Revs Rue Missed Chances As Lionel Messi Scores Two in Foxboro

“We start by conceding a goal that I think was a gift for Messi.”

Photo Courtesy of the New England Revolution

The New England Revolution were unable to negate two goals by Lionel Messi as they lost 2-1 to Inter Miami CF on Wednesday night.

The game’s opening tally came in the 27th minute when Tanner Beason knocked the ball into the path of Messi, who had a simple one-time finish.

“We start by conceding a goal that I think was a gift for Messi,” Carles Gil said.

Messi struck again 11 minutes later when he made an undetected run to get on the end of a sublime pass from Sergio Busquets.

The Revs, who often looked to transition quickly to punish Inter Miami’s high line, did have chances. Luca Langoni almost scored just before Messi’s first goal, Leo Campana had two shots before halftime, and Gil had a bid in the 60th minute.

Tomas Chancalay pounced on a rebound created by Campana’s shot in the 65th minute, but his right-footed attempt wasn’t on the frame. Luis Diaz forced a strong save in the 73rd minute.

As might be expected, Gil got the Revs on the board when he won the ball and fired a shot from the top of the box.

“I think we still created very good chances tonight,” Gil said. “We missed incredible chances that normally we are going to score.”

The game felt similar to Saturday’s outing against the Portland Timbers when the Revs had more shots, shots on target, and expected goals.

In both situations, they walked away with zero points. The Revolution have just one win in their last ten games, collecting eight points of a possible 30.

Porter noted that he sees positives despite recent results.

“Playing Miami, playing Portland– two of the best teams in each conference, and playing the way we played, yeah, I’m encouraged,” head coach Caleb Porter said. “But also, it’s two games where we have big chances that we don’t score, so, that has me wondering why and how I can correct that.”

Porter explained that the team consistently does finishing drills and works on patterns of play.

“It just takes the player in the moment, the confidence, the mentality, and quality of score,” Porter said.

The Revs have just one multi-goal loss this year, which indicates that their games have been close. There’s optimism in the locker room that they can turn some of these matches into more positive results.

“After I was done talking to the group, Carles stood up and his message, I thought, was excellent,” Porter said. “Because he said that when you look at the best teams in the league, we’ve played well enough to win, and we know we can go and win these future games.

“That’s the key, right? When the results aren’t coming, you don’t want to lose that five percent energy and confidence. It has to go the opposite. You have to gain five percent energy and confidence to get those boxes right. But we can, like Carles said and I’ve been saying, we can go and beat anybody.”