Fortress Foxboro
- Updated: April 11, 2015
Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Thanks to a strong defensive effort, aided by some windy conditions, the New England Revolution managed to keep the Columbus Crew from recording a single shot on target as they recorded their third shutout of the season, this time in a scoreless draw. The clean sheet extends the Revolution’s shutout streak to 208 minutes.
“I think [the defense] was good,” said Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth. “The conditions were tough. I think the wind was going to really limit the chances for either team and I think our movement was really good and we didn’t give up anything.”
With wind gusts in Foxboro up to 31 miles per hour, both sides struggled to create bona fide chances. The Crew finished with eight shots, but none on target, while the Revolution only register five shots, with three on goal.
“I thought it was a really tough game all the way around,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “Elements were difficult tonight and you never like giving up points at home, so obviously we’re disappointed in that. At the same time, I thought Columbus had a good game and when you’re dealing with the wind like that, you could really tell it was difficult to play in.”
But it wasn’t just the elements that shut out the Crew. The Revolution defense, which featured Kevin Alston stepping in for an injured Chris Tierney (left ankle sprain), managed to keep the Crew from threatening despite the home side only maintaining 42.4 percent of the possession throughout the game.
“Any time we go out there we want to get a shutout and especially at home we want to make it very difficult for teams to come in here and play,” said Shuttleworth. “Credit to all the guys today, everyone put their shift in and limited their chances and that’s exactly what we need to do.”
New England now hasn’t conceded a goal from the run of play since their March 15th 2-0 loss at New York City FC. Despite the impressive defensive performance, however, Shuttleworth and the team weren’t happy to drop two points and saw areas to improve.
“I think it was difficult conditions,” said Shuttleworth. “I think they were doing an OK job of closing us down and forcing us to play long a bit. I think there was more opportunities to play short and obviously that is something we’ve got to look at and work on, myself especially I need to look back at the tape and look where maybe I can play the ball shorter sometimes. It’s definitely something we’ll go over and hopefully we can improve on it.”
The Revolution will get its next chance to improve on Sunday, April 19, when they travel to face the Philadelphia Union.
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