Revs II Recap: Revolution II 1 - Philadelphia Union II 3
Revs II Recap: Revolution II 1 - Philadelphia Union II 3
Revs II suffer their first home defeat of the 2024 campaign.
Richie Willams and New England Revolution II returned to action Sunday afternoon as they hosted Philadelphia Union II at Mark A. Ouellette Stadium on the campus of SNHU. Revs II came into Sunday’s match looking to get back into the win column after suffering a 2-1 loss to Crown Legacy FC on the road on May 8th.
Williams made three changes to the lineup from last weekend’s loss. J.D. Gunn started in goal behind the back line of Hesron Barry, Eric Klein, Damario McIntosh, and Moshtaba Al-Hasnawi, who made his first start for Revolution II. Patrick Leal, Maciel, and Luka Borovic comprised the midfield behind the attacking trio of Malcolm Fry, Marcos Dias, and Alex Monis.
A near opportunity came Philly’s way in the opening minute when Chris Olney slotted a ball across the box to Chris Donovan, who looked for a simple tap-in. Luckily for Revs II, Barry was there to block the shot.
Dias looked poised to add to his Revs II goal-scoring tally in the sixth minute when he outmaneuvered his marker and pounced toward an open ball, but keeper Andrew Rick came off his line to scoop the ball.
Neither side capitalized on their chances in the opening 45 as things remained scoreless entering halftime. There was one change before the start of the second half, as Alex Parvu came on for Fry.
A poor turnover at the start of the second half led to a perfect opportunity for Philadelphia as Donovan found himself darting toward Gunn all alone. The goalkeeper squared up to Donovan, but the forward slotted the ball to the bottom-right corner of the net to give Philly a 1-0 lead early in the second half.
Williams made two changes in the 59th as Gevork Diarbian and Joshua Bolma came on for Al-Hasnawi and Borovic.
Gunn came up huge in the 61st minute as a missed clearance led to Olney getting a one-versus-one opportunity against Gunn. Olney attempted to find the bottom-right corner like Donovan, but Gunn was alert as he stretched to make the save.
Dias put Revs II on his back in the 63rd minute when he got onto Monis’ deflected shot and ripped the ball to the upper-right corner to level the game at one apiece.
Philadelphia stretched its lead to two in the 82nd minute after Olwethu Makhanya leaped into the air and headed the corner kick home.
Despite a valiant effort, Revs II was unable to recover as they suffered their first home defeat of the 2024 campaign following a 3-1 loss to Union II. Revs II will look to shake a two-match losing streak on May 26th when they host New York City FC II at Mark A. Ouellette Stadium at 3:00 PM ET.