COLUMBUS, Ohio – The New England Revolution suffered a 2-1 defeat to Columbus Crew SC on Wednesday night at MAPFRE Stadium. Despite going ahead in the opening minute through Lee Nguyen, the Revs conceded a goal on either side of halftime to the leading scorer in MLS, Kei Kamara. The result leaves New England with a 6-6-6 record for 24 points on the season while the Revs remain in second place in the Eastern Conference.

In a wild opening five minutes of the first half, each side found the net. New England went ahead after just 31 seconds when Nguyen scored his second goal of the season. Daigo Kobayashi dispossessed Columbus midfielder Mohammed Saeid and knocked the ball forward to Kelyn Rowe who flicked the ball into the path of Nguyen to dribble at the Crew SC defense and fire a low shot past Steve Clark from 20 yards out.

The lead would last just three minutes as Columbus tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth minute through Kamara. Hector Jimenez dribbled down the right side of the field and crossed for Federico Higuain whose header cannoned off the crossbar. However, the rebound fell invitingly for Kamara who put a diving header into the bottom corner, tying the score.

Each side traded blows for the remainder of the first half, with Higuain testing Shuttleworth from the edge of the area at one end, while Scott Caldwell’s attempt from close range was saved by Clark after Chris Tierney had dribbled between two Columbus defenders at the other.

The Revolution fell behind five minutes after the halftime break, with Kamara again finding the back of the net for Columbus. Waylon Francis hit a long ball into the area for Ethan Finlay, and the winger took a touch before driving the ball across the face of goal for Kamara to sidefoot home his league-best 12th goal of the season.

The Revs created several openings during the remainder of the game but were unable to equalize, with Tierney and Bunbury forcing Clark into stops and Kobayashi seeing an effort deflected over the top from inside the area. New England almost snatched a point late on when Rowe back-heeled the ball to Tierney in the area, but his effort flew wide and the Revs suffered their second consecutive defeat.

Full match highlights and statistics can be found here.

Revolution Santander Man of the Match

LEE NGUYEN – Scored his second goal of the season after just 31 seconds of play, while he had a team-high three shots in the game and was a constant threat to the Columbus defense.

Next Game
The Revolution will be back in action this Saturday, June 27 when they return home to host Vancouver Whitecaps FC. That game will be shown locally on Comcast SportsNet and nationally on MLS LIVE, starting at 7:30 p.m. ET while 98.5 The Sports Hub will carry the game on the radio in English and WMVX 1570 AM Nossa Radio USA will have the call in Portuguese.

New England Revolution vs. Columbus Crew SC
June 24, 2015 – MAPFRE Stadium (Columbus, Ohio)
New England Revolution 1, Columbus Crew SC 2

Scoring Summary:
NE – Lee Nguyen 2 (Kelyn Rowe 4) 1’
CLB – Kei Kamara 11 (Unassisted) 4’
CLB – Kei Kamara 12 (Ethan Finlay 9, Waylon Francis 5) 50’

Misconduct Summary:
NE – Bobby Shuttleworth (Yellow Card) 50’
CLB – Michael Parkhurst (Yellow Card) 63’
CLB – Emanuel Pogatetz (Yellow Card) 79’
CLB – Waylon Francis (Yellow Card) 86’
CLB – Kristinn Steindorrson (Yellow Card) 90’
NE – Andy Dorman (Yellow Card) 93+
CLB – Kei Kamara (Yellow Card) 95+

New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth; Jeremy Hall, Andrew Farrell, Jose Goncalves ©, Chris Tierney; Scott Caldwell (Andy Dorman 70’), Daigo Kobayashi (Diego Fagundez 72’); Kelyn Rowe, Lee Nguyen, Juan Agudelo (Charlie Davies 46’); Teal Bunbury.

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Kevin Alston, London Woodberry, Steve Neumann.

STATS: Shots 10, Shots on target 4, Saves 2, Corner kicks 5, Offsides 4, Fouls 12, Possession 43.8%, Passes 363 (76.0%)

Columbus Crew SC: Steve Clark; Hector Jimenez (Chad Barson 66’), Michael Parkhurst ©, Emanuel Pogatetz, Waylon Francis; Mohammed Saeid, Tony Tchani; Ethan Finlay, Federico Higuain (Kristinn Steindorsson 72’), Justin Meram (Kevan George 85’); Kei Kamara.

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Stuver, Tyson Wahl, Ben Speas, Aaron Schoenfeld.

STATS: Shots 10, Shots on target 4, Saves 3, Corner kicks 9, Offsides 1, Fouls 13, Possession 56.2%, Passes 445 (80.2%)

Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Chris Strickland and Andrew Bigelow
Fourth Official: Kevin Terry Jr.

Weather: Partly Cloudy and 81 degrees
Attendance: 11,435

Team Records:
New England Revolution: 6-6-6, 24 pts.
Columbus Crew SC: 5-6-5, 20 pts.

