Esmir Bajraktarevic A Bright Spot In Revolution Loss

Dave Romney: “I thought his energy and his fight was really good.”

Photo Courtesy of the New England Revolution

One of the bright spots from the New England Revolution’s 3-1 loss to D.C. United was Esmir Bajraktarevic.

The 18-year-old had 49 touches during his 88-minute performance. He was 16 for 21 on accurate passes, 3 for 3 on successful dribbles, 2 for 4 on tackles won, and 13 for 13 on ground duels. He also drew seven fouls, the most on either team.

“I thought he played very well,” head coach Caleb Porter said. “He was explosive. You’re going to get a goal off a counter or a set piece when you’re in that situation down a man. I thought he had a couple of counterattacks that caused them problems. So I thought he had a good night, under the circumstances.”

The Revs were put in a difficult spot as they had to play down a man for 65 minutes after Giacomo Vrioni was shown a second yellow.

Bajraktarevic still had moments where he shined, particularly in the second half. At one point it looked as though the attacker drew a penalty, but the center referee said the infraction happened outside of the box after he was summoned to the screen by the Video Assistant Referee.

“It's a really tough game,” Dave Romney said. “That game wouldn't necessarily be one that I would suit for Esmir’s kind of style, but I thought he played really, really well and I thought he gave us a spark at the beginning of the second half that was huge.

“He did a lot on the wing and he created some chances for us and he potentially drew a PK for us to get back in the game. I didn't also get a good look at that one if it was in or out of the box. There's a lot of bang-bang plays in that one for those new refs, but I thought his energy and his fight was really good.”