FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution snapped their five-game losing on Saturday night defeating New York City FC 1-0 in front of 28,811 fans at Gillette Stadium. Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute to give the Revs their first win since June 13 and improve the club’s record to 7-9-6 for 27 points on the season.
New York City FC came out on the front foot, forcing Revolution goalkeeper Brad Knighton – starting just his second game of the season in place of the injured Bobby Shuttleworth – to save a Patrick Mullins header in just the second minute. Just a minute later, Angelino went close with a long range effort that skipped just wide of the post.
The Revolution would break the deadlock with their first shot of the game in the 12th minute with Lee Nguyen curling a shot past NYC FC goalkeeper Josh Saunders for his third goal of the season. Following a sustained run of possession, Daigo Kobayashi played a quick back heel into the path of Diego Fagundez who found Nguyen making a diagonal run into the area. Nguyen collected the pass and cut inside, past Jason Hernandez, before beating Saunders to give New England a 1-0 lead.
Teal Bunbury and Charlie Davies each went close later in the half, but the Revs were unable to add to their lead and went into the break with a 1-0 advantage.
The Revolution’s Chris Tierney, who was named to the MLS All-Star Gameday Roster earlier in the day, had a chance early in second half that was touched over the bar by Saunders while Knighton was called upon to save a Thomas McNamara effort in the 52nd minute. Just minutes after McNamara’s chance, NYC FC were reduced to 10 men in the 55th minute when midfielder Ned Grabavoy was shown a straight red card by referee Sorin Stoica for a foul on Daigo Kobayashi.
New England would control the game’s final 35 minutes, limiting NYC FC to just one shot in that time while creating a number of chances to double their lead, only to see Charlie Davies hit the bar in the 70th minute while Nguyen had an 84th-minute effort saved by Saunders as the game ended 1-0 in favor of the Revs, snapping their five-game losing streak.
Full match highlights and statistics can be found here.
Revolution Santander Man of the Match
DIEGO FAGUNDEZ – Started and registered the game-winning assist on Lee Nguyen’s goal in the 12th minute. The assist was Fagundez’s third of the season, two of which have been game-winning assists. He finished the game with a game-high four chances created and two shots.
Next Game
The Revolution will be back in action on Saturday, July 25 when they travel to Chicago to face the Fire at Toyota Park. That game, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m. ET, will be shown locally on Comcast SportsNet and nationally on MLS LIVE. The game will also be available locally on the radio, in English on 98.5 The Sports Hub and on WMVX 1570 AM Nossa Radio USA in Portuguese.
New England Revolution vs. New York City FC
July 18, 2015 – Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
New England Revolution 1, New York City FC 0
Scoring Summary:
NE – Lee Nguyen 3 (Diego Fagundez 3, Daigo Kobayashi 2) 12’
Misconduct Summary:
NE – Lee Nguyen (Yellow Card) 29’
NE – Scott Caldwell (Yellow Card) 42’
NYC – Jason Hernandez (Yellow Card) 49’
NYC – Ned Grabavoy (Red Card) 55’
NYC – Andrew Jacobson (Yellow Card) 68’
NE – Jeremy Hall (Yellow Card) 91+
New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; Jeremy Hall, London Woodberry, Andrew Farrell, Chris Tierney ©; Daigo Kobayashi (Andy Dorman 79’), Scott Caldwell; Teal Bunbury (Juan Agudelo 72’), Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez; Charlie Davies (Kelyn Rowe 81’).
Substitutes Not Used: Trevor Spangenberg, Donnie Smith, Steve Neumann, Sean Okoli.
STATS: Shots 14, Shots on target 4, Saves 3, Corner kicks 8, Offsides 4, Fouls 17, Possession 45.1%, Passes 353 (69.7%)
New York City FC: Josh Saunders; Angelino (Chris Wingert 70’), Jason Hernandez, Shay Facey, Andoni Iraola; Andrew Jacobson, Mehdi Ballouchy (Pablo Alvarez 77’), Thomas McNamara, Ned Grabavoy (Sent Off 55’); David Villa ©, Patrick Mullins (Kwadwo Poku 58’).
