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3 takeaways from the Revolution’s dramatic comeback draw against the Colorado Rapids
New England scored a trio of second-half goals to avoid defeat.
After falling behind 3-0 at home on Saturday night, the Revolution scraped and clawed their way back to a 3-3 draw against the Colorado Rapids.
A Rapids own goal, a Carles Gil penalty kick, and a late headed equalizer from substitute Maxi Urruti ensured that New England was able to salvage a point in the final 35 minutes. While it will likely remain a disappointing outcome for a team that probably expected to take all three points prior to kickoff, it was nonetheless a valiant comeback.
Still, the first half — littered with dead to end possession sequences and pockmarked by two devastating Colorado counterattacks that led to goals from Calvin Harris and Rafael Navarro — provided a deep hole from which New England had to dig itself out from. And Ted Ku-DePietro’s 55th minute strike to give the Rapids a commanding 3-0 advantage was another example of subpar defending.
The result, while dramatically achieved, means that New England was able to only take a single point from its three-game home stand.
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Here are a few takeaways:
Possession with no purpose
The first half felt in some ways like a grim throwback to 2024, with New England enjoying a huge advantage in possession (75-25) but creating very little actual offense or scoring chances.
Arguably the best Revolution attack came from, of all people, left wing-back Peyton Miller. The 17-year-old received a timely overlap pass from Alhassan Yusuf in the seventh minute that gave him a narrow angle from the left side of the box to fire a low effort at goal (his shot was saved via a quality parry from Colorado goalkeeper Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen).
New England, once again playing a 3-4-1-2, looked largely unable to move the ball vertically through the center of the field. This made things straightforward for the Rapids defensively, as the visitors simply waited for New England to switch the ball to each flank before leisurely shuffling over into a low block.
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Then, as soon as the Revolution made a mistake in possession or were caught upfield, Rapid attackers charged forward and maximized their chances. Both Colorado goals were scored on counterattacks, with Navarro in particular thriving in transition sequences.
Revolution managed a comeback after shifting to a much more aggressive setup
Trailing by multiple goals in the second half, Porter opted to throw all of his possible substitutions at the problem. Tanner Beason, Luis Diaz, Ilay Feingold, Urruti (and Luca Langoni, brought on earlier after Tomas Chancalay exited with a groin injury in the first half) were all inserted into the game.
More than any specific changes, New England appeared to simply increase its level of intensity in the second half. Led by Gil (as well as other veteran players like Matt Polster), the Revolution rose to the occasion of fighting back against a seemingly insurmountable deficit.
Gil was especially involved, leading all players in touches (104, per FotMob), and chances created (with four). He calmly nailed the (admittedly favorable) penalty kick call, and was pushing for a winner right up until to the last second of the eight minutes of allotted stoppage time.
Though he was not selected as an MLS All-Star, he certainly played like one on Saturday.
A microcosm of the season?
The result was historic in a way: It was the first time in Revolution history that the team fought back from a 3-0 deficit to earn at least a point (and the first 3-0 comeback of any kind since 2002).
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Yet New England fans should be careful not to attach too many attributes of victory to what was a decidedly disappointing outcome from a strategic perspective. Notching just a home draw against a Rapids team missing arguably its most important player (Djordje Mihailovic, out with an injury) is not a formula for making the playoffs.
And as admirable as the fightback was, showing once again that the team has a capacity to translate displays of character into goals at times, it was still made necessary because of a comedy of errors on the defensive end.
New England experienced a nine-game unbeaten run earlier in the season but remained below the playoff line. Now, having mustered just one draw and two defeats in the last three home games, they are somehow still stuck in 11th (just four points off a playoff spot).
It may not be “one step forward, two steps back,” but it certainly seems to be a potentially even more frustrating case of the more mundane “one step forward, one step back.” In order to break the deadlock of mediocrity, Porter’s team will need to find consistency on both sides of the ball.
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