New England Soccer Today

Revolution fall 1-0 to RSL in DDC Opener

The New England Revolution opened the 2015 Desert Diamond Cup preseason tournament with a 1-0 loss to Real Salt Lake in Tucson, Ariz. on Wednesday night. Both sides started the match with mostly projected back-ups and trialists and inserted more starters in the second half.

The loss puts the Revolution’s preseason record at 1-2. New England beat Salt Lake in their preseason opener in January.

The Revolution fell behind early when Real’s John Stertzer was fouled in the box, earning Salt Lake a penalty kick. Devon Sandoval calmly finished past Bobby Shuttleworth to give Real a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute.

From there, New England had the better of the first half scoring chances. Diego Fagundez threatened late in the half with a curling shot that Salt Lake keeper Jeff Attinella just managed to tip over the bar for a corner kick.

New England made several subs at half time including bringing on projected defensive starters Chris Tierney, Jose Goncalves, Andrew Farrell and Kevin Alston. Several more starters for New England and most of Salt Lake’s starters also entered around the 60th minute.

The Revolution threatened early in the second half on a Tierney free kick, but trialist Timothy Mulgrew headed just high of the net.

Salt Lake had a chance in the 71st minute, but Kyle Beckerman’s header off a corner kick bounced just high of the bar after being headed down into the ground.

Sebastián Jaime had another header for Salt Lake, this time off a Javier Morales set piece, forcing substitute goalkeeper Brad Knighton into a save.

Teal Bunbury had a chance on nearly the last kick of the game, but from close range sent his shot right at the ‘keeper. The match was whistled over after the Revolution failed to score on the ensuing corner kick.

The Revolution play their second Desert Diamond Cup group stage match against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.

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