New England Soccer Today

Revs Topple Toronto

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Benjamin Angoua scored his first MLS goal to help the Revolution claim a 3-0 victory over top-of-the-table Toronto FC on Saturday at Gillette Stadium.

Angoua, who joined the team in the offseason via Ligue 1 side EA Guingamp, grabbed goal no. 1 when he nodded through a line drive corner kick from Lee Nguyen in the 17th minute. Justin Morrow nearly equalized in the when his low drive smacked the bottom of the far post in the 24th minute. Toronto cracked the crossbar in the 34th minute on a ball smashed by Armando Cooper from distance.

Diego Fagundez made the guests pay for the close calls when he linked up with Juan Agudelo and buried it from the edge of the 18 in the 66th minute. Fagundez nearly added another in the waning stages before he was denied by the crossbar, but Agudelo was there to poke the rebound through in the 85th minute.

With the win, the Revolution improve to 20 points (5-5-5), and notch their fourth point in as many days. The Reds stay on 29 points (8-2-5), losing their first match since a 2-1 defeat at Columbus on Apr. 15.

What it means: It’s not a stretch to say Saturday’s performance was a signature win for the Revolution. In a match that featured plenty of chances, the hosts simply did better with the ones they claimed against the best team in the east. Antonio Delamea essentially snuffed Sebastian Giovinco out of the match and the midfielders did their part to break up the Reds in the middle and final thirds. Yes, Toronto may have been without Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley, but they still had Giovinco and Victor Vazquez at their disposal. Beating the best team in the conference by three goals is one thing: shutting them out with Giovinco on the pitch has to be considered the feat of the season for the Revolution so far.

True story: After he was held scoreless in his first 10 matches, Diego Fagundez has now tallied four times in his last five.

Kouassi out: Wednesday’s hero for the Revolution was unavailable for Saturday as Xavier Kouassi – who pulled up lame with a leg injury – was sidelined with a quad injury. The defensive midfielder picked up the injury on a non-contact play moments before he scored the equalizing goal in the 86th minute of the 2-2 draw at New Yok City FC. With Kouassi out, Gershon Koffie – who started at defensive midfielder on Wednesday – was slotted into the no. 6 role.

Three Revs off to international duty: A trio of Revolution veterans were recently called up by their respective national teams last week. Antonio Delamea (Slovenia), Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone), and Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica) will all depart for international duty following Saturday’s match.

Open Cup action on tap: The Revolution will kick off their quest for U.S. Open Cup glory on Wednesday, Jun. 14 when they host the Rochester Rhinos (USL) in fourth round play at Providence College in Providence, R.I. Kickoff is 7:30pm. Last year, the Revolution advanced to the Cup final, where they fell to FC Dallas 4-2 at Toyota Stadium.

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