Beating the Unbeaten
- Updated: May 2, 2015
Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Charlie Davies scored his third goal of the season less than 10 minutes into the game and Teal Bunbury doubled the lead in the second half as the New England Revolution handed New York Red Bulls its first loss of the season, 2-1.
“It was an Eastern Conference match; I thought it was hard fought both ways,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “I thought we came out and started the game on the right foot and really did a nice job for first 15 or 20 minutes and then towards the end of the first half they took control of it and did a nice job. We re-approached the game in the second half the right way and had a couple chances to put it away, but you credit New York because they never gave up and fought all the way to the end.”
New England extended its home unbeaten streak to 15 games, going 11-0-4 in that run. The Revolution, unbeaten in its last seven games overall, improved to 5-2-2 (17 points) on the season and sit tied atop the Eastern Conference with D.C. United. The Red Bulls drop to 3-1-4 (13 points).
Davies opened the scoring in the ninth minute, heading home a cross from London Woodberry. Bunbury made it 2-0 in the 60th minute, finishing off a play that involved Davies, Lee Nguyen and Scott Caldwell.
It was Woodberry that started the initial play on the first goal, taking he ball down the right flank and nearly beating Kemar Lawrence before being disposed. Lawrence’s left-footed clearance didn’t get far and went right to the feet of Andy Dorman. Dorman quickly went back to Woodberry and the first-year man took just two touches before whipping a right footed cross into the area. Davies raced in front of Matt Miazga and dove through, connecting with his head to beat Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles.
Bunbury put the home side up by two in the 60th minute, capping off a strong attacking sequence for the Revolution. Nguyen, a substitute that came on in the 56th minute, started the play by springing Davies out on the left flank. After nearly losing possession to Miazga, Davies tracked down possession near the touch line.
Davies played it back to Nguyen, who sprang Agudelo down the flank. Agudelo found Davies, who found Caldwell at the top of the area with Nguyen making an overlapping run. Caldwell then touched to Nguyen, forcing the New York defense to commit and Nguyen got just enough of a touch out to Bunbury. Bunbury took one touch before blasting it by Robles from just outside the six-yard box.
New York pulled one back in the 73rd minute via Sacha Kljestan, the first goal that New England has given up in the run of play since March 15th. A long goal kick was headed on by Mike Grella in behind New England’s back line. Jermaine Jones, playing in his third straight game at center back, pointed to Shuttleworth to come out but Kljestan raced to the ball first, getting a touch with his right foot and then finishing with the outside of his right foot into the open net.
The Red Bulls pushed for a late equalizer, giving New England opportunities on the counters but neither side was able to find the back of the net in the final 20 minutes. Seven minutes after pulling one back, New York nearly leveled the match. Grella played a cross into the area that found substitute Bradley Wright-Phillips at the near post, but his header was over the bar.
The Revolution had a handful of chances on the counter in the final minutes but nearly had a counter chance just before the Red Bulls goal. With New York pushing high, a clearance found Davies near midfield and his touch put him in behind the defense alone. Davies sprinted to the 18 but pressure from Lawrence from behind forced Davies into a shot from just outside the 18 and his bid went wide at the far post.
On the counter in the final minutes, chances fell to substitute Diego Fagundez, Nguyen at the top of the area and Bunbury, but none of them resulted in a shot on target.
The first half didn’t see many chances by either side, with the two teams combining for just five chances on goal in the first 45 minutes. New England had a chance to make it 2-0 in the 20th minute when Agudelo’s hustle and slide tackle sprung Davies in. But before Davies could release a shot from inside the area, three Red Bulls defenders closed in.
For New York, Kljestan found himself in the area in the 27th minute but with no angle and Andrew Farrell pressuring, he was forced out of the area without a shot. In the 38th minute, New York had two chances from Grella. First Grella took a feed inside the area and looked have a go from 12 yards out, but Farrell closed and blocked in. Less than a minute later, still in the 38th minute, a chance fell to Grella after a header from Dane Richards but Grella’s bid was well high from close range.
New York finished with the advantage in shots 9-7 and shots on goal 3-2 and had a 57.5% of the possession. New England led in fouls, 20-9 and completed just 64% of its passes.
New England is back in action with its first ever visit to Orlando to take on one of MLS’ newest clubs, Orlando City SC on Friday night at 8:00 p.m..
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