July 7, 2021 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – New England Revolution News Release
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution (7-3-3; 24 pts.) fell to Toronto FC (2-8-2; 8 pts.), 3-2, at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday night. All three of Toronto’s goals came in the first half, with Yeferson Soteldo, Kemar Lawrence, and Tsubasah Endoh scoring in the 9th, 15th, and 24th minutes, respectively. Carles Gil pulled one back for the hosts in the 56th minute with a free kick from beyond the penalty arc, with Adam Buksa adding a second goal in the 78th minute. The loss is the Revolution’s first at Gillette Stadium this season, snapping a five-game winning streak to open this year’s home slate and a seven-game home winning streak across all competitions.
Gil’s goal is his second of the season, and his first via free kick in his Revolution career. He now owns 12 combined goals and assists on the season, which is most among MLS players. Buksa’s goal is his fifth of the year – one shy of his total from last season and one behind Gustavo Bou (6) for the team lead.
Midfielder Emmanuel Boateng, signed by New England as a free agent this offseason, made his club debut as a substitute in the 65th minute and contributed the assist on Buksa’s second-half goal.
New England returns to action on Saturday, July 17, when the club visits Atlanta United FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The match kicks off at 5:00 p.m. ET and will air nationally on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, as well as locally on the radio at 98.5 The Sports Hub and WBIX 1260 AM Nossa Radio.
POSTGAME NOTES
New England Revolution 2, Toronto FC 3
July 7, 2021 – Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
The New England Revolution (7-2-3, 24 pts.) dropped a 3-2 result to Toronto FC (2-8-2, 8 pts.) at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday night for their first home loss of the 2021 season.
With the result, New England’s record at home dips to 5-1-0 this season. The Revolution’s all-time record against Toronto moves to 13-10-11, including a 10-4-5 mark at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution deployed a starting lineup featuring three changes from Saturday’s draw at Columbus. Brad Knighton replaced Matt Turner in net, while Teal Bunbury and Adam Buksa started in place of Tajon Buchanan and Tommy McNamara, respectively. Turner and Buchanan are unavailable while on international duty with the United States and Canada, respectively, for the Concacaf Gold Cup.
Adam Buksa made his seventh start of the season and his first since May 29. Buksa, the lone Revolution player to appear in every game since the start of 2020, recorded a game-high eight shots on the night, including four on target.
Buksa’s goal in the 78th minute was his fifth of the season, one short of his 2020 total and one behind Gustavo Bou (6) for the team lead.
Carles Gil scored his second goal of the season, and his first in MLS from a direct free kick, in the 56th minute. Gil’s 12 combined goals and assists are the most in MLS as of the end of tonight’s match.
Gil had a game-high six chances created and matched his MLS single-game high with 112 touches on the night, a total he last reached on March 30, 2019.
Emmanuel Boateng made his club debut on Wednesday night, coming on as a second-half sub and playing 26 minutes. The 27-year-old, who has now made 122 career MLS appearances with four different clubs, recorded his first assist of the season – the 15th of his MLS career – on Adam Buksa’s goal.
Henry Kessler made his second straight appearance in the starting lineup, finishing with team-high nine recoveries.
Defender Brandon Bye logged team highs in tackles (4) and interceptions (2) to go along with five recoveries and a blocked shot in a 90-minute effort.
Maciel put in his third 90-minute effort of the season – and first since May 12 – as the 21-year-old Brazilian midfielder completed 90.9% of his passes to go along with a team-high seven duels won.
Brad Knighton started an MLS match for the first time since March 7, 2020. Knighton, whose career record shifts to 27-26-20 in 76 MLS appearances, made four saves on the night.
