Kei Kamara’s hat-trick led the Revolution to victory over Orlando. Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution need to win the rest of their home games this season to have a remote shot at making the playoffs. On Saturday night, they took another step in the right direction as earned their fourth consecutive victory at Gillette Stadium by dispatching Orlando City SC 4-0 in front of 17,865.
One day after his 33rd birthday, Kei Kamara recorded a hat-trick to lead the Revolution, the 100th, 101st, and 102nd goals of his career, including both regular season and playoff games. Teal Bunbury scored the Revolution’s fourth in second half stoppage time off a feed from Krisztian Nemeth, who made his team debut.
Lee Nguyen also assisted all four Revolution goals.
The first scoring sequence started in the 26th minute when Orlando’s Giles Barnes failed to keep a ball in play on the right flank. Scott Caldwell took over possession and ran up the wing before driving a cross into the heart of the area for Kamara, who got in front of the two central defenders and slammed the feed past goalkeeper Joe Bendik.
Kamara’s second goal came off a give and go with Lee Nguyen in the 75th minute and he completed his hat-trick in the 90th minute with a hard run into the box that ended with a cannon into the back of the net.
It was Kamara’s first career hat-trick and just the tenth in team history. It was the Revolution’s first hat-trick since Zach Schilawski notched one in a 5-1 victory over Toronto on April 4, 2011.
“I’ve played this game for a while,” said Kamara. “To be in that moment to get a hat trick there, to score those goals, it’s really special. It’s a special day, a great team win, but one of those days I’ll never forget for the rest of my life actually.”
“Players stepped up tonight,” added Revolution coach Jay Heaps. “It was a good, an win important, a much-needed win.
“We got back to a having a more dynamic attack. We put Juan [Agudelo] in a little bit of a different position next to Lee [Nguyen], kind of a diamond midfield, and that opened the field up for [Kamara] and [Bunbury]. A lot of talk went into that this week, it was really trying to find space and create chances for each other.”
New England continue to make Gillette Stadium a tough place for opposing teams to play; this season, the Revolution have won nine of 13 home matches, which, remarkably, hasn’t been dominant enough by their standards.
But considering the Revolution are winless on the road this season and the odds of them making the playoffs are bleak, leaving points on the table at Gillette Stadium isn’t an option.
Orlando, who got leapfrogged by the Revolution in the standings after Saturday night’s result, are now winless in eight.
The visitors only threatened the Revolution sporadically and started off on the back foot.
Chris Tierney made his return to the starting lineup at left back and helped create the game’s first chance, his 13th minute cross reaching Teal Bunbury, whose shot at the far post was parried away by Bendik.
Kamara had an effort tipped away by Bendik in the 16th minute, then found the back of the net 10 minutes later.
The Revolution temporarily took the lead in the 42nd minute off an apparent goal by Lee Nguyen, but the goal was annulled just before halftime after further review.
That the Revolution were able to keep their composure and score in the second half was all the more important, given the timing of the revoked goal and their knack of blowing leads this season.
“I thought the guys rallied,” said Heaps. “Getting in at halftime we had a moment to talk about it, digest it, and get ourselves ready…We had a good talk at halftime, guys were engaged. When we came out in the second half I had a good feeling we were going to secure the game.”
The Revolution were further spurned by the tidy performance of goalkeeper Cody Cropper and the back line, which combined for the team’s seventh clean sheet of the season.
Cropper ended the night with 3 saves; his best stops came as he tipped away a freekick by Kaka at the half hour mark, then made a foot save off an effort from inside the six-yard box by Orlando’s Dom Dwyer.
New England were without their defensive leader, Antonio Delamea, who was available for selection for Slovenia in their 1-0 World Cup qualifying loss to Slovakia on Friday; Saturday marked the first time this season that the Revolution were without Delamea, who will be up for selection in another qualifier on Monday against Lithuania.
Referee Roberto Sibiga also ejected Orlando’s Jose Aja, who was cautioned twice in a 14-minute span in the second half. First, Aja clipped Bunbury, then he shoved Kamara from behind.
Mathematically, the Revolution are still in the playoff hunt, but, again, need to win-out their remaining five home games – and ideally win on the road.
“We’re already looking forward to next week,” said Chris Tierney, who wore the captain’s arm band on Saturday. “This win won’t matter if we don’t take care of business next week. This is the position we put ourselves in. We’re aware we need to win these games, especially against these in-conference teams battling us for that last playoff spot.”
