The New England Revolution have gone from needing some help in the goalscoring department to being one of the best attacks in the Eastern Conference.
In the first half of the season, New England was largely supported by the goalscoring efforts of Carles Gil and Peyton Miller. Alhassan Yusuf had even been involved in the scoring efforts.
But since the World Cup break, New England has been operating at a higher level. Dor Turgeman has finally found his scoring boots and is taking some of the burden off of New England's captain.
“Yeah, it's very valuable," Peyton Miller said when asked about New England's attacking threats. "We have a lot of offensive threats on our team, especially the guys that start, and guys that are coming off the bench. They just bring energy to the game.”
New England's scoring ability has been further supported by the addition of Dániel Gazdag. Since being acquired in September, the forward has scored three goals, showing off his clutch ability.
With Jack Harrison missing significant time since his arrival, Gazdag has been a valuable option on the wing and has received significant minutes. Two of his three goals have been game-winners.
Against Miami, Gazdag showed off his ability to find the back of the net. After a great run from Miller, Gazdag cut across the face of goal and blasted a shot in the back of the net to give New England an early lead.
While the lead would eventually evaporate, it was a display of what he brings to this Revolution roster.
“Scoring goals is a really high quality that players can have in them," Revolution head coach Marko Mitrovic said after the game. "At the end of the day, you win the game by scoring goals. Something that we know about Dániel [Gazdag] is that Dániel has the capacity to score goals. He has proven in this league that he can [score goals] over and over again. When Dániel joined us, I think for us the biggest challenge was to learn who he is and how we can use him in the best possible way. But also, for Dániel to learn about us. “I think we’re learning. We’re getting better and better. But I still believe that Dániel will need them time. Since Dániel came to the club, we have players that Dániel still hasn’t had one training session [with]. It’s just [him] learning about them, and we’re still learning about Dániel. But the steps forward are there and that’s what is important.”
Gazdag is still likely to impact just how far New England will go in the playoffs. While Harrison is expected to be healthy enough to feature in some capacity in the first playoff match, just how many minutes he can play remains to be seen.
“Obviously, Jack [Harrison] had a very significant injury, but he's on track," Marko Mitrovic said on Thursday. "There were no setbacks. We are very happy with how he's progressing, and he's going to miss this game against Orlando, but if everything goes well, he'll be available for the first game of playoffs. Again, I know there's going to be questions about how much he can play, but we cannot forget that he's now almost three months out."
In the postseason, you need players who can be relied on to make something out of nothing. Players who can pull a goal out of nowhere and just have a knack for finding the back of the net.
With the likes of Miller and Gil receiving the bulk of focus from opposition defenders, Gazdag can have opportunities open up for him or potentially take some of the defensive attention away from New England's top goalscorers.
So whether it is off the bench or from the starting XI, expect Gazdag to show why he has etched out an impressive MLS career for himself.