GAME CAPSULE
REFEREE: Rosendo Mendoza
AR1 (bench): Claudiu Baeda; AR2 (opposite): Ian McKay
4th: Joshua Encarnacion
Video Assistant Referee: Daniel Radford
Weather: 73 degrees and cloudy
Scoring Summary:
TOR – Yeferson Soteldo 1 (Auro 2) 9′
TOR – Kemar Lawrence 1 (Alejandro Pozuelo 2) 15′
TOR – Tsubasa Endoh 1 (Yeferson Soteldo 1) 24′
NE – Carles Gil 2 (Free Kick) 56′
NE – Adam Buksa 5 (Emmanuel Boateng 1) 78′
Misconduct Summary:
TOR – Marco Delgado (Yellow Card – Bad Foul) 55′
NE – Tommy McNamara (Yellow Card – Bad Foul) 75′
TOR – Nick DeLeon (Yellow Card – Bad Foul) 89′
New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; DeJuan Jones (Arnór Traustason 72′), Andrew Farrell, Henry Kessler, Brandon Bye; Maciel, Matt Polster (Tommy McNamara 46′ [Edward Kizza 86′]); Teal Bunbury (Emmanuel Boateng 64′), Carles Gil ©; Gustavo Bou, Adam Buksa.
Substitutes Not Used: Earl Edwards Jr., Jon Bell, A.J. DeLaGarza, Wilfrid Kaptoum, Scott Caldwell.
Toronto FC: Alex Bono; Auro, Omar Gonzalez, Luke Singh, Kemar Lawrence; Michael Bradley, Marco Delgado; Tsubasa Endoh (Nick DeLeon 73′), Alejandro Pozuelo, Yeferson Soteldo (Dom Dwyer 84′); Ayo Akinola (Patrick Mullins 77′).
Substitutes Not Used: Jacob Shaffelburg, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jayden Nelson, Noble Okello, Kevin Silva, Ralph Priso-Mbongue.
New England Revolution Team Statistics Toronto FC
21 (6)
Shots (on Target) 11 (7)
3
Blocked Shots 2
4 Saves 4
7 Corner Kicks 6
1 Offsides 1
10 Fouls 13
536 (86.0%) Passes Attempted (% Completed) 368 (77.7%)
60.7% Possession 39.3%
POSTGAME QUOTES: New England Revolution at Toronto FC
Revolution Head Coach & Sporting Director Bruce Arena
On what role was given to Tommy McNamara tonight:
Arena: “What role? Shakespeare. He was positioned in the central part of midfield to join in with Carles Gil and play behind our front runners.”
On if it was one of the slowest starts to a game that the team has had during his tenure:
Arena: “What do you mean by slow? That’s fast. That’s fast to go down three goals. Bad mistake that led to the first goal, and brought a team that’s been struggling into the game and given them confidence. You can’t concede goals like that. That gave them a lot of confidence. And then certainly, to their credit, the third goal was a great goal, by I think it was [Tsubasa] Endoh. We made some mistakes, for sure. Our last 60 minutes, I thought we played pretty well and we were positioned at the end to actually get a point. Heck of a save by [Alex] Bono there. So, there were some good things, but the first 30 minutes is inexcusable.”
On changing the lineup formation for this match:
Arena: “They’re suited to any formation in which they play well and move well together. And that’s not what we played. We didn’t go to a 4-2-3-1, just to let you know, regardless. So, you don’t even have to worry about it, becoming a tactical genius. That’s not what we were doing.”
On Brad Knighton’s performance:
Arena: “Mediocre, to be honest with you. Nothing special. He’s an experienced goalkeeper. We shouldn’t be conceding that first goal.”
On what kind of spark Emmanuel Boateng provided off the bench:
Arena: “That’s the first time he’s played for us this year? Is it? Oh, good job. We needed a left-footed player. He’s been getting fitter, getting better in training, and we knew this week we were going to utilize him. So, he did a good job.”
On the team’s second-half performance:
Arena: “Halftime, you saw the way they came out in the second half. They tried to get back in the game. They were obviously not happy but knew that if we got the first goal before the 60-minute mark, we had a chance to get a point out of the game. Maybe three points. That attitude was good. Certainly, they were disappointed with the play in the first half.”
On what the note he handed to Andrew Farrell during the game said:
Arena: “Well, just let him know what the formation was that we were playing, even though we didn’t get it right over there. The answer was wrong. I’m going to save that as very special. It’ll be in my next book, that formation.”
