FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution rediscovered their attacking form on Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium as they snapped a four-game losing streak in MLS play by out-gunning the Los Angeles Galaxy 4-3.
New England seemed like they were reverting to habits that have doomed them all season long – namely, blowing leads (they did so, twice, against LA) – but their finishing touch was on full display as Lee Nguyen (16th), Kei Kamara (30th), and Teal Bunbury (69th and 72nd) all found the back of the net, the first time since a 4-0 win against Real Salt Lake on May 13 that the Revolution had at least three players score goals.
The Galaxy, who lost midweek to Vancouver on Wednesday, gave the Revolution a scare and even controlled stretches of Saturday’s game despite the tired legs and the cross country trip.
But it was the Revolution who opened the scoring first and rallied off substitute Bunbury’s late game heroics and treat the season-high 27,441 crowd to a home win.
“I mean, we’ve known that we can score a lot of goals in every game, we have that potential, we have a lot of playmakers, we have guys that can score goals, and I think it was huge for us because we talked about that [at]halftime…getting the third and fourth goal,” Bunbury said. “ Credit to LA. They’re a great team and they stuck around and were putting pressure on us, but we were able to withstand that and come out with a win.
“That’s the most important thing is we won the game. No matter how it was back and forth, we were able to get three points and that’s huge for us.”
Nguyen converted his eighth goal of the season, finishing at the edge of the penalty area after picking up a loose ball following a duel between Jelle Van Damme and Kelyn Rowe, who was released off a Diego Fagundez pass out of midfield.
Los Angeles tied the game in the 23rd minute as Romain Alessandrini, with 10 yards of space on the right flank, crossed in the heart of the box for Daniel Steres, who headed past goalkeeper Brad Knighton to tie the game.
Kei Kamara rolled an effort wide in the 30th minute. He redeemed himself and ended his five-game goalless streak in league play by finishing neatly at the near post in the 35th minute after receiving the ball on the right side of the box from Fagundez.
The Galaxy equalized in the 53rd minute as Steres scored his second of the game in a scramble in the box following a corner kick.
“[Their] first two goals were both form set pieces that we didn’t deal with on second opportunities,” said Revolution coach Jay Heaps. “Then, I thought there were moments in the game where we were too porous – passing lanes were too open, we weren’t closing down fast enough. And that was all in the second half.
“I thought our first half was excellent, I really did…The first 20 minutes of the second half, it was too easy, too open, and too many passing lanes. We can’t be two different teams. We can’t have split personalities in one game.”
With the score level at 2-2 and ghosts of blown leads past starting to emerge, the Revolution started getting pushed back. The Galaxy, their attacking pressure mounting, threatened to steal the result.
Then Heaps swapped in Bunbury for Scott Caldwell, which added a second striker to pair with Kamara while also opening up space on the pitch.
Bunbury didn’t have to wait long to make a contribution. Four minutes after entering the game he headed in a cross from Rowe for his second goal of the season, the sequence starting at midfield when Fagundez won possession. Bunbury’s first goal also marked the first time that Fagundez has recroded three assists in one game.
The Revolution made it 4-2 three minutes later as Bunbury finished a feed from Andrew Farrell with an easy poke into the back of the net from the center of the box.
“I wanted to make an impact,” Bunbury said. “To be honest, I was kind of going in playing with a little bit of an edge. I wanted to be starting the game, to be frank, and thought I deserved that.
Said Heaps, who upset Bunbury on Friday when he told him he wouldn’t be starting: “All game, I knew he was stewing and he was upset and you just knew that if we got him in the game at the right time, if the game was opening up just a little bit, he was going to be able to tear it apart.”
The Galaxy did manage to pull the deficit within one in the 79th minute when substitute Ariel Lassiter scored off a pass by Alessandrini during a scrum in the box, but weren’t able to break down the Revolution any further.
“These three points are huge,” Bunbury added. “It’s not—you know—we still have a lot of games to go and we got to make sure we keep these performances going. So that’s an important key for us is to make sure we capitalize with this win and keep moving forward.”
