Carles Gil’s Last Minute Penalty Gives Revolution First Win of the Season

There were finally smiles on Revolution players’ faces this season. 

In the mist and cold of Foxboro, New England got their first win of the season against the New York Red Bulls in dramatic fashion. Ignatius Ganago won a penalty kick in the 95th minute and Carles Gil converted it, giving the Revolution a 2-1 win. 

Sean Nelis stepped on Ganago’s foot in the penalty area, not hitting or going for the ball. While initially decided as a corner by referee Sergii Demianchuk, VAR referee Carol Anne Chenard recommended a check. After looking at the monitor, Demianchuk overturned the corner for a penalty kick, causing the crowd of 20 thousand at Gillette to erupt into cheers. Carles Gil converted the penalty, his second goal of the day, to seal three points. 

“That’s what you need from your top player,” said Head Coach Caleb Porter after the game. “He deserved for me the second goal as well with how well he played, got in great spots today. He was goal dangerous, that’s the key. He can score goals. He’s got quality. He’s got to make sure he always finding the hard spaces between the lines, the spaces where he can create goals, and he did that today.” 

New England’s 17-year-old left back Peyton Miller had the game’s first shot six minutes in, starting the trend for the half. The Revs had six shots compared to the Red Bulls’ four. Emil Forsberg had the best chance for New York at the beginning of the first half, missing a free kick over the crossbar. 

Carlos Cornel kept New York in it with three saves in the half but couldn’t stop Carlos Gil’s free-kick from going into the top left corner, which his coach called “a thing of beauty”. This was Gil’s 40th goal for the Revolution and the first goal scored by a New England player this season, their only goal previously being an own goal. 

Just as the half was winding down, the Red Bulls tied the game with an Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting goal in stoppage time. New England’s defense faltered, allowing Choupo-Moting, Peter Stroud, and Emil Forsberg to move freely through the penalty area and score. 

New York brought their stoppage time momentum into the second half, but New England were prepared to make the necessary plays. Noah Eile’s header off a free kick early in the second forced a save out of Aljaz Ivacic. The Revs’ goalkeeper made two more saves during the half, including during a three-on-two-man advantage, when he saved Mohammed Sofo’s shot in the penalty area. Revs’ defenders made up for their earlier error, blocking three shots during the half. 

“That was something I talked about in the pre-match, as simple as it sounds,” said Porter. “This game is a collection of moments, and we need guys to step up and make plays in those moments. Some of those plays are getting around goal and finishing, some of them are making a save, some of them are heading balls out. I thought across the board we had guys that made more plays today for us to win the game.”

New England had a few chances of their own, with the best one being Ignatius Ganago’s shot that was blocked by the back of his teammate, Maxi Urruti. This ended up not mattering as the stoppage time penalty secured the Revs’ 28th straight victory over the Red Bulls at Gillette Stadium. 

“I loved our mentality when it went 1-1,” said Porter. “We kept pushing, and that’s a game, as you guys have seen, in the second half where we don’t win, and in this game, we find the breakthrough.” 

The Revolution travel to Cincinnati for their next game on Saturday, April 5th. Hopefully, they pack some goal-scoring momentum in their luggage.