The New England Revolution suffered a double blow Saturday night in their Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs debut, falling 3-1 to the Philadelphia Union and losing captain Carles Gil to an apparent leg injury.
Gil, the 2021 Landon Donovan MLS MVP who had 11g/15a this season, is now a question mark for the Revs' must-win Game 2 at home on Nov. 8. He exited their Round One series opener in the 20th minute before Bobby Wood replaced him.
“We’ll have to re-evaluate Carles in the next day or two and see where he is,” New England interim head coach Clint Peay said post-match. “He just took a knock and it was enough to kind of, you know, limit him and so he had to come off. But no real prognosis yet.”
One “knock” in question came courtesy of Philadelphia striker Mikael Uhre, who sent Gil tumbling onto the Subaru Park pitch early on but was spared a yellow card from referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere.
According to Revs defender Andrew Farrell, that was just one example of the rough treatment the Spanish playmaker was subjected to during his short outing.
“We were trying to tell him [the referee] to watch out for Carles,” Farrell said. “Obviously, there are certain players in the league who are important for each team and Carles is that guy for us. And we wanted to protect him.
“ … Unfortunately, they got him a couple too many times."
Philadelphia had already opened the score on Dániel Gazdag’s 19th-minute penalty kick goal, but really poured it one once Gil exited the match.
First, Uhre struck in the 26th minute, then Nathan Harriel made it 3-0 eight minutes before the break. Despite New England’s noticeable improvement in the second half, with Gustavo Bou pulling one back in the 68th minute, it was too little, too late.
“Obviously when your best player goes down, the mountain seems higher to climb,” Farrell said of Gil’s injury. “We’re disappointed with how we reacted. We need to be better.”
The chance for redemption comes in 11 days’ time at Gillette Stadium, where the Revs lost only once in 2023. A second loss would officially end their season.
“We’ve only lost one game at home, we just beat this team Philadelphia\] at home \[[2-1 on Decision Day],” Farrell stated. “So yeah, we’re excited to get back in front of our fans and definitely put out a better performance. And I think we will, the guys are gonna rally.”
Based on what he saw Saturday night, Peay is optimistic about forcing a return to Subaru Park on Nov. 12 for a definitive third game.
“Albeit the scoreline is not what we wanted, we feel that we can create, produce chances against this team,” Peay said. “The key is, can we capitalize on some of those moments?”
