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By Michel Pierre-Louis
Entering Saturday’s match on a seven-game losing streak, including a recent woeful road trip, the New England Revolution were hoping to turn to winning ways at home against Eastern Conference rival Columbus Crew. However, ineffectiveness plagued the Revs as they fell 2-1 against the visiting Crew on Saturday night in front of 14,542 fans in attendance at Gillette Stadium.
Both teams had their fair share of looks on goal early on, but the match would remain scoreless until the final two minutes of the first half.
Federico Higuain got things going for the visitors, beating Bobby Shuttleworth with a majestically taken free kick in the 43rd minute. Despite a handful of chances for the hosts, the Revolution just could not convert and would head into halftime down 1-0.
Five minutes into the second half, AJ Soares would draw the Revs level with a header following a corner kick taken by Kelyn Rowe. The goal was Soares’ 6th career goal, and interestingly all 6 of them came from a header following a set piece.
For the following half hour, it looked as if the Revolution would finally break their winless streak, until the 84th minute against the run of play, Ethan Finlay scores the go ahead goal for the visitors; with an assist from Justin Meram.
With the win, Columbus extends its winning streak to two games, while New England drops 8th straight and out of the Eastern Conference playoffs picture for the time being.
Up next, New England will host the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium before travel to New York next Saturday to face the Red Bulls. The Crew, meanwhile, will travel to Illinois to take-on the Chiago Fire at Toyota Park on Aug 2nd.
