Revolution II vs Crew 2: Three Thoughts
Three thoughts following Revolution II's two-point performance.
Sunday’s return to action was a wild affair of events for New England Revolution II. Despite Columbus Crew 2 finding the opener minutes into the second half, a penalty kick goal from Marcos Dias plus another strike from Damorney Hutchinson had Revs II on track for a 2-1 win. That was until a poor clearance atop the 18-yard box led Chase Adams to find his second goal of the evening in stoppage time to seal the 2-2 draw.
Goalkeeping efforts from Donovan Parisian, combined with good attempts from the penalty takers, plus a well-timed miss from Columbus, gave Revs II the additional point following a 5-4 shootout victory.
Here are three thoughts!
1 - Disastrous Mishaps
Revolution II’s lack of awareness in key moments was their downfall.
The first came at the start of the second half when Crew 2 played a long ball forward to Brent Adu-Gyamfi, who slipped in between the duo of Keegan Hughes and Gabe Dahlin and drove forward. Adu-Gyamfi then slips the ball to Chase Adams, who evades Victor Souza to tap the ball into the back of the net from yards out.
The second one came in stoppage time when a poor clearance led to Columbus getting the ball to Chase Adams, who slotted home his second of the evening to secure the draw.
While the draw itself is a disappointing result on its own, it was even more disappointing to see it come in the fashion it did. The one positive to take away is that this will be a tremendous learning experience for all involved to stay locked in for all 90 minutes.
2 - Powerful Penalties
The one thing Revolution II has excelled at is securing additional points from penalty shootouts.
After their first season in MLS NEXT Pro, which saw them win just one of four shootouts, Revs II have secured a staggering 15 victories in 20 shootout attempts.
It’s something we saw on Sunday. Despite a horrific end in regular time, Revs II put their emotions to the side and put up a strong performance as a 5-4 victory led them to the win and an extra point.
While Richie Williams and the players would ideally love to avoid going to a shootout, there's no denying it's a good mechanism to have in MLS NEXT Pro. It provides these young players a chance to experience the high pressure of a shootout and the opportunity to learn how to execute and defend penalties before moving up to the first team.
3 - Dazzling Damorney
2025 has been a rollercoaster of a season for Damorney Hutchinson. After a solid run of appearances at the beginning of the year, an unfortunate injury caused him to miss five matches, which threw a wrench in his momentum.
Since returning on June 27, Hutchinson has slowly integrated as an option off the bench, with his longest spell lasting 28 minutes. Despite not starting on Sunday, Hutchinson still found a way to leave an impact on the game as he scored what should have been the game-winner in the 88th minute. He also came up big in the third round of the shootout to score and level it at two apiece.
Hopefully, we see Hutchinson become a more used option in this offense going forward.