Revolution Midfielder Carles Gil
On why the team started so slowly:
Gil: “I don’t know why because we know it’s not the first time. In New York, it was the same, against New York Red Bulls too, Dallas, Columbus in the first five minutes they had two big chances. So, I don’t know why because we know. We know what happened after we need to do a good effort to score goals and take points, and today we could not.”
On if he’s better suited playing centrally or on the wing:
Gil: “I try to do always the same. I’m here to help the team, sometimes on the right, sometimes in the middle. Of course, I’m not a player defined as a winger, but I can play in this position because I always go to the middle to be a midfielder or number 10. So, we know we don’t have in our formation, that is playing these positions, I try to help the team and today I could not because we lost.”
On falling behind early in games:
Gil: “I started well today. I feel comfortable. Given the fact that we had great games at the start of the season, we haven’t started games too well. In fact, we might have won one that I think we didn’t deserve to win. So, I think we learned that we can’t start games like that.”
On the belief of the team down 3-0 at halftime:
Gil: “Yes, because we know what type of team we are. We have a lot of character. I think we have a big mentality and at halftime I believed that we can win this game because we always create chances, we’ve had chances. But already it was 3-0, so it’s very difficult. And this is not the way. We need to be focusing in the first minute or try to take a lead or there’s no other way.”
On Emmanuel Boateng:
Gil: “[Emmanuel Boateng] had a big performance. He’s a good teammate because, like you said, he didn’t have any minutes until today. He tries every day to train hard to try to play. And I’m sure that he will have more minutes, him and other players, because they train very good.”
New England Revolution Midfielder Ema Boateng
On making his Revolution debut:
Boateng: “It felt good to come out there and help. It’s been tough trying to work my way into the group. I know we have a very talented group and we’ve been getting results, so it’s kind of hard for coaches making decisions. Just been working hard and waiting for opportunity. Today was getting my first minutes, and I thought I came in and did the best I could to help give us a chance.”
On assisting Adam Buksa’s goal:
Boateng: “I was just kind of trailing the play, because I made a defensive run and I knew Tommy [McNamara] wasn’t going to be able to get across. So, just support him. He laid a good ball, didn’t need a touch, so I just saw Adam [Buksa] behind Omar [Gonzalez]. Just get it over him and give Adam a chance, so that’s what I did.”
On his overall performance and seeing time at left back:
Boateng: “I thought I did well. A few times where I thought I could have been better, just a cross that I thought I gave the defense a little bit of a chance to kind of cut it out. I thought I did pretty well just connecting with the guys, working back defensively, and helping break counter attacks. Still a lot of work to be done. First minutes, so a little bit winded getting out there, but just going to keep working and wait for the next opportunity to help again.”
On if he can see himself playing left back more often in the future:
Boateng: “Yeah, especially left back. Our [outside] backs don’t sit back. We attack a lot, help in the attack. Just bust my butt, come back, defend, and help out in the offense, too – when I was trailing or leading ahead and try to help. It’s a position that I enjoy playing, too, so as long as I can get on the field I’ll take it.”
On showing character by scoring twice in the second half:
Boateng: “I know it’s terrible getting that with 10 days off. It’s all we’re going to be thinking about. It’s usually great to get a result going into the break. Everybody feels good, comes to training feeling good, but this is a group that works really hard, and I think that guys are really pissed off – I mean, I know a lot guys are really pissed off about the result. These next 10 days, we’re going to work hard and try to come out strong in the next game.”
On if he believes this roster can win a championship based on his experience winning an MLS Cup with Columbus:
Boateng: “Yeah, we have everything here to win a championship and that’s the goal. We played in some difficult environments and our goal is never to tie or just go give it our best – it’s always to win. Guys work hard every day. We have guys that take everything very personal. We want to come out and win all of our matches. It didn’t look like that in the first half, but you saw the effort in the second half. Hopefully, in the next game we come out with the same energy. We have everything in here to bounce back from this performance.”
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