New England Revolution Get Vital 1-0 Win Against Impact

Saturday’s match against the Montreal Impact was billed as the most important game of the year, and a must win. The Impact are one of two teams ahead of the Revolution in the standings and tied on points for the last playoff spot. After winning 4 in a row, Montreal went into Saturday’s match losing their previous 2. The Revs went in having not lost a match at home in September since 2013. The last team they lost to, the Montreal Impact.

The match almost had a disastrous start when there was a communication issue between Claude Dielna and Chris Tierney. But Montreal’s Ignacio Piatti failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The Revolution created many chances in the first half out shooting the Impact 5-2 in shots on target. Both goalkeepers were active and performing well by the end of a scoreless first half.

Because of the open first half, both teams went in to the second half with momentum. Montreal almost capitalized on that momentum in the 48th minute. Chris Duvall was able to find Anthony Jackson-Hamel in front of goal. Fortunately for the Revolution he was unable to get his shot on target.

Finally at the end of the 68th minute, Lee Nguyen was able to weave through defenders and get the first goal of the match. Less than two minutes later, both Diego Fagundez and Kei Kamara hit the crossbar and almost put the game away in the 70th minute.

The revolution almost went down to 10 men in the 86th minute when Claude Dielna went down with a non contact injury. Miraculously  though, Dielna was back on the field in the 88th minute and continued to play the rest of the match and help the Revolution and goalkeeper Cody Cropper get their fourth straight clean sheet at home.

This was the most important win of the Revs season so far. Though the Revolution will not have long before their next match which may be an even more important at the end of the season. The Revolution will face off Wednesday with the other major contender for the last playoff spot, Atlanta United. Atlanta is one point above the Revs in the standings and have two games in hand. This will be the first of two games this month against Atlanta. But the Revs are one of the most lethal teams in the month of September. If the Revolution want to make the playoffs, they will need to triumph in their second must win game this week. As Revolution coach Jay Heaps said in the postgame press conference “Now everything’s on to Atlanta.”

Taylor Twellman’s Lasting Legacy In New England

When Taylor Twellman was drafted 2nd overall by the New England Revolution in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft. He was worried he wouldn’t see much playing time because of New England’s depth at the striker position. But, not only did he become the most prolific goal scorer in Revolution history. He became one of the most prolific goalscorers in MLS history. Twellman was a 5 time all star, won MLS MVP in 2005 and became the fastest and youngest player to score 100 goals. Then, after nine seasons in MLS and ongoing symptoms from a concussion, he retired in 2010.

Twellman’s post-concussion syndrome, like many athletes with the same condition, was very difficult to him.

“I’ve had a three-year headache,” Twellman said in an interview with ‘Outside The Lines’ in 2011.”I miss my life. My normal life.”

During that segment, he heard former Baltimore Orioles 2nd baseman Brian Roberts talk about his struggles to do simple things without getting massive headaches. Twellman also told host Bob Ley that at the time he had recently had his first dream since 2008.

Since his retirement, aside from being active in the media, Twellman has been one of the strongest activists for concussion awareness in sports. In 2011 he started ThinkTayor, a charity that seeks to educate people involved in youth sports like kids, parents, and coaches, about concussions and how to properly respond to and treat them. For the past 3 years, the Revolution and ThinkTaylor have combined to have Concussion Awareness Night. Last Saturday was the third annual event at the Revolutions match against Orlando City SC.

In the week leading up to the game, Twellman was interviewed by revolutionsoccer.net’s Jeff Lemieux. In the interview, he talks about a “void” left after his career with the revolution didn’t end the way he had hoped. But, now with his foundation and voice in the sporting community, he is grateful that he has this platform to educate youth sports. It appears that Taylor Twellman’s legacy may have seemed to have been as a world class goal scorer. But in fact, his legacy will be as a pioneer in the education and safety of the young athletes of America.

New England Revolution Striker Kei Kamara Gets First Hat Trick On “special day”

Revolution striker Kei Kamara’s 33rd birthday was on Friday. He celebrated a day later by scoring his first career hat trick in a decisive 4-0 win for the Revolution against Orlando City SC. “I’m 33. I think it just came at the right time.”Kamara said.”You know lucky threes, you’ve got to be at that age before you get that.”Kamara felt good about his and his team’s prospects before the game even started.”It was just one of those days, though. I just felt good from warm up. Not just me, I was scoring from the warm up, but the guys were [too]. Every ball was going in the back of the net and I was like, ‘Wow it just feels like a special day today.'”

Kamara felt motivation from the fans when he scored his third goal.”I’m not going to lie, I’ve played this game for awhile and to really be in that moment today, to get a hat trick there, scores those goals, it’s really special.”

During the night, Kamara surpassed 100 combined regular season and playoff goals which he was only made aware of recently.“To be honest with you I didn’t come into the season having that focus in my mind until one or two tweets went out and saying that I was close to 100. I had to go online myself to look it up.” Kamara joins a goal scoring club that includes current San Jose Earthquake Chris Wondolowski who Kamara used to play against in college. I’ve always just admired everything he’s been doing and I just wanted to be in the same club as him, but it doesn’t stop there. He’s at one hundred and thirty something, so I’ve got to play and catch up to him.”

Head coach Jay Heaps felt good after a winless 2 game road trip. “I thought we had a good week of training.” Heaps said. “I know I’ve said that before, but it really was. It was a good week after a disappointing performance on the road. I thought we came in and really had some good dialogue. The players stepped up tonight. This is a good win, an important win, and a must needed win.”

In the 43rd minute, Lee Nguyen scored a goal that was eventually called back by the newly implemented video assistant referee. “Obviously, I’m a fan of VAR.” Heaps said. “I’ve said it. I believe that I would rather lose on the right call than win on the wrong call. But it’s a gut punch. I didn’t realize when they actually take away a goal that was that long and we celebrated and we got back to position. Then it was a really quick, oh, goal didn’t count, and we’re on to the next play. So, there’s not a lot of time to digest that.

The Revolution seemed effected by the reversal, almost letting up a goal before the end of the half. But, during halftime, Heaps was able to reignite the team.”We had a really good talk at halftime. Guys were really engaged. So, when we came out second half, I had a good feeling that we were going to secure the game.” Heaps also thought a turning point was the substitution for defensive midfielder Xavier Kouassi.”I thought the substitution of [Xavier] Kouassi going into the game, obviously, he was in the mix to start, took a pretty good knock last week, but was ready to go. So, it was a tough call not starting him, but man, he brought so much to that game. For me, he went in, we changed formations and he closed out that game. What a difference maker when he goes in.”