NE Revolution pick up first win of MLS season: 'It's been a long three months'

New England Revolution picked up three points for the first time in the 2024 Major League Soccer season with a 1-0 home triumph over Charlotte FC.

The Eastern Conference club have finally got off the mark in MLS after a dismal start to the campaign that included four losses and one draw. The Revs, under first-year boss Caleb Porter, have fallen to the likes of FC Cincinnati 2-1 and Atlanta United 4-1 in search of their first MLS victory.

It was none other than their No. 10 Carles Gil that got on the scoresheet Saturday night at Gillette Stadium to propel the hosts to a narrow win against Charlotte. The former Aston Villa figure is now up to three goals and one assist in six appearances for New England and will hope to change his side's fortunes as the season continues to unfold.

Speaking to the media, Porter explained that it was a "relief" for the Revs to finally earn a much-needed victory after the hard work done in preseason starting back in January.

"Yeah, of course, there's relief when you get the first win in the league," Porter said. "It's been a long three months. A lot of the guys were hungry today. It wasn't perfect by any means, but we had a simple plan: defend well, get a clean sheet, and find the first goal."

A quick glance at the box score shows that the Revs created three big chances, managed 11 shots on goal (three on target) while amassing an xG of 1.13. But Porter isn't entirely worried about the stat sheet and is much more concerned with how his side limited Charlotte to just six total shots that gave them a foundation to go on to win.

"We didn't try to create a million chances, but we started from a strong foundation of defending well, and I thought that was probably the best thing we did today. I thought first half, we created some good chances. I’m real proud of the guys, at the end, to weather the storm. Always, when it's 1-0, there's going to be a late push and we bent but didn't break and got the win," he said.

The Revs return to action Tuesday night in the Concacaf Champions Cup, facing a steep challenge in overcoming a 4-0 aggregate score in the second leg of the quarterfinals against Club America. Porter's team will aim to capture their second league win when they take on NYCFC on Saturday at Citi Field.