At Gillette Stadium on Friday night the New England Revolution II fell to Orlando City B 2-0 with New England playing a man down following a second yellow card to Ryo Shimazaki in the 37th minute of the match.
“Basically the biggest adjustment was trying to figure out what would make the most sense,” said Revs II Head Coach Clint Peay after the match. ”We felt like we had some success keeping a back three together so we decided to stick with that for the second half. And we just wanted to make sure we were aware of their counter attacks where they would switch the point of attack quickly.”
With the loss Revs II drop to 0-1-1 on the USL League One season.
New England was able to hold Orlando scoreless in the first half with the first goal conceded not coming until the 66th minute with Wilfredo Rivera scoring. Orlando made it 2-nil in the first minute of stoppage time with Kenji Tanaka scoring.
In the lineup for Revs II was first-teamer Damian Rivera who led the team with four shots, one on target, in 70 minutes of play. The Rhode Island native completed 75% of his passes and had 47 touches. This was Rivera’s professional debut.
”Showed glimpses of being very dangerous and was able to provide some good play in the first half,” said Peay on Rivera’s performance. He was able to either draw some fouls in and around the box or create some moments where we were able to play the final ball. But again, once we went down to 10 men and in the second half he actually took a knock, he began to tire and he’s a guy who hasn’t really logged 90 minutes with the first team yet so he isn’t quite there especially being 10 men down to play a full 90.”
Another Rhode Islander in the lineup was Isaac Angking. Angking led the team in chances created with four and completed 80% of his passes. Nicolas Firmino, another first-teamer, led the side in touches with 66 and also completed 78.7% of his passes while also creating one chance and getting two shots off. Defender Collin Verfurth rounded out four first-team players that were in the Starting XI for Revs II.
In-between the pipes for Revs II was Joe Rice who made three saves on five shots on target.
Despite playing a man down the little Revs were able to outshoot Orlando City B 15 to 12, earned 7 corners to 3, hit 78.9% of their passes to 74.3%, and dominated possession at 56.4%.
Onto to Texas
Revs II will be back in action next Saturday when they take on North Texas at 9 pm at Globe Life Park. North Texas is 1-0-1 on the USL League One season. Their home of Globe Life Park is the former home of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.
“I thought the guys played well,” said Coach Peay on the takeaways and through TD ahead of Texas. “Even with 10 men, I thought we still created chances. The effort was great. So, we’re disappointed the game unfolded as it did but I wouldn’t look at it as licking the wounds, I would just chalk it up as a moment of growth or learning to recognize going down a man to two unnecessary yellow cards is always going to be difficult for a team to remain to competitive. But I actually thought the group did a good job of staying competitive and dictating the tempo of the game in the second half. We pushed a little harder than maybe you would if it was a senior team game but I think it showed that the guys still had enough left in the tank and maybe some ideas to move the ball against a decent Orlando group.”
