Revolution Defeat Montreal On Final Minute Dagger

A dagger thru the heart. On Friday night the New England Revolution defeated the Montreal Impact 2-1 in an MLS Cup Playoff’s play-in match at Gillette Stadium. With the win, the Revolution move onto the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs with a match scheduled on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Union.

The Revolution scored first with Carles Gil scoring in the 38th minute off a brilliant ball from Gustavo Bou. Teal Bunbury under pressure hit a wide-open Tajon Buchanan who then hit Bou. Bou’s floating pass found Gil who took a one-timer with the shot hitting the turf and bouncing underneath the dive of Clement Diop.

Montreal bounced back in the 61sth minute with Romell Quioto netting the equalizer. The goal started off a free kick from near half-field with the ball finding the head of Rudy Camacho who headed it to Quioto who headed it past the lunging dive of Turner.

With a potential overtime looming the Revolution threw everything they had at the Impact in the final 10 minutes of the match. With the Revs knocking on the door, the match-winner was found in the 5th minute of stoppage time. DeJuan Jones centered a ball to Bou a few yards outside the box and the Designated Played sent in a laser-beam of a goal to make it 2-1. Bou’s goal may go down as one of the most iconic Revolution goals in history and certainly of recent memory.

 “Gustavo is a goal scorer,” said Revolution Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena on Bou. “And we expect him to get goals. I don’t think we’re anticipating that he’s going to get them all the time in the 95^th minute, but that’s what Gustavo does. He’s a goal scorer. He’s a good player, but his DNA is scoring goals. It’s great to see that he got one tonight. I think that’s going to help his confidence because it’s probably been awhile since he’s scored a goal. I think that was a great goal for him and certainly a great win for our team.”

Revolution Earn First Post-Season Win Since 2014, Now Onto Philly

This is the first post-season win for the Revolution since November 22, 2014, when they won at the New York Red Bulls. From a statement perspective, while defeating Montreal isn’t exactly a shock, the fight the Revolution showed and getting a post-season win under their belts is a huge positive.

“It was pretty much on the last play of the game that we won, but it was clear that we were going to score a goal in the second half,” said Revolution Midfielder Carles Gil. “Their goalkeeper played an outstanding game tonight. If not for that, we would’ve scored and taken the lead earlier in the game.”

Given the play-in nature of this match, the Revolution will have to prepare rather quickly for their next opponent. New England will take on the Philadelphia Union this Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. The Revolution have never faced the Union in a post-season match.

“Well, this is what we’ve been doing the entire year,” said Sporting Director and Head Coach Bruce Arena on the quick turnaround. “This is a rhythm that everyone’s used to. Literally, we have done this, if I’m not mistaken, basically every week since the start of July. We’ve had maybe one week, or two weeks at the most, where we’ve actually had a week between games. So, we’re used to this. We know the rhythm, the recovery, all of that and how you prepare for the next game. That’s not going to be anything that will be real difficult for us to deal with.”