FOXBORO — The New England Revolution staged a historic comeback on Saturday night, rallying from a three-goal deficit to earn a dramatic 3-3 draw with the Colorado Rapids at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution (6-6-6, 24 points) stormed back with a stunning second-half rally after falling behind 3-0. The coda of the match was punctuated by substitute Maxi Urruti, who rose up to head in the equalizer — and his second goal of the season — off a cross by Tanner Beason in the third minute of second half stoppage time.
With his team in a small rut and playing on just three days’ rest, Revolution head coach Caleb Porter made three changes to his back line from last Wednesday’s loss to Nashville SC. Defenders Keegan Hughes, Wyatt Omsberg, and Brandon Bye returned to the starting lineup, while usual starters Ilay Feingold, Mamadou Fofana, and Beason were given a breather. For Hughes and Omsberg, it was just their second regular season start.
Colorado (7-8-5, 26 points) greeted the fresh faces with clinical finishing and ruthlessness. In truth, though, it was a wide open game from the start.
The Rapids opened the scoring in the 28th minute. A giveaway by New England’s Alhassan Yusuf led to a quick counter-attack, which was punctuated by a sublime pirouette at the top of the box by Rafael Navarro, who picked out a run toward the right side of the penalty area by Josh Atencio. Atencio then served a low cross into the heart of the box for Ted Ku-DiPietro, whose point-blank effort was saved by goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic, the rebound falling to Calvin Harris for an easy finish into an open net.
Colorado doubled the advantage in the 40th minute. Navarro ran onto Darren Yapi’s cutting ball out of midfield, then cut past both Omsberg and Bye before firing past Ivacic and into the far corner of the net.
The visitor’s third goal arrived as Ku-DiPietro took on Hughes before firing past Ivacic in the 55th minute.
The Revolution finally got on the board in the 60th minute, Carles Gil’s cross from the left side of the box deflected off Sam Vines and rolled past goalkeeper Nicolas DeFreitas-Hansen.
Gil cut the deficit further in the 86th minute, calmly slotting a penalty into the lower right corner as DeFreitas-Hansen dove the opposite way. Referee Natalie Simon awarded the spot kick after Sam Bassett dragged Gil down in the box.
Urruti completed the comeback after coming on as a substitute in the 63rd minute to Leonardo Campana. Despite going down by three, the Revolution showed their own offensive mettle but were thwarted by DeFreitas-Hansen, who put in a commendable performance in place of Zack Steffen (away on U.S. National Team duty for the CONCACAF Gold Cup).
DeFreitas-Hansen halted a point-blank effort from Peyton Miller (7th minute), stopped a header from Campana off a first half stoppage time corner kick, then denied Luca Langoni at the near post with his foot. Campana also fired wide of the near post (44th), while second half substitute Luis Diaz was blanked by DeFreitas-Hansen (87th).
Saturday marked the first meeting between the two sides since 2023, with New England still trailing the all-time series 18-21-10. Twenty-one years ago, in September 2004, the Revolution delivered their best offensive performance on record, thrashing the Rapids 6-1 at Gillette Stadium. Saturday night’s 3-3 draw wasn’t a win, but the dramatic comeback ranks among the club’s most memorable results.
