What a way to announce yourself to Major League Soccer, Gustavo Bou.
The New England Revolution’s newest Designated Player opened his MLS account with a bang in Wednesday’s matchup against the Vancouver Whitecaps, volleying home from a corner kick in the first minute of first-half stoppage time to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Bou, signed last week from Club Tijuana in Liga MX, was picked out atop the box by fellow DP Carles Gil. He made no mistake with the finish on his debut.
"I'm very happy, I think it happened in a great way, since we won and got three points," Bou said through a translator after the game. "I scored a goal and the truth is, I'm really happy about it. My teammates have helped me and have been great since the minute I got to New England and I have great hopes here. It was a really sound debut."
The goal was well-planned.
"It was a great connection on that play," Bou said. "Carles told me a couple of the first corners, there was nobody hanging back in the area atop the box. I wanted to go backwards a bit. Carles screamed to me, I screamed to him. It's a connection that had a lot of quality, it went really well."
The Argentine forward started the game wide left in a 4-2-3-1 formation, though rotated to the right, often interchanging with Gil and fellow winger Teal Bunbury.
During his halftime interview, Revs' sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena quipped that he taught Bou the aforementioned play during training earlier this week.
He dialed that back after the game, but still marveled at Bou's skill.
"You don't see too many players who can take a ball out of the air and strike cleanly like that," a grinning Arena said. "So if you want to give me credit for that, I would be glad to accept it, but I had nothing to do with that play."
What will Bou do for an encore? Arena hopes it starts with feeling good Thursday morning and then he'd like to utilize Bou against FC Cincinnati Sunday (6 PM ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, on DAZN in Canada)
"Gustavo’s a new player and you can only do so much in training. You’ve got to see him in a game," Arena said. "As the game went on we had a better feel for him, both the coaching staff and the players on the field. That’s a real positive. We’re hopeful he can get out of bed tomorrow morning and recover and give us some minutes on Sunday in Cincinnati as well."
