{"id":26650,"date":"2014-07-12T23:26:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T03:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=26650"},"modified":"2014-07-13T00:54:52","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T04:54:52","slug":"amarikwas-early-goal-sinks-revs-1-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=26650","title":{"rendered":"Amarikwa\u2019s Early Goal Sinks Revs 1-0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Photo credit: Chris Aduama\/aduamaphotography.com<\/p><\/div>\n

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. \u2013 An early strike from Quincy Amarikwa marked the difference as the Chicago Fire topped the New England Revolution 1-0 in front of 15,406 at Gillette Stadium on\u00a0Saturday night.<\/p>\n

A turnover by the New England Revolution, combined with a chipped through ball from Mike Magee gave Amarikwa a breakaway chance in the third minute which he didn\u2019t miss, and which turned out to be the only goal in the match.\u00a0 Although both teams had multiple chances throughout the night, the Revolution largely controlled possession and the pace of the match, which made the scoreline all the more frustrating for the home team.<\/p>\n

For the Revolution (7-8-21, 23 points), it marks their fifth consecutive loss in MLS competition and their first loss to Chicago at home since June 2010.\u00a0 For the Chicago Fire (3-4-10, 19 points), it\u2019s only their third win of the season and their first win in MLS competition since May 18th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The Revolution, playing from behind for nearly the entire game, controlled the match with 62.5 percent of total possession in the game, but lacked chances to score in the first half.\u00a0 The Revolution failed to register a shot until Teal Bunbury\u2019s low drive was saved by Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson in the 20th<\/sup> minute.\u00a0 Just three minutes later, the Revolution\u2019s Daigo Kobayshi went down in the box looking for a penalty, but was given the first yellow card of the game for diving.<\/p>\n

The Revolution suffered a blow in the 26th<\/sup> minute, when Andy Dorman was injured after a long range shot from outside the box.\u00a0 Bakary Soumare slid in on Dorman and collided with his right leg, causing a reported knee injury which forced Dorman out of the game and saw him replaced by Scott Caldwell.<\/p>\n

Without Dorman, the Revolution marched on and began to create chances at the end of the first half.\u00a0 In the 35th<\/sup> minute, Diego Fagundez swung a cross in front of net, but Teal Bunbury could not connect with the pass at the near post and Daigo Kobayashi made contact at the far post, but drove the ball wide.\u00a0 Although the Chicago Fire conceded possession for defense in most of the match, they also had chances for a second goal.\u00a0 In the 40th<\/sup> minute, Alex\u2019s cross missed an open Amarikwa in the center of the box, going over his head for a goal kick.<\/p>\n

The beginning of the second half saw more of the same from the first half: Revolution controlling possession, but a lack of offensive firepower.\u00a0 With time winding down, The Revolution brought on Jerry Bengtson for Kelyn Rowe, shifting the formation from the original 4-5-1 to a 3-5-2.\u00a0 Despite not registering a shot, Bengtson was valuable in his first appearance with the Revolution since April 26th<\/sup> as the Revolution offense had 10 of their 23 shots in the final 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Bengtson also drew a penalty kick in the 84th<\/sup> minute, giving the Revolution their biggest chance of the night.\u00a0 With Lee Nguyen suspended for the match, Chris Tierney was the Revolution\u2019s penalty taker and fired a shot low to Johnson\u2019s right, but Johnson got a hand to the ball, pushing it off the inside of the goal post, before collecting the ball just in front of the goal line.<\/p>\n

The penalty proved to be the best chance of the night for the Revolution, who failed to find the back of the net in a frustrating match for the home side.\u00a0 The Revolution ended the game outshooting the Fire 23-11 (7-6 in shots on goal), and ended the game with more corners (9-5), more possession (62.5 percent), and a higher passing accuracy (79.3 to 62.8 percent) than their opponents.\u00a0 However, the Fire\u2019s early goal, consistent defense, and solid goalkeeping from Sean Johnson provided the Fire with three points in the standings.<\/p>\n

The Revolution continue to struggle to find offense, as they\u2019ve only scored twice in their last five MLS matches, all of which they\u2019ve lost.\u00a0 This five game stretch comes after a five-game winning streak in MLS competition where the Revolution scored\u00a0twice in all of those matches. \u00a0The five-game skid also drops the Revolution into fourth place, where they sit one point behind Toronto FC, who beat Houston on Saturday night, and in front of the New York Red Bulls on goal differential.<\/p>\n

The Revolution go on a two-game road trip over the next week, facing the LA Galaxy on Wednesday at 10:30 pm and FC Dallas next Saturday at 9 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revolution create chances, but can’t recover from early deficit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":26651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/bunburyfeature5.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26650"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26650"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26657,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26650\/revisions\/26657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}