New England Soccer Today

Revs Win Home Finale

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Diego Fagundez bagged a brace to power the Revolution to a 2-1 win over a shorthanded New York City FC on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

Fagundez found the breakthrough in the 51st minute on a feed from Andrew Farrell then added another in stoppage time after following up on his own rebound inside the six. Khiry Shelton brought one back moments after Fagundez’s second strike.

Jack Harrison was sent off in the 26th minute for a studs-up challenge on Teal Bunbury to leave City with 10 men for the duration.

With the win, the Revolution improved to 12-15-6 (42 points) while New York City FC fell to 16-9-8 (56 points).

Interim coach Tom Soehn used a mix-and-match lineup that left out starters Antonio Delamea, Kei Kamara, Cody and Juan Agudelo while calling upon the likes of Krisztian Nemeth, Brad Knighton, and Gershon Koffie.

The sides traded wayward shots as Harrison and Claude Dielna both misfired in the early stages while Nemeth and Lee Nguyen tested Sean Johnson with close-range efforts before the break.

Whatever Soehn told the team at halftime seemed to work as Farrell connected with Fagundez, who lashed a hard shot from the edge of the area to beat Johnson and secure the winner in the 51st minute.

Fagundez was given a golden opportunity to make two-nil not long after when he raced at goal with only Johnson to beat in the 64th minute. But the original homegrown blasted his shot well wide of the far post.

In stoppage time, Fagundez found redemption after he corralled a pass from Nguyen and fired a low shot on Johnson, who coughed up the rebound to set up the midfielder’s second goal of the game.

Second later, Shelton caught the Revolution defense flat footed when he pushed a shot past Knighton to prevent the clean sheet.

When it was all said and done, the Foxboro selection forced nine saves out of Johnson, who kept undermanned guests in the game going into stoppage time.

The locals close out their campaign on Sunday, Oct. 22 in Montreal against the Impact. Kickoff is 4:00pm. Game 34 will mark the final chance of the season for a Revolution road victory after going winless away from Gillette Stadium (0-13-3) in 2017.

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