Revolution Settle for Sloppy Draw
- Updated: May 31, 2015
Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution took a fifth minute lead, but conceded twice before the half hour mark to fall behind before equalizing in the 37th minute, eventually settling for a 2-2 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the driving rain on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium. The match was the first time New England and Los Angeles met since the Galaxy defeated the Revolution 2-1 in MLS Cup 2014 last December.
Teal Bunbury slotted home a pass from Scott Caldwell to give the home team an ideal start in the fifth minute, but goals from Galaxy Rookie Ignacio Maganto and Gyassi Zardes in 18th and 27th minutes, respectively turned the game in the Galaxy’s favor. A Diego Fagundez free kick in the 37th minutes would make things all square again, but neither side was able to push on to get the win from there.
“I’m disappointed, as you can tell, because I thought our game plan was really good and we came out and executed for the first 12 minutes of that game,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “And if we continued to do that for another thirty or forty minutes, you’d see a big smile on my face right now, but we didn’t and that’s why I’m so frustrated right now. When we train all week and we start the game the right way and go about the game the right way and then we get our goal and we turn off and we don’t continue to do what we’ve done well all week, it’s very frustrating.”
New England (5-3-6, 21 points) remains in second place in the Eastern Conference with the draw, while the Galaxy (5-4-6. 21 points) sit in fifth in the Western Conference. The result left the Revolution winless in its last five games (0-1-4).
Heaps made two changes to the line-up that drew 1-1 with D.C. United last week, both forced by suspension. Kevin Alston and Diego Fagundez started at left back and central midfield, respectively, in place of the suspended Chris Tierney and Lee Nguyen.
Some nice build-up led to the opening goal in just the fifth minute. Caldwell played a give-and-go with Juan Agudelo before breaking into the box. Caldwell then sent a low cross in front of goal that Bunbury met at the far post and easily hit past Jaime Penedo to give the home side the early lead.
“We talked all week about trying to make sure we had those killer instinct runs,” said Bunbury. “Those balls were being played in previous games and maybe the runs weren’t there, so I wanted to make sure I was making a run. Juan played an unbelievable ball to Scotty, he took the ball down the line, played a great ball across and my job there is to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The Galaxy would find the equalizer in the 18th minute after finding some space on the right flank. Baggio Husidic got the ball to rookie Ignacio Maganto just outside the box and Magnato drove a shot inside the near post that Bobby Shuttleworth couldn’t reach.
Nine minutes later the Galaxy took the lead after some impressive work by Jose Villareal. Villareal got a pass from Maganto and backheeled a pass through Jose Goncalves legs, perfectly finding Gyassi Zardes. Zardes slotted it past Shuttleworth to make it 2-1.
“There was just a little 10 minute period where we let the game get away, but besides that I was pleased with everybody’s performance,” said Bunbury. “We’ve got to look back at the tape and maybe figure out some things that we could do better. I think we just have to have a killer instinct and be able to put teams away. After we score the first one we’ve got to keep going and bury our other chances and not let teams think they can stay in the game.”
New England suffered another blow in the 35th minute when Jermaine Jones was forced off with a left groin injury and replaced by Andy Dorman. Jones underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia in February.
“Trust me it’s really bad,” said Jones. “I don’t feel really good with it. I worked to come back and feel good and now I have more pain than before. Nobody’s happy with that. It’s not good. “
But New England would get right back into the match in the 37th minute after Bunbury was fouled just outside the box by Omar Gonzalez. With regular free kick takers Tierney and Nguyen both out of the line-up, Fagundez stepped up to take the free kick and curled it over the wall and inside the near post, leaving Penedo unable to stop it and knotting the score at 2-2.
“I just saw an open side and decided I needed to get it up there, over the wall,” said Fagundez.
The Revolution had two chances to find a second half winner starting in the 61st minute, with London Woodberry sending in a dangerous cross that Omar Gonzalez just managed to get a head to, directing it away from an onrushing Charlie Davies at the far post. A minute later Bunbury had a chance with a one-timer from the left side of the box, but Penedo managed to keep it out with a diving save.
Shuttleworth then came up huge in the 68th minute to keep the score level when Zardes made a run across the top of the box and played a pass to Maganto, who was running into the left side of the box. Maganto hit a low shot from close range, but Shuttleworth impressively made the stop and then dove on the rebound.
Both sides struggled to create chances from there as the driving rain forced a sloppy finish as the match ended at 2-2.
“Obviously [the conditions] are not ideal, but you’ve got to play in different conditions and everyone had to play in it,” said Bunbury. “It’s not ideal, but it was manageable.”
New England returns to action on Saturday, June 6 with a trip to face the Portland Timbers at 10:30 p.m. ET.
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