Substitutes Not Used: Eirik Johansen, R.J. Allen, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Adam Nemec.
STATS: Shots 9, Shots on target 3, Saves 3, Corner kicks 4, Offsides 1, Fouls 15, Possession 54.9%, Passes 430 (77.2%)
Referee: Sorin Stoica
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson and Jason White
Fourth Official: Marcos de Oliveira
Weather: Cloudy and 77 degrees
Attendance: 28,811
Team Records:
New England Revolution: 7-9-6, 27 pts.
New York City FC: 5-9-6, 21 pts.
Additional Game Notes
- With the win, the Revolution are now 7-9-6 for 27 points on the season. They are tied with Toronto FC and Columbus Crew SC (who play on Sunday) for third place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the second place New York Red Bulls and three points ahead of Orlando City SC, who hold the sixth and final postseason berth.
- The win snaps the Revs’ five-game losing streak, which had been the longest in MLS this season and tied for the sixth longest in club history.
- This was the Revs’ first-ever win over NYC FC, who beat New England 2-0 at Yankee Stadium on March 15 in the first-ever meeting between the two sides.
- New England is now 1-1-1 against expansion sides this season and 12-12-5 against them all-time, including an 8-2-1 record at home against expansion teams since the start of the 2005 season.
- This was NYC FC’s first-ever visit to Gillette Stadium. The Revs are now 12-7-2 in their first-ever home game against a club.
- Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made four changes to the team that lost 4-1 on the road against the New York Red Bulls last weekend. Brad Knighton, Jeremy Hall, Daigo Kobayashi and Diego Fagundez all returned to the starting lineup in place of Bobby Shuttleworth, Jose Goncalves, Andy Dorman and Juan Agudelo.
- Jose Goncalves was suspended for the game after being sent off late in last weekend’s loss to New York.
- Bobby Shuttleworth was unavailable for selection after suffering a concussion in training earlier this week. He was replaced by Knighton in the starting lineup while Trevor Spangenberg was on the bench for the first time this season.
- In addition to Shuttleworth, the Revolution were also without Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes and Jermaine Jones, who all missed the game because of injury.
- Lee Nguyen gave the Revolution a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute with his third goal of the season and his first at Gillette Stadium.
- That was the 30th regular-season goal of Nguyen’s Revolution career. He joins Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston, Shalrie Joseph, Joe-Max Moore and Pat Noonan as the only players with 30 or more goals for the club.
- Diego Fagundez and Daigo Kobayashi were each credited with assists on the goal. It was the third of the season for Fagundez and the second for Kobayashi.
- That was Kobayashi’s first assist since the Revs’ first goal of the season on March 28 against San Jose.
- This was the first time that the Revs had scored the game’s opening goal since a 2-1 road loss to Columbus Crew SC on June 24.
- NYC FC were reduced to 10 men in the 55th minute after Ned Grabavoy was sent off for a foul on Daigo Kobayashi. That was just the second red card shown to a player against the Revolution this season and the first since the club’s home opener on March 21.
- Brad Knighton finished the game with three saves for his first-ever clean sheet as a member of the Revolution and his first in MLS since July 6, 2013 when he was a member of Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
- He was making just his second start of the season for New England and the 10th of his career with the club, which he originally joined in 2007. He is now 3-4-3 in those 10 games and 15-13-9 in 39 career MLS appearances.
- That was the Revs’ sixth clean sheet of the season and first since June 13, which was also the last time the Revolution won before tonight.
- Teal Bunbury was replaced in the 72nd minute by Juan Agudelo. This was Bunbury’s third straight game without being booked, meaning that he is no longer on yellow card warning and is two cautions away from having to serve a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.
- Jeremy Hall made the 100th start of his MLS career in the game, playing the full 90 minutes at right back.
- Chris Tierney, who was named to the MLS All-Star Gameday Roster before the game, made his 175th appearance for the club. He now ranks fifth in team history in games played.
