Saturday's 2-2 draw against CF Montreal carries some disappointment, as the New England Revolution held 57% possession, created three big chances for 2.94 expected goals, and were up 2-0 at halftime.
Montreal equalized during the first 15 minutes of the second half via a long-range shot by Brayan Vera and a powerful header from Prince Owusu. They were picturesque goals from a motivated home side.
The Revs weren't necessarily outplayed in the second stanza, as they held even possession and managed nine more touches in the opposition's box. Dor Turgeman had a fast break that forced a critical save from Sebastian Breza.
After the game, I asked head coach Marko Mitrovic to reflect on the positive first half. His entire response is below:
I think we had very good clarity on the ball and going forward. I think it’s a part of the game that we are improving, and game after game, we’re getting in situations to finish the attack and have clarity about that.
I think besides the two goals that we scored, we had a lot of situations, not just chances, but also very good situations that we kind of missed that one more pass to put ourselves in a better spot, but I felt that we were very dangerous when we were on the ball.
We can say the result is 2-2, but the lesson is you can concede goals at any given moment, from any kind of situation. Is it that shot from 40 yards? Is it that cross all the way from the sideline? But that’s football and those things happen.
I don’t want to say this is a learning process, because everything is a learning process. You don’t need to have some things that don’t go your way in order to learn. I think for us, every day is an opportunity to get better and we also have to be very positive, because there were so many good moments today in the game.
I agree with Mitrovic, as I saw several patterns of play that can be replicated. Let's take a closer look.
