Revolution 0, Union 0: Defense grabs the Revs a point

It’s been 309 minutes since the New England Revolution have scored a goal, but at least the defense is doing its job.

The Revs played 90 scoreless minutes on Thursday, though they did keep the Philadelphia Union off the board.

The Revolution’s game plan was to quickly transition into the attack after winning the ball. This way, they could capitalize on the space behind Philadelphia’s outside backs.

The home team did have chances. Cristian Penilla had a nice run in the 10th minute that was blocked by a sliding defender. Three minutes later, Adam Buksa rattled the post with his close-range opportunity. Buksa had another look in the game’s dying minutes but he couldn’t get his shot on frame.

“If the play is available to get forward quickly and try to get at them, I think that’s the right opportunity to do that,” assistant coach Richie Williams said in regards to playing direct. “I think we created enough opportunities at the end of the day and were unable to get a goal.”

Defensively the Revs stayed strong, relying on the efforts of Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell, and Matt Turner. Turner had a particularly impressive night as he registered five saves.

The Revs will now turn their focus to D.C. United, their opponent on Tuesday. With the defenders on the same page, it’s now about getting the offense to click.

“In the past couple years, if we were talking about our offensive struggles as the biggest problem, I think we’d be pretty happy,” Andrew Farrell explained. “Now we’ve just got to keep on hammering down on the offensive side of the ball where, again, we’re creating chances and we got players who can finish so we’ll get that right.”