Both Diego Fagundez and Charlie Davies scored in the Revolution’s 2-0 victory over Chicago on Saturday night. Photo/Kari Heistad
BOSTON- This time the New England Revolution built on their one-goal lead rather than lose focus and handing over their advantage.
Second half goals by Diego Fagundez and Charlie Davies, who scored within one minute and 53 seconds of one another, pushed the Revolution past the Chicago Fire 2-0 at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night. The win snapped the Revolution’s six-game winless run, which dated back to May 2, and put the Revolution just four points behind first place D.C. United, who play versus Orlando City SC tomorrow.
“It was important,” said Revolution coach Jay Heaps. “We let some games get away from us at home and we needed the three. This one was really important. We tried to get this game going.”
The Revolution’s play on Saturday night seemed more in line with what they’d shown during all of April and most of May, when they went on an eight-game unbeaten run. But that quality mysteriously went away for nearly a month. In five of the Revolution’s last six games, they took the lead only to see it evaporate and turn into a loss or tie.
Fagundez had the Revolution’s first goal. Photo/Kari Heistad
But against Chicago, the Revolution showed what they’re capable of doing.
And, it was without Jermaine Jones (sports hernia), who is out for at least the next month and a half. The World Cup veteran has helped the Revolution’s midfield, though Andy Dorman did a more than serviceable job filling in for him alongside Scott Caldwell in Coach Jay Heaps’ hybrid 4-2-3-1 formation.
“Andy Dorman was excellent, Scott Caldwell was excellent,” Heaps added. “I still feel we have a lot of depth in that position. Jermaine’s got to get himself back and help us out during this stretch run.”
And after a quiet first half that didn’t feature too many attacking chances, the Revolution put their feet on Chicago’s bellies immediately after halftime.
“We approached the game the right way,” Heaps said. “We really tried to get the game going in the first half, I didn’t feel we had a ton of chances but they were slowing it down and one of our talking points was urgency. We tried to play with urgency, but we really never got it going. At half time, the big point was to really put them under pressure.”
Fagundez, who was later named match MVP, put the Revolution on the scoreboard with his second goal of the season. A Chris Tierney corner kick in the 48th minute deflected off of Dorman at the near post and floated toward Fagundez just outside the center of the box. Fagundez lashed out at the loose, hanging ball, his shot flying like a missile into the back of the net and past the outstretched reach of Chicago’s Jon Busch.
“I saw the ball coming straight at me, the first thing I said was ‘I have to get this on target.’…I put the timing in, once I hit it it felt good, and once I saw it go in it felt great,” said Fagundez, who also said this was one of the most favorite goals he’s scored.
Fagundez added: “There’s no way that wasn’t going in.”
Davies celebrating his goal with his teammates. Photo/Kari Heistad
Davies tallied moments later off a play involving Lee Nguyen and Teal Bunbury. The action actually started with Bunbury being dragged down in the penalty area after going in via a through ball from Nguyen, referee Silviu Petrescu not awarding a penalty kick. But the Revolution almost instantaneously regained possession, Bunbury’s volley toward goal re-directed by Davies’ header into the lower left corner of the net.
The Revolution back line, including goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth, did its part, too. The win marked the Revolution’s fifth shutout of the season, their first since (also since April 23), a statistics that goes along nicely with their unbeaten home record this season.
Shuttleworth made four saves to back the Revolution’s efforts, including a point blank stop on a Jason Johnson header in second half stoppage time.
If you want to reach Julian email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @juliancardillo