Additional Game Notes

• With the loss, the Revolution are now 6-6-6 for 24 points on the season. They remain in second place in the Eastern Conference and are now 10 points behind leaders D.C. United while Orlando City SC and Toronto FC are one and two points behind the Revs, respectively.
• The Revs are now 2-6-1 on the road this season, including four road defeats in a row dating back to May 20.
• The Revs have now dropped the season series against Columbus for the second straight season, after playing to a 0-0 tie with Crew SC on April 11 at Gillette Stadium. New England went 1-2-0 against Columbus last season.
• The Revs’ 6-6-6 record leaves the side with a .500 record for the first time since their last meeting with Crew SC, when the goalless draw on April 11 pushed New England’s record to 2-2-2.
• Jay Heaps is also below .500 for the first time since the goalless draw with Columbus on April 11. Heaps is now 46-47-27 in his career.
• The game completed the Revolution’s first multiple game road swing since facing the LA Galaxy and FC Dallas on July 16 and July 19, 2014.
• Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made three changes to the team that suffered a 2-1 defeat to D.C. United on Sunday with Jeremy Hall, Daigo Kobayashi and Kelyn Rowe returning to the starting lineup in place of London Woodberry, Andy Dorman and Charlie Davies, all of whom started the game on the bench.
• Jeremy Hall and Daigo Kobayashi each made their first regular-season starts since March. Hall’s last start came on his debut and only previous appearance for the Revs in a 0-0 draw with Montreal on March 21, while Kobayashi’s last start came a week later on March 28 – a 2-1 win over San Jose.
• With Kelyn Rowe replacing Charlie Davies in the starting lineup, Teal Bunbury started at center forward for the first time this season and the first time since a 1-1 tie with Chicago on April 19, 2014 after he had started the first seven games of the 2014 season in that position.
• The Revs were once again without Darrius Barnes and Jermaine Jones, who missed their 12th and fourth straight games respectively because of injuries.
• New England went ahead in the first minute when Lee Nguyen scored his second goal of the season. It was Nguyen’s first goal since scoring a penalty kick against Colorado on April 4 and his first goal from open play since the final day of the 2014 regular season, when Nguyen scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Toronto FC on October 25.
• Lee Nguyen’s first-minute goal is the fastest goal the Revs have scored this season, and the earliest the Revs have scored since Nguyen’s second-minute goal against Toronto on August 30, 2014.
• Kelyn Rowe recorded an assist on the goal, and he is now tied for the team-lead with Scott Caldwell in that category with four.
• The assist was Rowe’s first since setting up Juan Agudelo’s goal against SKC on May 20. Rowe now has 22 career assists for the Revolution.
• This was the seventh time this season that the Revs had gone in front 1-0 inside the opening 20 minutes. They are now 2-3-2 in those seven contests.
• Charlie Davies replaced Juan Agudelo at halftime, having started the previous five games for the Revs. The last time Davies appeared off the bench was against Kansas City on May 20, when he recorded his only assist of the season on Scott Caldwell’s goal.
• Scott Caldwell was substituted in the 70th minute, marking the first time he did not play the full 90 minutes since only playing the final 19 minutes of the 2-0 defeat to NYC FC on March 15.
• Diego Fagundez appeared off the bench for the second consecutive game, and now leads the team with eight substitute appearances this season.
• Kei Kamara scored in the fourth minute to equalize for Columbus and scored the eventual game-winner in the 50th minute.
• Kamara’s equalizer for Columbus in the fourth minute was also the fastest goal that the Revs have conceded this season, 14 minutes earlier than Ignacio Maganto’s goal for LA on May 31.
• Kamara is the fifth different player to score multiple goals in a game against the Revs this season, joining Clint Dempsey, Krisztian Nemeth, Fanendo Adi and Chris Rolfe.
• Bobby Shuttleworth was shown a yellow card in the aftermath of Kamara’s second goal. That was the third yellow card of his career, with all three coming on the road. He was cautioned twice in the 2013 season on March 16 at Philadelphia and on May 18 at Houston.
• Jose Goncalves made his 75th MLS appearance in the game, with 74 of those being starts with the Revs. Juan Agudelo also made his 90th MLS appearance, though only 31 of those have come with New England.
• Scott Caldwell continued his record of being the only Revs player to have appeared in every game this season.
• Bobby Shuttleworth finished the game with two saves, with both coming in the first half.
• Andy Dorman was shown a yellow card in the 93rd minute and will now serve a one-game suspension having been shown his league-leading eighth yellow card of the season.
• London Woodberry was an unused substitute in the game, marking the first time he has not started a game since his debut on April 19 at Philadelphia. He remains on yellow card warning, one caution away from a one-game suspension, and he remains two clean games away from having one card cleared from his record.