Revolution Wrap Regular Season With 1-0 Win
Saturday, October 25, 2014
When the New England Revolution took the Gillette Stadium pitch for their regular season finale against Toronto FC, they did so in front of 32,766 fans -- the 3rd largest crowd for a Revs game at Gillette Stadium in team history. They did not disappoint, capping the 2014 season with a 1-0 win over Toronto FC. With the win, the Revolution tied a team-record with 17 wins, matching the mark set in 2005.
"We're excited that we were able to get the three points," Revolution coach Jay Heaps said following the game. "But also get some sharpness and get out of there without any injuries and without any red cards. We wanted to be professionals tonight, and we did that I think. It got a little bit chippy, but we kept our heads and were able to get the three points and get ready for the playoffs."
The Revs got the first good chance of the night in the 6th minute off the foot of Andrew Farrell. The play started on a perfect pass from Jermaine Jones to Farrell out on the wing. Farrell got the ball over to Lee Nguyen in the middle of the field, starting the Revs attack. Nguyen left a beautiful pass for Farrell inside the box but Farrell got too much under the ball and lifted a golden opportunity over the net.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTToronto FC nearly found the go-ahead goal in the 9th minute. Toronto got a ball into the box for Gilberto who put an acrobatic foot on it and knocked the ball off the woodwork. Toronto was awarded a corner kick off the ensuing clear but the Revs defense stood tall.
Toronto stayed on the attack when Daniel Lovitz forced Bobby Shuttleworth to make a great save in the 17th minute. Lovitz broke behind the Revs defense on the left side of the attack and unleashed a strong shot, but Shuttleworth pushed it aside and kept the match scoreless.
The Revs were the first team to find the net as they got another goal off the foot of Lee Nguyen to give them the 1-0 lead in the 35th minute. The goal came with a bit of controversy as it appeared Chris Tierney was offsides on the touch that gave Nguyen the ball. The linesman originally had the offsides flag up but put it down after a Toronto touch. This caused Toronto's defense to stop play, but Nguyen continued play and netted the goal.
When asked about the decision following the game, referee Ricardo Salazar stated that the touch by Dominic Oduro was an intentional flick backwards. This negated the offsides call, allowing the advantage to be played on by the Revolution.
"I didn't know what was going on," Nguyen said following the game. "Someone was yelling offsides and I didn't hear a whistle so I just kept trying to finish the play and the defenders were still going. So I was like, 'Let's finish this up' and luckily we got a goal there and it counted."
"Jose just dinked a ball over and I think Oduro might have been trying to flick it back, I'm not sure. But play the whistle they say, so I wasn't gonna stop and we'll let the referees worry about making the call. We'll try to worry about scoring goals and that one went our way -- so there's not much else to it really."
It was Nguyen's 18th goal of the season and was officially assisted by Chris Tierney. With the goal, Nguyen has at least one goal or assist in 10 of the Revs last 11 games. The 18 goals tie Nguyen for the 2nd most goals in a season by a Revolution player -- tying him with Raul Diaz Arce and trailing only Taylor Twellman's 23 goals in 2002. The assist was Tierney's 5th of the season.
"Chris did a great job getting to the byline and was able to pick up his head and find me," Nguyen said about the goal. "Credit to Charlie, [he] did a great job being able to lay it off there and let it go through his legs. And then it was just trying to find an opening basically -- took a couple of touches and was able to slide it through."
The Revs turned up the pressure following the goal, getting great chances from Nguyen and Diego Fagundez before the half. The Revs went into the half with the 1-0 lead. They out shot Toronto 7-3 in the half with a 2-1 advantage in shots on target. Toronto did own the advantage in possession 57.1% to 42.9%.
The Revs got the 2nd half started by getting a good chance in the 48th minute off a free kick. The Revs lined-up Nguyen, Jermaine Jones and Chris Tierney over that ball, with Jones taking the eventual shot. Nguyen tipped the ball over to Jones before he took a low shot that forced Bendik to make a diving save to his left.
Toronto answered with a chance of their own in the 50th minute. The shot came off the foot of Kyle Bekker but was right at Bobby Shuttleworth, who made the easy save. Shuttleworth was tested again in the 54th minute, but again made the easy save on Bekker.
The Revs made a substitution in the 62nd minute as Lee Nguyen came off for Diago Kobayashi. The appearance by Kobayashi made him the only member of the Revolution to appear in every regular season game, and capped an astonishing regular season for Nguyen. Nguyen's regular season ended with 18 goals and five assists. The 18 goals set the high-mark for goals by a midfielder in MLS history.
The Revs got another good chance in the 66th minute when Jermaine Jones intercepted a pass and made a solo run towards net and hammered a shot, but it soared high of the net. The run was the final play of the night for Jones, as he was subbed off for Andy Dorman. Dorman made his first appearance since July 12 when he suffered a knee injury against Chicago.
The Revs got another chance in the 71st minute when Kelyn Rowe missed a golden opportunity. Rowe was given a perfect pass from Kobayashi with no Toronto defenders in the area. Rowe handled the bouncing ball with a tip attempt but missed the net by poking it high.
The Revs sat behind the ball for the rest of the game and held off the Toronto attack to complete the 1-0 victory. The Revs finished the season with six-straight home wins and a 10-1-2 record following the mid-season, eight-game losing streak. The Revs finished the season with 55 points on a 17-13-4 record -- good for 2nd in the Eastern Conference.
The 32,766 attendance number was the 3rd largest in team history at Gillette Stadium and was the largest since 2009. It was also the largest crowd for a game against a team other than the LA Galaxy. Following the game members of the Revs gave fans their jersey's and signed autographs for about an hour.
"I would say it's important that all the players show after the game up and sign some jersey's, give some balls back," Jermaine Jones said about the players supporting the fans. "You can see how many kids you make happy with, we can say small stuff for us maybe, and they are happy for a whole week, or a whole month, or a whole year maybe."
The Revs chose to play most of their "regular" players throughout the game, giving them some momentum as they prepare for the playoff run in front of them. "We hadn't played since Thursday of last week," Heaps said. "So we were chomping at the bit a little bit. You've gotta be mindful of keeping rhythm."
"I think it was important that we have no injury after that game," Jones said. "The game was not so important for us -- like a normal game. But I think that after, we can be happy we won that game and now we can start to make focus on the playoff games. It's always nice to go with a win out of the season. Now the concentration is 100% playoffs."
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