Sunday saw Pablo Moreira and his Revolution II side return to action as they welcomed Chicago Fire II to Beirne Stadium. Revs II saw its unbeaten streak sanpped as Chicago secured a 2-1 win.
Pablo Moreira injected a good amount of youth into the lineup, making seven changes from the lineup that secured a 2-1 win over Red Bull New York II. Max Weinstein got his third-straight start in goal behind the backline of Jared Smith, Jake Shannon, Aaron Prajapati, and Grant Emerhi. Shuma Sasaki, Logan Azar, Levi Katsell, and Carlos Zambrano comprised the midfield quartet behind the attacking duo of Jayden Da and Matthew Jean Baptiste.
Chicago’s Damian Nigg nearly got Fire II on the board in the 17th minute when he found a pocket of space acres away from goal and attempted to curl a shot to the upper-right corner. But he put too much on his shot as it reverberated off the crossbar and out for a goal kick.
Chicago finally found the breakthrough in the 38th minute as Oscar Pineda zipped a pass forward into the path of Dean Boltz, who broke past the defense and whipped a ball past a diving Weinstein and in to give the road side a 1-0 lead.
In the 44th minute Robert Turden sprang a ball forward that led to Vitaly Hlyut maneuvering around Aarin Prajapati and getting onto the ball. Weinstein did his best to track an advancing Hlyut, but the midfielder skillfully tapped it to the far corner and into the net to double Chicago’s lead.
Moreira’s first changes of the day came in the 54th minute as Sharod George and Academy prospect Cristiano Carlos replaced Da and Sasaki. Another change came in the 61st minute as Joe Buck replaced Katsell.
Momentum started swinging in New England’s favor in the 65th minute when Zambrano got underneath an attempted clearance from Chicago and flashed the footwork with a sweet spinning move around Robert Turdan as he pushed forward. Turdan attempted to stick a foot in to dispossess Zambrano, but ended up taking him down inside the box, leading to New England earning a crucial penalty kick.
Zambrano was the one to step to the spot as he looked to cut the deficit in half. The midfielder sent the keeper diving in the opposite direction as he drilled a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner to shrink Chicago’s lead to one.
On the opposite side of the pitch, Revs fans were brought down memory lane as Assistant Coach/player Omar Gonzalez entered the match in the 66th minute.
Max Weinsten and the woodwork came to the rescue in the 75th minute. It started with Vitaliy Hlyut receiving a backpass just outside the penalty box and crushing it goalward. Weinstein reacted just in time to redirect it to the crossbar as the ball deflected out of play for a corner.
Revolution II’s final changes of the day came in the 78th minute as Academy prospects Daniel Dixon and Josh Macedo replaced Prajapati and Emerhi.
Weinstein came up big again in the 81st minute as he stretched himself wide to deflect Hlyut’s close-range effort as Revolution II quickly pounced onto the loose ball and cleared it away. Jared Smith was inches away from leveling the game in the 82nd minute as he got on the end of Emeri’s pass a few yards out from the box and attempted to curl a shot to the near-left corner, but Nemo dove down in time to tip the ball out of play.
Revolution II will look to shake off the loss on June 18 when they travel north of the border to face Toronto FC II.
