The New England Revolution were home this weekend in Foxboro against the New York Redbulls. This is their first match against each other since these two teams met in the Eastern conference finals where New England knocked out the Redbulls to reach the finals. New England had a 6 game unbeaten streak, 4 wins 2 ties, including 3 wins in a row. Another streak New England has is 6 games in a row without conceding a goal during the run of play. Just 1 goal on a penalty shot and 1 goal on a free kick, and 4 shut outs during this time. Very good considering a constant changing defensive back line due to injuries.
New England won this game 2-1. They extended their unbeaten streak to 7 games and 4 wins in a row. One streak that was snapped was their run of games without conceding a goal during the run of play. Redbulls Mike Grella flicked the ball towards Sacha’s direction as he ran passed the Revs defense, beat Bobby Shuttleworth as he came out to cut Sacha’s angle, and put it in the back of the empty net. By this point Sacha’s goal cut the Revs lead in half late in the game. Despite a late flurry by the Redbulls, the scored remained 2-1 to New England. New York were without some starters like Bradley Wright-Phillips, last seasons league leading goal scorer, after a midweek game against Colorado.
A look at the score sheet, New York didn’t seem to play a bad game. They did control total possession, pass accuracy, total passes attempted, but all that means nothing. New England had two shots on target, and scored on both. Despite the stats, in watching this game, New England looked the better team, and New York just couldn’t threaten the Revs net much.
With this loss for New York is no longer undefeated. They were the last the undefeated team left in MLS. New England is now in a 3 way tie for best record in MLS. They are the best in the East. 5-2-2 record 17 points.
“It was an Eastern conference match, I thought it was fought hard both ways” said manager Jay Heaps after the game that saw New England get called for 19 fouls. “It was a tough week for New York, they had big game on Wednesday night against Colorado and we were able to rest, I’m sure they feel not good about getting points, but they came in here and had a good game which shows their depth and how deep they are.”
After the game things got tense between Jermaine Jones and Redbulls Felipe. They had to be separated by team mates and coaches. “New York was a little bit upset, talk some dumb stuff, I don’t let it get to me, for me its done now, and I don’t really want to talk about it. He knows what he said and I know what I did.” “During the whole game he talked, and after the game he talk, and I told him you lost, and if you lose its better to not talk, and then he said something in his language, the problem is I played with some players from his country so I know some words, and I told him don’t due that, I love my wife and kids, and that has nothing to do here on the pitch, but its done, I don’t want to push it more.