Rock Bottom?
- Updated: July 11, 2015
Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com
The New England Revolution’s summer slump continues to reach new lows with the team falling 4-1 to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night after a disastrous start. The loss was the fifth straight in MLS for the club and sixth straight through all competitions.
Bradley Wright-Phillips opened the scoring in the fourth minute, with Lloyd Sam doubling the lead in the ninth minute. Wright-Phillips second goal of the night to make it 3-0 in the 12th minute all but assured the victory, though Andy Dorman gave New England some signs of life with a 37th minute goal. Still, the Revolution couldn’t turn that into any momentum and Anthony Wallace put the game away at 4-1 in the 56th minute.
Jay Heaps made three changes to the line-up that lost 3-0 at FC Dallas on July Fourth. Andy Dorman and Juan Agudelo started in midfield over Daigo Kobayashi and Diego Fagundez, respectively, while Andrew Farrell returned from suspension to start at center back with London Woodberry moving back to right back and Kevin Alston out due to injury.
The Red Bulls took the lead in just the fourth minute when Lloyd Sam got played into the right side of the box, turned on Jose Goncalves and played a cross in where Bradley Wright-Phillips finished it off with a header.
Five minutes later Sam would turn scorer as Wright-Phillips found Mike Grella in the box, who played a through ball to Sam, allowing him to beat the offside trap and finish past Bobby Shuttleworth to make it 2-0.
The onslaught continued in the twelfth minute with Dax McCarty playing Wright-Phillips into the box. Wright-Phillips outpaced Andrew Farrell and slotted a shot past Shuttleworth to make it 3-0.
The Red Bulls continued to pressure and test Shuttleworth, but New England would pull one back in the 37th minute. Some nice combination play between Teal Bunbury and Lee Nguyen played Nguyen into the right side of the box. Nguyen sent a low pass across goal when Andy Dorman tapped it in. The goal was originally called offside by referee Alan Kelly, but eventually he corrected the call and allowed the goal.
Dorman’s strike hardly altered the momentum, however, as the Red Bulls dominated the possession the rest of the half.
Only a Shuttleworth save off a point blank Wright Philips shot in the 55th minute kept the Red Bulls from again extending the lead to three, but there was little the ‘keeper could do a minute later. A Red Bulls corner kick was initially cleared, but fell to McCarty, who played it back to Anthony Wallace. Wallace’s long range effort deflected to beat Shuttleworth, making it 4-1 with his first career MLS goal.
The Revolution had some late chances to get another consolation goal, but New York ‘keeper Luis Robles denied Lee Nguyen with impressive saves on a couple of occasions.
Things got even worse for the Revolution in the 88th minute when Goncalves got a second yellow card and subsequent red card for fouling Sal Zizzo in the box, leaving the Revolution down a man and short on center backs again nest weekend. Shuttleworth impressively saved Zizzo’s penalty kick and the rebound.
The Revolution return home to face New York City FC on Saturday at Gillette Stadium.
Related Posts
About Sean Donahue
One Comment