The New England Revolution hosted Toronto FC this week, after a bad 2-2 tie last week against Chicago, the worst team in MLS. With the playoff race starting to come down to the wire, the Revolution need to start getting on track here with their results.And win is what the Revolution did against Toronto. A 3-1 win over Toronto, and the Revolution are back into the Eastern conference playoff picture. Charlie Davies scored 2 goals, and Lee Nguyen converted a penalty kick for New England’s 3 goals. Also what was good to see were the way the Revs scored their 3 goals, all resulting from free kicks, all serviced by Chris Tierney. Sometimes when a team is struggling for goals during the run of play, it was good to get goals from set pieces. Two of the goals were from direct services on free kicks, both scored by Davies.
“He was really good. I think he was actually looking at the film from last week, he had a goal taken from him, he was considered offsides when he wasn’t. I think Charlie was itching for one, he really wanted that one last week, and I think tonight from the opening minute he was going to be aggressive and it showed. He pressured well, he was in good spots defensively, and whenever he does that I can tell he’s gonna get his chances.” Jay Heaps on Charlie Davies effort tonight.
The first 35 minutes was a bit slow, but it was New England who enjoyed the majority of possession and attacks. Toronto’s two biggest offensive weapons were kept silent through out the first half. But in the 35th minutes the Revs broke to deadlock when Davies tapped in a Kelyn Rowe cross during a free kick. Chris Tierney, who took the free kick, made a perfect pass to Kelyn Rowe who was making a run towards Toronto’s near post, and on a first touch crossed the ball to Davies, who was covered by two Toronto defenders, tapped the pass passed Toronto’s keeper Joe Bendik.
Minutes later disaster strikes Toronto. Jose and Jozy got tangled up, with Jose all over the back of Jozy trying to head the ball, and as Jose fell down, Jozy retaliates with a kick towards Jose. Although no contact was made, the referee issues a red card to Jozy, kicking him out of the match.
“I went for the challenge header, dropped to the ground, and he tried to kick me. It was the correct call from the referee to give him the red card.” Jose Goncalves on Jozy Altidore red card
Minutes later before half-time, Kelyn Rowe was brought down in the penalty box. Again it was on a free kick service into the penalty area, with Chris Tierney taking the free kick. Toronto’s Damien Perquis grabbed Kelyn’s shoulder/elbow and somewhat spun him around, not exactly a strong case for a penalty, but one was given. Lee Nguyen didn’t miss, making it 2-0 Revs at half time.
Down 2-0 and reduced to 10 men, Toronto pulled Giovinco at half time, not wanting to risk anything and take precautions. In the 62 minute, New England scored their 3rd goal. For the third time, Chris Tierney would be involved through a free kick service into the penalty area, where Charlie Davies shots a deflected ball passed Bendik. Toronto argued Davies was offsides, which he was, but these things do happen in soccer where the linesman miss these calls.
“It’s something we really work on. We have to cause we have guys who can really serve, we have really good runs in the box. I just like the way we were aggressive on all the free kicks.”
“When you work on set piece, you have guys like Tierney, Nguyen over the ball, you are gonna get chances to hurt teams, and sometimes we have and sometimes we haven’t, but we want to make sure we are aggressive so teams have to worry about defending our free kicks” Jay Heaps on Chris Tierney’s free kick services resulting in 3 goals
Toronto would be able to get one back in the 74th minute when Johnathan Osorio had time from about 17 yards out to control the ball, and pick out the bottom left corner for the 3-1 final score.
“Its very important we communicate and don’t leave any guy alone, I think that was the one mistake we did all game that cost us the one goal. Going forward we will make sure it will never happen.” Jose Goncalves on Osorio’s lone Toronto goal