CHESTER, Pa. – It was one of the turning points of Sunday's 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union.
With close to an hour left to play, New England Revolution right back Je-Vaughn Watson was sent off for a tackle which left the visiting Revs with 10 men and a 2-0 deficit.
But New England head coach Jay Heaps had no qualms with that decision made by referee Nima Saghafi, who was making his MLS officiating debut. However, Heaps did have a different opinion on the two penalty kicks awarded to the Union in the match.
“I didn’t fault the referee for that [red card],” Heaps said of Watson’s studs-up challenge on Roland Alberg that sent him to an early shower. “I faulted him for the two penalty kicks, quite frankly. One right in front of us, the breeze was blowing harder than he got touched. And the one in the second half was textbook you don’t do it.”
But the penalty kicks didn't impact the final result as goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth bailed out the Revs on both occasions with big saves – the first on Ilsinho and the second on Sebastien Le Toux, who had made all 13 of his previous PKs coming in.
Shuttleworth became the fourth goalkeeper in MLS history to stop two PKs in the same regular-season game – although he quickly brushed off the accomplishment.
“It’s one of those things. But there were plenty of times where I had the defenders bailing me out,” the Revs ’keeper said. “I was just trying to stand up tall and that’s it.”
Meanwhile, Shuttleworth chalked up New England’s rough 0-1-2 start to the season as just “one of those things” that the team needs to move forward from as a team.
But Heaps seemed pleased with a lot of things the Revs were able to do in a game in which he noted “we were battling a lot of different things,” including an injury to top striker Charlie Davies.
“I thought we did have the momentum, quite frankly,” the New England coach said. “We out-possessed them 60-40 in the game being down a man. I thought our chances could have been cleaner. And I thought we were in on goal in the second half a couple of times, but unfortunately we didn’t take advantage.”
