The New England Revolution entered the World Cup break with a whimper as they suffered a 1-0 loss to Charlotte FC. New England's attack was toothless even though it had a man advantage for a half an hour.
Marko Mitrovic's side controlled possession as they had the ball for 58 percent of the match. Additionally, New England outshot Charlotte (14-12), but failed to register any big chances even though the Revs had eight shots on goal in the box.
“I think we had certain ideas when we had been up [a player, after Charlotte’s red card], on the way we wanted to do it," Mitrovic said when asked by The Blazing Musket about the performance and failing to find the back of the net. "I felt maybe we rushed to create better situations or to bring more numbers higher in the box. But I would also say that Charlotte was defending very well, they were still very dangerous in those moments in transition. And all of our backline almost [had] yellow cards, and kind of hesitated to step higher and to squeeze spaces even more so that we could recover those second balls, which I understand would take a lot of risk. But, it is what it is.”
Part of the reason for the struggle was the absence of Luca Langoni as he attended to a personal family matter in Argentina. The winger has been a crucial part of the Revs attack and was dearly missed on the night.
Diego Fagundez and Peyton Miller lacked the dynamic ability that Langoni has. The Argentine can score out of nowhere and his confidence was missed against Charlotte.
Additionally, Dor Turgeman once again had a poor performance. While he failed to register a goal once again, the service he received wasn't up to par.
But it isn't a good sign when Brayan Ceballos is your top player in terms of xG output. New England needs more from the striker come the second half of the season.
The Revs got a lifeline when Charlotte went down a man after David Schnegg was issued a second yellow card after taking down Miller. Still, the Revolution were unable to find the crucial goal that would have seen them leave Bank of America stadium with a point or potentially more.
Unfortunately, New England was unable to break down Charlotte's defensive unit. The Carolina club bunkered down and was successful in its efforts.
“I mean, [Charlotte] is a well-structured team," Ethan Kohler said. "They’re a team with a willingness to defend. They came together, in all fairness, when they got that red card and sat deep, and won their duels. I think that’s always going to make it difficult. Of course, we can do better in moments and we will do better. But they were organized. They were blocking shots, playing headers. They did a good job of making things difficult.”
