FOXBOROUGH, Mass. The New England Revolution played their second home game of the season on Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium against the red-hot FC Dallas, who’s now on top of the Western conference standing. The Revs were hoping to get their first home win of the season, after failing to beat Sporting Kansas City last week in their home-opener.
Behind over 10,000 strong supporters on hand, they fell short of that objective when Blas Perez headed the winning goal in the 87th minute for the visiting FC Dallas. Perez scored the only goal after taking David Ferreira’s ball inside the far post occupied by Bobby Shuttleworth who recorded his 2nd start in four games for Revs this season.
Both teams were sluggish in the first half; however, both team had chances to open the score in the first 45 minutes. FC Dallas had a chance early on in the 14th minute when Kenny Cooper’s cross came in front of the goal only to be missed by Jackson. Diego Fagundez, one of the bright side of the night for the Revolution nearly struck on goal in the 34th minute but his 20 yarder went directly to the hands of Raul Fernandez, the FCD goalkeeper.
Jerry Bengston, the Honduran international who missed last week’s match because of international duty with his national team, was back in the starting line for the Revs and was paired-up with Ryan Guy who had his first start of the season
Bengston and the Revs started the second half strongly, their first real chance came in the 58th when Juan Trojas’ cross found Bengston’s head which was played nicely by Fernandez who sent it over the crossbar.
Kenny Cooper believed he netted the first goal on a cross from the left in the 63rd but he was ruled off side by the assistant referee, a call many questioned.
Blas Perez’s 87th minute goal was a heart-breaker for the New England Revolution fans as they thought the club was on pace to record their second scoreless match in as many weeks. Perez’s heroic goal was enough to carry FCD to their 4th win out of 5 games this season.
The home side had a few more chances in second half to score their first home goal of the season but they came up empty (it was their 3rd straight game without scoring).
Next, the Revolution will have a bye next week then travel to Seattle to face the Sounders on April 13th while FC Dallas will go across the border to face FC Toronto next week-end.
Benson Petit-Clair
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