New England Revolution at Houston Dynamo: 3 Thoughts
Somehow the Revs aren't eliminated from playoff contention
The New England Revolution returned to play on Wednesday evening as they headed down to Texas to take zero points from the Houston Dynamo as the Revs suffered a 2-1 loss.
New England’s starting XI was relatively unchanged as Aljaz Ivacic started in net behind the back line of Peyton Miller, Xavier Arreaga, Dave Romney, and Brandon Bye.
In the midfield Alhassan Yusuf got another start alongside Matt Polster while Carles Gil was in his familiar No. 10 role. On the wings, Luca Langoni returned to the starting XI alongside Esmir Bajraktarevic. Finally Bobby Wood was the lone striker up top.
But what do you need to know about the match? Here are three thoughts.
1 - Finishing Failures
New England had multiple point-blank chances to score in the first half and failed to take advantage. This has been an issue throughout the regular season as the Revolution have struggled to find goals.
Particularly Yusuf and Bajraktarevic had prime opportunities to score and failed to do so. Yusuf collected his own rebound and was right in front of net but skied the shot over the net.
Bajraktarevic on the other hand received a pass from Carles Gil diagonal from the near post and managed to miss hit his shot wide as it dribbled out of bounds.
Even as a sub, Giacomo Vrioni got involved in the misses. He was served a corner on a platter in the box but the ball skimmed past his head.
While far from the only reason, New England’s inability to finish has played a part in the struggles of 2024. Looking ahead to 2025, the Revolution need to be much more clinical in the final third if they want to make it out of the basement of the Eastern Conference.
2 - Aljaz Ivacic
I can’t come up with any more aliterations. It seems like every game I am shouting out Ivacic cause he manages to make impressive save after impressive save.
While New England allowed a goal there were numerous saves that the goalkeeper made that belong on the highlight reel. If it wasn’t for Ivacic, the match probably ends with a lopsided scoreline.
While a lot of places on the roster seem in question, the goalkeeper position seems locked up. Ivacic looks like he will be New England’s No. 1 for the foreseeable future.
3 - A Penalty?!?!
It took until matchday 36 but New England took its first penalty of the MLS season after Luca Langoni was taken down in the box. Carles Gil stepped up to the spot and scored his seventh goal of the season as the Revolution tied the match.
The penalty eliminated the excuse that there is some agenda against the Revolution. Still, it wasn’t enough to see New England leave Houston with any points.
New England’s backs remain against the wall headingin into a weekend matchup against D.C. United. If the Revolution win they have a chance to draw level with their Eastern Conference foes.
But once again New England failed to secure three points when it was necessary. Even when trying to look at things positively, there isn’t a lot of hope that next year won’t yield similar results unless massive changes are made.
Update: D.C. just beat Nashville with a last-minute stunner so now New England is three points off of Nashville.
When this season is finally over, you're going to need to take us through the roster and tell us who you would send off.
At least we fought for a result that game. A lot of games this year we go down and the game is over right then. This game we made Houston work to the last second for it, so I’m happy about that at least!