To borrow a phrase from longtime Yankee great Yogi Berra, Sunday’s game at New York City FC was “déjà vu all over again” for the New England Revolution.
The 2-0 loss was the second-straight shutout defeat for the Revs, who have sputtered out of the gate in each of their last four seasons. In their first two games of each year since 2012 – eight matches in all – New England has scored just one total goal and posted a 1-7-0 record.
It’s a frustrating trend that continued on Sunday, despite the Revs putting forth a much more concerted effort on the offensive end than they did in last week’s season opening 3-0 loss at Seattle.
“It was a tough result. I thought going down early was unfortunate,” head coach Jay Heaps said following the match. “I thought we had chances to win this game.”
Just like last week, the Revs again found themselves down early, conceding in the 19th minute on Sunday after Ned Grabavoy and David Villa work a nifty give-and-go to lead to Villa’s first MLS strike.
Unlike their performance in Seattle, the Revs showed resiliency after going behind, pushing play up the field and creating some dangerous opportunities to close the first half. They couldn’t finish any of their good looks though, coming closest in the 41st minute when Juan Agudelo’s close-range header spectacularly denied by Josh Saunders.
“I have to go back and watch the film, but I think we had four or five good chances,” said Heaps. “It would have been nice to finish those.”
The poor finishing would come back to haunt New England in the second half. The Revs unraveled after the break, with NYCFC putting more of a stamp on the match even before New England center back Jose Goncalves was sent off in the 66th minute for denying a clear Khiry Shelton goal scoring chance.
Things got worse in the 84th minute, when Patrick Mullins – who was picked up by NYCFC in December’s Expansion Draft after a promising rookie year in New England – iced the game by tapping in a Villa cross.
“That’s what happens in this game,” Heaps said. “It was a tale of two [halves]. I know we were a little bit flat to start and we never really got that rhythm going. [NYCFC] did a good job, credit them. We were flat and they were great.”
The good news for the Revolution? They’ll get a chance to get things going at home in their next match, opening their Gillette Stadium schedule against the Montreal Impact on Saturday.
The bad news? Over the last three years, the Revs haven’t scored in their third game either.
They'll be hoping for no more déjà vu against the Impact.
