FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With one second half strike holding up the collective group of New England Revolution players on Friday against the New York Red Bulls, coaches and supporters alike let out a big sigh of relief.
After another frustrating start to a season, in which the club went 0-1-3 over the opening month of the season, the Revs kicked off April with a 1-0 victory to earn the first win of 2016.
“It’s a huge boost for us,” said forward Juan Agudelo, who helped set up the game’s lone goal. “We really wanted it. We were tired of hearing reports of us struggling. We’re just a really good team that works hard. We deserve the three points, and maybe a couple of more points in the past games. But we’re really happy that we got the three points to kind of move forward. That feeling of the first win of the season is big.”
Scott Caldwell sent a long pass from the Revs end into the right side of the box, where Agudelo had gotten in behind the Red Bulls back line to collect it before sliding it across the box to Diego Fagundez, who had plenty of open space on the far side to deposit the game-winner in the 55th minute.
The goal was not without controversy, however, as Red Bulls defender Kemar Lawrence went down injured just prior to Caldwell's pass and the visitors claimed play should have been stopped as a result.
“Once the ball was played over the top and I see Agudelo going in, I thought he was offside,” Fagundez said. “Once I kept looking, there was no call being made, I just tried to make my run. The ball went across and I’m glad I was on the back post.”
After a first half that saw the Revs miss on a few very solid chances, an emotional halftime gathering kicked things into gear for the group.
Unhappy with the first 45 minutes of play, the hosts vowed to go out and chance things up, which ultimately led to the goal and their first three point haul on the season.
“We always said 1-0 wins are always nice, because you don’t really get a lot of them,” said Fagundez. “And I think this team, we fought all the way to the end. We were trying to get that first goal…most important thing is we got three points in front of our crowd. Now we just have to keep moving forward because it’s a long season.”
