Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By IVES GALARCEP
The New England Revolution had cooled off, seeing a once-promising five-match unbeaten streak morph into a three-match winless slide that threatened to leave them floating away from the Eastern Conference playoff race they had worked so hard to play themselves into.
Saer Sene and Dimitry Imbongo delivered the goals while New England’s defense returned to its stingy ways as the Revs shut down the San Jose Earthquakes, 2-0, at Gillette Stadium.
The Earthquakes mustered just two shots on goal on a night when the Revs pelted Earthquakes goalkeeper Jon Busch with nine shots on goal. Playing without injured striker Juan Agudelo, the Revs were still able to keep pressure on San Jose’s defense through the first-half efforts of Sene, Kelyn Rowe and Lee Nguyen.
The Revs broke through in the 13th minute when Sene blasted a 25-yard left-footed shot past Busch just seconds after having Busch make a quality save on another attempt.
Busch helped keep the Earthquakes in the match, delivering a beautiful kick save on a goal-bound Andrew Farrell shot in the 34th minute.
The Revs finally found their insurance goal in the 78th minute when Lee Nguyen ran onto a Rowe pass and quickly one-timed a pass to the front of goal, where Ibongo slipped in and finished from close range.
The loss marked San Jose’s third defeat in four matches, leaving the Earthquakes six points out of the playoff pack in the Western Conference, having played more matches than any other team in MLS (20).
Here are the match highlights:
What did you think of the match? Impressed with the Revs defense? Think Rowe is quietly becoming one of the better young midfielders in MLS?
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