New England Soccer Today

The Morning After: Revolution vs. Fire

Caldwell

Scott Caldwell and Jeff Larentowicz battle for the ball during Saturday’s showdown between the Revolution and Fire. (Photo: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz)

In a match brimming with storylines for the home side, the New England Revolution grabbed a long-awaited 2-0 home victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night. Juan Agudelo scored his fourth goal in a Revolution uniform, while Kelyn Rowe scored his third in stoppage time.

Here are a collection of notes and stats, along with a few other goodies from Saturday night’s contest:

-The win allowed the Revolution, with 33 points, to sit in the fifth and final playoff spot – at least temporarily. When the whistle blew at Gillette Stadium, there was over an hour left remaining at BBVA Compass Stadium, where the Dynamo, who stood at 33 points as well, and Sounders were dueling. In the end, the Dynamo claimed a 3-1 victory  – which gave them 36 points – to drop the Revolution down to the sixth spot. Incidentally, ex-Rev Shalrie Joseph scored the lone Seattle goal.

-At the end of the contest, Saer Sene and Bakary Soumare were both shown red cards for fighting, according to the official Opta stat sheet. According to goal.com writer Justin Churchill, the incident occurred after Soumare attempted to confront a Revolution staff member who had gotten into an argument with Frank Klopas shortly before the gaffer was given the boot in the 84th minute. Sene stood in the way, and the two had to be separated before Edvin Jurisevic showed them both red. Said Fire assistant Mike Matkovitch after the match: “I just don’t think non-players should be making comments to players on the field if that’s the case. I don’t know what I happened from there. It’s not for me to judge that. But I guess the referee judged it. So, it is what it is.”

– Scott Caldwell led the way with a 92 percent success stat, completing 59 of 64 passes. Not far behind was Lee Nguyen and Juan Agudelo, who both finished the night with a passing accuracy percentage of 85 percent. Debutant Charlie Davies was a perfect 2 for 2 on his passing after coming on in the 79th minute. Despite scoring late, Rowe finished at the bottom of the charts, with only 57 percent of his passes finding teammates.

-For the Fire, newcomer Egidio Arévalo Rios led the Fire in passing by completing 93 percent of his passes, while ex-Rev Jeff Larentowicz boasted an 84 percent figure.

-The Revolution are now 4-1-1 when Juan Agudelo plays, and have scored a whopping 14 goals in those contests.

-Defensively, A.J. Soares led the way with 11 clearances, and put together a decent night with his passing success as well (82 percent). Lee Nguyen and Andrew Farrell both grabbed a team-high three interceptions.

-Matt Reis is a perfect 3 for 3 in the clean sheet column this season, and has blanked the Fire on two of those occasions.

-Mike Magee’s statline: Three shots (two on target), one key pass, three turnovers and a 44 percent passing success rate.

-Speaking of Magee, here’s what Jay Heaps had to say about the Fire’s dangerous forward:

“It’s funny, we talked a lot about him down and he still got a shot. That’s how he gets chances. It was a shot deflection and he’s just so elusive inside the box, you just can’t get too close to him. So, for us we talked a lot about where he arrives. He likes to drift, he finds the gaps – he’s really good at that. If we can keep an eye on him, that was the best – I think we did much better in the second half actually, to communicate every step he made. He’d start wide and drift in and go long, so as long as (Andrew) Farrell was communicating that pass on to A.J., it worked well. In the first half, it was a little bit of a breakdown, because Farrell had to come over all the way and he almost had his chance. But that’s what Mike Magee’s been doing. He’s just been lethal when he gets a yard of space and that’s hard to defend.”

-What a difference a week (oh, and a less-imposing opponent) can make: Last Saturday, the Revolution completed 76 percent of their passes, many of which came late with the game already decided. On Saturday, their success rate climbed to 85.4 percent in the first half, and finished the night at 82.1 percent. Going into the match, their rate was 75 percent, 15th in the league.

A few snapshots from the game, courtesy of Kari Heistad:

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