Road Woes Continue
- Updated: August 1, 2016
Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz
The New England Revolution’s struggle for consistency–and struggle for success away from home–continued on Sunday evening as the team wasted a halftime lead in falling 3-1 at Orlando SC in front of 27,768 at Camping World Stadium. Kei Kamara gave the Revolution the lead in the 19th minute, but Cyle Larin equalized just seconds after the halftime break and Kevin Molino added goals in the 64th and 83rd minutes to give Orlando a 3-1 victory and draw the second year club even on points with a game in hand on the Revolution for the 6th and final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Charlie Davies, who revealed on Saturday that he was in remission after being diagnosed with liposarcoma (a rare form of cancer) in the spring, made his first appearance since April, coming on for the final 15 minutes. Davies managed a team leading two shots–both on target–in his brief stint, including an impressive left footed volley from just inside the box in the 90th minute that only an equally impressive save from Joe Bendik kept from cutting the deficit to one late.
Kamara gave the Revolution a dream start in the 19th minute when he played the ball to Keyln Rowe in the Revolution’s half and Rowe immediately played it back to Kamara on the run. Kamara then dribbled the ball nearly 40 yards into the Orlando box before slotting a shot past Bendik to put the visitors in front. The goal was Kamara’s fourth in league play since being traded to the Revolution from the Columbus Crew on May 12, and ninth overall this season.
The Revolution would hold that lead into the break, but Orlando would put themselves back on equal footing under a minute after halftime. Larin got on the end of a long ball and sent it to Kevin Molino. Molino attempted a backheel that looked targeted for Kaka making a run into the box, but the ball instead deflected off a Revolution defender to Larin, who hit a low shot past Shuttleworth from the left side of the box to knot the score at 1-1.
Orlando continued on the front foot and Molino missed by just inches from close range in the 52nd minute. He’d make no mistake 12 minutes later when he beat Andrew Farrell to a Brek Shea cross and headed it past Shuttleworth to give the home side the lead.
Only a good save from Shuttleworth kept Brek Shea from making it 3-1 in the 76th minute, but the Revolution netminder may wish he had another chance at Molino’s effort seven minutes later when his diving save attempt missed stopping Molino’s bouncing shot that gave Orlando its final two goal margin of victory.
Davies’ substitution provided the Revolution a late spark, but some subpar finishing and good goalkeeping from Bendik assured Orlando would see out the game and take an important victory with playoff implications.
The loss dropped the Revolution (6-8-8, 26 points) to just 1-6-4 on the road, while Orlando (5-5-11, 26 points) remained unbeaten (4-0-7) at home. The game was also Orlando City head coach Jason Kreis’ first in charge of his new team. Kreis had previously coached Real Salt Lake and New York City FC.
The Revolution remain on the road and face third place Toronto FC (8-7-6, 3o points) on Saturday.
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