HARRISON, N.J. – New England coach Jay Heaps could not believe it when Andrew Farrell started to walking toward the sideline before the final sequence of the Revolution's 2-2 draw at New York on Saturday.
Heaps couldn't comprehend the situation. It just didn't make sense to him. He spotted the incident that left his defender wounded. Farrell had a swollen right eye, raw and exposed, but he didn't have blood gushing from the wound. Heaps asked for guidance from the officiating crew and said he received none.
“He said nothing,” Heaps told MLSsoccer.com. “There was no conversation. He just said he couldn't go in and this was the last kick of the game.”
Farrell didn't have anything offer on his end once he left the field, either. The rookie defender said referee Fotis Bazakos told him he needed to clean his face. Farrell sagely noted that he couldn't see his own face to assess the damage (he later posted a photo of his puffy eye on Instagram), but he said he thought it was more of a scrape.
The exact classification of the injury did not alter the method used to address it or reinforce the Revolution's now nine-man ranks for the last set piece. Farrell and Heaps watched together from the sideline as Tim Cahill headed home the equalizer in the 97th minute to conclude a wild closing period (including a disputed penalty decision against Jámison Olave and a red card to Andy Dorman) and send both teams home with a point.
“It's disappointing,” Farrell said. “The boys fought well. Matt [Reis] made some huge saves. Diego Fagundez had a great goal. The team fought well in the second half after not starting and playing our best in the first half. We have to move on from here. We got a point. We'll take the points right now. We have to keep going.”
It is all the Revs can do in the wake of the compelling conclusion to the game. Heaps said he and his players will shake off the late setback and start the preparations in earnest for Saturday's trip to Montréal.
“We're upset that we had three, we felt we did enough to get three with the way the game went for us,” Heaps said. “Look, no one wants to listen to the coach talk about how things were against them. All I know is that we wanted three, we got one, we're back at it and I'm proud of our guys.”
