Kei Kamara scored against Columbus to lead the Revolution to victory. Photo/Kari Heistad
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution finally kicked their habit of letting leads slip away, as they collected a 3-1 victory over Columbus Crew SC on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
Lee Nguyen opened the scoring for the hosts after just three minutes, then an own goal by Columbus’ Will Trapp doubled the advantage. But the Crew replied just before halftime with a strike from forward Ola Kamara, which seemed to threaten déjà vu for the Revolution, who have let leads slip five times this season.
But Kei Kamara – who left Columbus for New England via trade in mid-May – put the nail in the coffin of his former team with a goal in the 71st minute.
“When you play against your former team, there’s motivation because you know them and everyone knows what happened to have us get him, but there was more to this game than that,” said Revolution coach Jay Heaps of Kamara.
“I thought he was awesome tonight,” Heaps added. “Kei for me, we ask a lot of him…he’s played a lot of minutes, and hasn’t even batted an eye. He’s dug in with our group. We talked tactics with him about what we needed him and he was perfect tonight in terms of what he did defensively for us and then offensively I was glad he got that goal.”
Kamara’s introduction to New England hasn’t exactly been smooth, as he went six games without scoring until converting twice in a 3-2 US Open Cup victory against the New York Cosmos earlier this month.
But the Sierra Leonean striker, who also converted the opening strike in a 3-2 loss against Montreal on July 2, has finally begun to find his form and was involved in all three of the Revolution’s goals on Saturday night.
He contested for an aerial ball with Columbus defender Michael Parkhurst on a play that led to Nguyen’s opening striker, delivered the pass that deflected off Trapp’s foot and rolled into the net on New England’s second goal before scoring his first goal at Gillette Stadium as a member of the Revolution.
Saturday night’s win against Columbus is a boost to the Revolution as much as it’s one for Kamara. Thanks to the victory against the Crew, the Revs, who spent weeks outside playoff contention, now occupy the Eastern Conference’s sixth and final playoff spot.
Whether the Revolution can build off this victory remains to be seen, though they’re certainly resilient. Against Columbus, they were without goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth (suspension), strikers Charlie Davies (abductor) and Juan Agudelo (knee), as well as midfielder Gershon Koffie (knee).
That said, the hosts managed to employ high pressure on the Crew.
In the third minute, Chris Tierney floated the ball into the penalty area for Kamara, Parkhurst heading the feed away. But Nguyen latched onto the clearance, volleying it into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season.
At the 34-minute mark, Tierney again played the ball forward to Kamara, who executed a one-two with Nguyen before sending the ball centrally toward Kelyn Rowe. Trapp reached the ball before Rowe, but inadvertently deflected the feed into his own goal to double the lead.
“Overall, the mentality was no matter what they threw at us we’d continue to push and try to close down and I thought we did that,” added Heaps.
Just before halftime, Ola Kamara scored, as he found space in behind Jose Goncalves and London Woodberry off a Tony Tchani pass before poking the feed in off goalkeeper Brad Knighton’s outstretched body.
“He’s not going to turn and dribble and beat three guys, but he’s going to run off the shoulder and split the two center backs,” said Heaps of Ola Kamara. “Unfortunately we turned off on one play and he scored.”
Knighton, to his credit, made four saves, including stopping a point-blank shot by Ethan Finlay (14th), a line drive from outside the box by Mohammed Saeid (29th).
Kamara, though involved with his side’s first two goals, wanted more. He was dragged down in the box by Chad Barson (35th), then had a shot from inside the six-yard box cleared off the line by Parkhurst (55th) off a feed by Teal Bunbury.
The Revolution’s third goal was bizarre. Bunbury ran into the box and got dragged down by Waylon Francis, the ball squirting toward Barson, who failed to control and allowed possession to ball to Kamara, who blasted a shot into the back of the net from the heart of the box.
“They gave me a happy meal, so I have to eat it…If they give you a happy meal and if you can’t finish it, you’re not worth a happy meal,” Kamara said.
“To me I love that, and for that to be my first goal in front of this crowd, it was amazing.”
New England Revolution
Columbus Crew
