Benson Petit-Clair
The New England Revolution dropped to a (8-8-6) record after a very tough loss against Toronto FC yesterday at Gillette Stadium. The Revs couldn’t keep the momentum after two strong performances to make a push for the playoffs.
The visitors opened the score quickly in the 2nd minute of the game after a defensive miscue from the Revs defense. The Argentine, Matias Laba, the the lone scorer of the match; beat New England Goalkeeper, Bobby Shuttleworth on a one-on-one battle after the miscue. Alba’s shot went straight to the net; although, Revs midfielder did his best to prevent the score.
“We gave them a gift in the first two minutes and it’s always tough to climb back like that. We fought hard, tried to put ourselves in a position to tie in the first half and try to get a goal. It just wasn’t our day today.” Stated Lee Nguyen after the match
“We created plenty of chances in the first half. None of them were able to fall. We kept putting ourselves into a deeper hole in the second half by continuing to not being able to finish. It was a frustrating night, but now we’ve got to focus on next week.”
We’ve just got to get together and refocus. We started slow in D.C., we started slow today. We can’t afford to start slow in KC.” He added.
Despite their inabilities to score on Toronto’s GK, Joe Bednik, the Revs dominated the visitors. They had a season high of 17 shot attempts on goal and Bednik made crucial save on many of them.
Bednik first major save came in the in the 17th minute when he stopped a shot from Lee Nguyen who received a ball from Saer Sene. Bednik would eventually finish the game with 5 saves to preserve the shutout.
The Toronto defenders helped their cause as well in the 34th minute by they disrupted a one-two play from Saer and rookie defender, Andrew Farrell.
The teams entered the half on a 1-0 lead by Toronto even when the Revs had 7 more shots on goal than the visitors.
After the break, in a move to search for the equalizer and bring more firepower to the offense, New England switched to a 3-4-3 formation by inserting Striker Chad Barrett in place of Defender Stephen McCarthy. The Toronto defenders did not budge and defended their camp to the best of their abilities. While New England couldn’t get the momentum they wanted, Toronto has been building their own momentum in their last three outings.
Ryan Nelsen, Head coach of the Toronto FC believes his team is improving game by game.
“That is 7 points in 3 games. It is something that we are building on. We are always trying to get better and better each game. The guys showed today that sometimes when it is not going as well with the ball, you have our foundation to fall back on, our organization and our structure and working really hard for each other. That is what won us the game with a little bit of brilliance against the goal.” Added the coach.
New England’s best chance in the 2nd half came in the concluded minutes when Diego Fagudez headed the ball past Bednik after a Lee Nguyen free kick, but the ball went to hit the crossbar.
The Revs will be on the road for their next match facing the highly ranked Sporting Kansas on Saturday, August. 10. FC Toronto will resume league actions at home on the same day against the Seattle Sounders and their newly acquired star, Clint Dempsey.
Line-ups:
New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth, Chris Tierney, Jose Goncalves, Stephen McCarthy (Chad Barrett 74), Andrew Farrell, Diego Fagundez, Juan Toja (Kelyn Rowe 60), Scott Caldwell, Lee Nguyen, Saer Sene, Dimitry Imbongo
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Reis, Kevin Alston, A.J. Soares, Andy Dorman, Ryan Guy
Toronto FC: Joe Bendik, Richard Eckersley, Steven Caldwell, Doneil Henry, Ashtone Morgan, Reggie Lambe, Jonathan Osorio, Matias Laba, Bobby Convey, Andrew Wiedeman (Justin Braun 69), Jeremy Brockie (Jeremy Hall 80)
Substitutes Not Used: Stefan Frei, Alvaro Rey, Darel Russell, Gale Agbossoumonde, Michael Thomas
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