to do so.
Still, Borrero said that the decision to call the match abruptly was bothersome as New England had one last chance to possibly score.
So while the Revolution shot themselves in the foot by making mistakes and not converting on chances, New England will be left wondering what could have happened if they had one last chance to secure three points against the Union.