NE Revolution vs. Toronto
May 12, 2018
New England Revolution 3- Toronto FC 2
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With the MLS season well into the month of May, you might think that the book on the New England Revolution should be well-read by now. Then again, maybe not.
Pitted against another opponent that refused to alter its style of play, the Revolution’s high press put Toronto FC in an early ditch en route to a 3-2 win at Gillette Stadium on Saturday.
Cristian Penilla scored twice inside of seven minutes while Teal Bunbury scored the winning goal early in the second stanza to punish another foe that refused to account for the Revolution’s trademark pressing.
“When we play against teams who like to build out of the back – and Toronto is one of those teams and they’re very, very good at it – we like to high press and force them into mistakes,” Revolution coach Brad Friedel said. “They’ve had a lot of injuries across the backline, as you saw with Michael Bradley playing in the back four in the first half for them, and he’s naturally a midfielder.”
Indeed, the Revolution wasted no time exploiting the deployment of Bradley, a midfielder by trade, at center back.
Following a Toronto turnover near the halfway line, Scott Caldwell fed it to Bunbury, who then found Penilla with plenty of space to operate. The Ecuadorian midfielder then raced alone at goal as goalkeeper Alex Bono was unable to reach Penilla’s shot before it bulged the back of the net in the fourth minute.
But Penilla and his teammates were far from finished. Three minutes later, Diego Fagundez pressured Bono into making a quick pass to Ager Aketxe, who carelessly pushed it right into the path of Penilla. And once again, Penilla used his pace to score his second goal of the game.
“I think our game plan was just to put pressure on whoever had the ball in the back,” Bunbury said. “We wanted to start out the first 15 minutes making them feel uneasy, uncomfortable, and I think we were able to do that. Great pressure from Diego, from all the guys up front – Kelyn [Rowe], Penilla, and Scotty.”
New England continued to uncover opportunities even as Toronto started to come alive as the first half progressed. Bunbury and Fagundez each found dangerous chances thanks to gaps in guests’ defense, but neither was able to widen the margin before the break.
“I think we kind of let up a little bit,” Bunbury said. “But we still were putting a lot of pressure on them throughout the full 90 minutes, and that’s the most important thing.”
More pressure came right out of the break. Andrew Farrell threw himself forward and found Bunbury near the box before the Revolution striker deposited his shot into Toronto’s net in the 46th minute.
“If I see Teal open, [we knew]they had a slow backline tonight with their center backs out,” Farrell said. “So I knew he was going to be in a good spot. He’s been making runs all game, all year, that’s why he’s got so many goals this year.”
But the Revolution nearly let their downtrodden foes get the best of them. A 55th minute own goal from Antonio Delamea opened the door for the Reds while Sebastian Giovinco struck from the spot after Chris Tierney fouled Ager in the box in the dying minute.
Fortunately for the hosts, a moment of self-sabotage kept Toronto from finding an equalizer. Shortly after he scored, Giovinco put his hand in Wilfried Zahibo’s face, a moment that was caught by Mark Geiger with the assistance of VAR. A red card was issued to Giovinco, allowing the Revolution to breathe a sigh of relief in the waning moments.
Nevertheless, Friedel was pleased with the way his players executed the gameplan, which Toronto was unable to adjust to before it was all said and done.
“We felt that if we won the ball high up the field, we could expose the back four,” Friedel said, “which we did on numerous occasions.”
Toronto FC
NE Revolution
