Chester, PA (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Union will shoot for their
second consecutive victory -- and first on home turf -- when they host the New
England Revolution on Saturday at PPL Park.
The Union were forced to stay on the road an extra day last week as their
match with the Colorado Rapids was postponed by a blizzard in the area, but
they were able to steal three crucial points courtesy of a 79th-minute winner
from Jack McInerney.
Union manager John Hackworth praised his young forward's effort after the
game:
"He was huge for us today. He was really good in the preseason and came on and
played well last week. He certainly deserved the start. When we were really
struggling at the end there with a couple injuries, and we were out of
substitutions, he was doing everything. Massive effort on his part."
In seven all-time meetings against New England, Philadelphia is unbeaten
against their rivals to the north, holding a 4-0-3 record.
The Union went 2-0-1 in three matches with the Revs last season, but the
most memorable of the seven clashes came back on September 7, 2011.
In a match which was rescheduled due to Hurricane Irene, New England got off
to a flying start, scoring three times in the first 30 minutes and taking a
seemingly insurmountable 4-1 into the break.
But Philadelphia battled back as Sebastien Le Toux scored twice in the final
10 minutes to help his club salvage an incredible 4-4 draw at PPL Park.
New England officially put a poor 2012 behind them with an impressive 1-0
season-opening win over the Chicago Fire last week at Toyota Park.
2013 No. 1 overall draft selection Andrew Farrell was in the starting 11 at
right back and looked cool and collected all game long, while Honduras
international Jerry Bengtson scored the lone goal for New England.
"It was a hard fought battle," Revs head coach Jay Heaps said. "I thought we
did a lot of good things, with a couple of mistakes here and there that led to
a lot of their chances. Overall it was pretty solid. We were sharp
defensively and thought we had a couple more chances, maybe after we scored
the first one, I thought we could have had another one. I liked the way we
finished the game. The guys were fighting for every inch."
Second-year midfielder Kelyn Rowe shook off a spell of knee tendenitis and
played a big role for his club when he entered the game as a substitute,
setting up Bengtson's winning tally in the 62nd minute.
"Kelyn came in and changed the game," said Heaps. "He came in and showed a
little bit of class in terms of receiving the ball, finding the gaps and of
course setting up the goal. "He can see the field, he knows where he is and we
preach 'get the ball in the box', because we know that Jerry likes to score
goals like that."
Rowe could get the call to the starting 11 on Saturday as the Revs look for
their first win over Philadelphia.
The Sports Network