FOXBOROUGH, Mass.—The New England Revolution spell "high-impact, high-energy substitution" with just four letters: F-E-M-I.
On Saturday night, just three minutes after subbing on in the 77th, Revs rookie Femi Hollinger-Janzen slipped just outside of the box when receiving a pass from Lee Nguyen, but quickly recovered and didn’t hesitate to fire a shot through traffic that found the back of the net to give New England a 2-1 victory over Seattle.
“Initially I actually didn’t see it go in, I saw guys cheering and knew it was in then," Hollinger-Janzen said. But I’m very happy to get the game winner there. I just got to keep going.”
Said Revs coach Jay Heaps: “I’m just so excited that he was able to get in there and do what we see every day. He brings so much energy, he’s a goal scorer when he gets the opportunity. We felt like [Teal Bunbury] came in and had a great spark, and then as the (second) half went on, we wanted one more level of spark – and I really thought Femi did that.”
A third round selection out of Indiana, Hollinger-Janzen has played all but two games for New England this season, seeing his role and impact grow over the last few weeks.
The strike was his second goal of the season, the most of any player taken in January’s MLS SuperDraft, and trails only Seattle Sounders forward Jordan Morris, who has four strikes on the year, for most goals by a rookie.
In all Hollinger-Janzen has tallied the two goals and an assist during his past four appearances, continuing to provide the Revolution with a burst of energy late in matches.
“He’s a hungry kid,” said defender Andrew Farrell, who played right back for the first time since 2014. “He’s getting his minutes when he can and when he comes in he makes an impact.”
Said Hollinger-Janzen: “Before every game I just tell myself that I’ve got to go in there when I got the opportunity and work as hard as I can.
