Revolution Goalkeeper Cody Cropper Doing What He “Was Born To Do” In First Start Since 2017

Saturday was a special day for New England Revolution goalkeeper Cody Cropper.

Cropper did something he hadn’t done since 2017.

Start in net for the Revolution in an MLS regular season game.

“It’s been a grind; mentally, physically, emotionally. There’s been ups and downs, and that part of professional sports, that’s part of this business.

Every player at some stage in their career has gone through that, but to go out there today (Saturday) and to put a 90-minute performance together for the first time since 2017 — over a year, nearly a year and six months — I can’t even describe the feeling right now.

Every time I talk about it, I’m just getting goosebumps. It’s what I was born to do, I’ve played this game since I was three years old and it’s what I love.” said Cody Cropper after playing his first MLS match in over a year

Cropper’s Hard Work In Training Paid Off 

Cropper against Minnesota United FC played the full 90 minutes saving two balls with a 66.7% save percentage with 2 crosses claimed and 1 punch.

For the first four matches it was Brad Knighton‘s job to be in net for the Revolution. The sudden change? Training performance and a 2 goals against average.

“Again, every week that starts, every player can get their name in the hat to start. Cody, in the last two or three weeks, has trained very, very well, better than we’ve seen him train since we’ve been at the club.” said Head Coach Brad Friedel.

As for Cropper, he knew the starting job is always up for grabs as “everybody went into this week knowing we would be fighting for our jobs”.

Cropper came off of his line on multiple occasions against Minnesota and was able to stop Minnesota’s attack dead in his tracks. Cropper calls the decisions a “gut instinct” with the coaching staff telling him prior to the game to trust his instincts.

“I trusted myself.” Cropper said.”In the past, when you don’t play games for a very long time you sometimes tend to second guess yourself. Today, I just went out there and I trusted my ability.”

New England Revolution “Proud” After Capturing First Win Of Season With A 2-1 Victory Over Minnesota

The New England Revolution grabbed their first victory of their 2019 season on Saturday with a 2-1 victory at home over Minnesota United FC. 

With the win the Revolution move to 1-3-1 on the MLS season. 

“Really happy with the performance that the players put in, really happy with the work ethic and really happy with the application with what we were trying to do.” Said New England Coach Brad Friedel after the match. 

Saturday’s match against the Loons showcased a shaken up Revolution lineup with Brad Friedel starting Cody Cropper with goalkeeper Brad Knighton not apart of the 18. In addition rookie DeJuan Jones got his first start of his MLS career and Cristian Penilla found himself off the 18 entirely. 

“It’s been a grind, mentally, physically, emotionally” said Revs goalkeeper Cody Cropper. “There has been ups and downs, and that is apart of professional sports, that is apart of this business. I think every player at some stage in their careers gone through that, but to go out there today and put a 90 minute performance together for the first time since 2017.” 

Friedel has been very consistent on how players get into the starting lineup saying:” Every week that starts, every player can get their name in the hat to start. Cody in the last two or three weeks has trained very very well. And better than we have seen him train since we’ve been at the club. And we’ve been averaging two goals a game against, and I made a change, and he played very well.” 

The first half for the New England Revolution looked to have an uptick of effort from the Revs. New England’s first half performance or lack there of in their home match against FC Cincinnati made headlines and against United FC there appeared to be a concerted effort to play harder. 

New England came out like a bat out of hell and their hard work payed off with Carles Gil delivering a perfect ball into Jalil Anibaba who headed the ball in for a 10th minute goal. 

Unfortunately for the Revs they gave up an equalizing goal in the 26th minute with Darwin Quintero scoring ona penalty with defender Michael Mancienne being called for a hand ball.

”You guys, and a lot of experts out there were probably surprised that we could motivate the players to work hard. But all of those players, every single day we see them working hard. A couple of first half performances that we have had here that haven’t been up to par, shouldn’t be the focal point. I am very very proud of the players performance today.” Said Friedel 

Very much like the first half the Revolution came out firing which has been the norm for them this season in terms of increasing their performance as the match progresses.

”A lot of people have been saying that we don’t have creative players, we do, it takes time for it all to come together and I am really proud of the way the players applied themselves today in the game.” Said Friedel

New England was able to press for extended periods of time and were able to break the stalemate with a Teal Bunbury ball finding Brandon Bye on the cross to who slammed it home to make it 2-1. Rookie DeJuan Jones recieved a secondary assist on the goal for his first MLS assist. 

The Revs were then able to ice the game and come away with a 2-1 victory. 

Next up for the New England Revolution is a road trip next weekend to take on Columbus Crew SC. 

New England Revolution Desperately Need 3 Points Against Minnesota United FC Or Else Things Could Get Ugly Rather Quickly

On Saturday, March 30th, the desperate New England Revolution will take on Minnesota United FC at home in the increasingly anxious Gillette Stadium. 

New England enters the match 0-2 in their first two home matches of the year and 0-3-1 overall through 4 games. The Revs biggest challenge has been showing up to games in the first half with New England quickly falling behind with lackadaisical first half play setting them up for big time failure. 

“It’s massively important. We can’t wait to go a goal down before we realize, ‘Oh, we need to start playing now.’ We need to come out from the first whistle and make sure that we’re on it.” said Captain Michael Mancienne at training. 

Surprisingly enough the Revs have been able to turn on the jets and look like professionals in essentially every second half performance which has kept them in games and given the overall impression that they have been able to compete despite their embarrassing record to start the young MLS season. 

So entering Saturday’s match with a positive attitude and a 100% effort will be critical to their success against a Minnesota team that enters the match with a 2-1-0 record despite having played every match on the road to start their MLS campaign. 

The Revs will have their hands full with Minnesota having a solid start to their season and have a very dangerous player in Darwin Quintero. Quintero, an MLS All-Star in 2019 already has 2 goals and 3 assists through just 3 games. 

“He [Darwin Quintero] is a fantastic player. We played against him in preseason down in Orlando, and we saw glimpses of what they were looking to do in the season. So, we’ll try and pull some things from that game that we had seen and see how they’ve done throughout their results so far this season. But the game plan, like I said, comes down to us and how we take it to an opponent here at home.” said goalkeeper Brad Knighton. 

New England is 1-0-0 at home against Minnesota and 1-1-0 all-time.

Brad Friedel’s club will be without Isaac Angking and Justin Rennicks due to injuries and Zachery Herivaux and Brian Wright on loans with Birmingham Legion FC.

United FC lineup last time out against LA Galaxy

Revolution Lineup Last Time Out Against FC Cincinnati

The New England Revolution will take on Minnesota United FC at 2 pm on NBC Sports Boston and on 98.5 The Sports Hub.