Final: New England Revolution 2, Chicago Fire 0

revolutionsoccer.net

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution earned a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. Diego Fagundez and Charlie Davies scored two minutes apart early in the second half to lead the Revs to a victory that snapped their six-game winless streak while also extending their league-best home unbeaten streak to 17 games.

The Revolution started brightly and almost went ahead in the seventh minute. Teal Bunbury dribbled down the right wing and crossed for Davies who fired over from close range. Chicago came back after that, with Harry Shipp and Kennedy Igboananike each going close for the visitors. New England nearly broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute when Teal Bunbury was fouled just outside the area and Chris Tierney curled a free kick over the wall but just wide of the post. In the final minutes of the opening half, Lee Nguyen fired over from the edge of the area while Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth denied Guly do Prado at the other end.

New England took the lead in the 48th minute when a Tierney corner kick was headed away by Matt Polster, but only as far as Diego Fagundez at the top of the box. Fagundez, who was making his 100th career appearance, becoming the youngest player in MLS history to do so, hit a powerful, right-footed volley that flew past Jon Busch in the Chicago goal, giving New England a 1-0 lead.

The Revs doubled their lead two minutes later, when Fagundez chested a ball down to Bunbury inside the area and the winger’s volleyed cross was headed into the back of the net from close range by Davies for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.

Chicago pushed forward over the game’s final 40 minutes, taking eight shots in the second half, but they were unable to find a way past Shuttleworth. The Revolution goalkeeper finished the game with four saves, including one on the Fire’s Jason Johnson late in the contest, to record his fifth shutout of the season and his first since April 25.

Full match highlights and statistics can be found here.

Revolution Santander Man of the Match
DIEGO FAGUNDEZ – Started and scored for the second consecutive home game. Fagundez scored the game-winning goal in the 48th minute with a powerful volley from the edge of the area and played a key role in Charlie Davies’ goal two minutes later, setting up Teal Bunbury’s cross with a delicate chest pass.

Next Game
The Revolution will be back in action at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17 when they host the USL’s Charlotte Independence in the Fourth Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Harvard’s Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium. They return to league action on Sunday, June 21 when they travel south to face D.C. United at RFK Stadium in a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. That game will be shown nationally on ESPN2 starting at 5 p.m. 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. Chicago Fire
June 13, 2015 – Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
New England Revolution 2, Chicago Fire 0

Scoring Summary:
NE – Diego Fagundez 2 (Unassisted) 48’
NE – Charlie Davies 6 (Teal Bunbury 2, Diego Fagundez 2) 50

Misconduct Summary:
CHI – Adailton (Yellow Card) 33’
NE – Andy Dorman (Yellow Card) 40’
CHI – Matt Polster (Yellow Card) 43’
NE – London Woodberry (Yellow Card) 59’
CHI – Kennedy Igboananike (Yellow Card) 71’

New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth; London Woodberry, Andrew Farrell, Jose Goncalves ©, Chris Tierney; Andy Dorman (Steve Neumann 86’), Scott Caldwell; Teal Bunbury (Juan Agudelo 69’), Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez (Kelyn Rowe 73’); Charlie Davies.
Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Kevin Alston, Daigo Kobayashi, Sean Okoli.
STATS: Shots 11, Shots on target 5, Saves 4, Corner kicks 9, Offsides 1, Fouls 18, Possession 50.6%, Passes 394 (76.1%)

Chicago Fire: Jon Busch; Lovel Palmer, Adailton, Jeff Larentowicz ©, Eric Gehrig; Harry Shipp, Matt Polster, Razvan Cocis, Greg Cochrane (Jason Johnson 64’); Guly do Prado (Quincy Amarikwa 77’), Kennedy Igboananike.
Substitutes Not Used: Sean Johnson, Patrick Doody, Chris Ritter, Matt Watson, Michael Stephens.
STATS: Shots 14, Shots on target 4, Saves 3, Corner kicks 4, Offsides 2, Fouls 16, Possession 49.4%, Passes 399 (74.7%)

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Assistant Referees: Joe Fletcher and Anthony Vasoli

Fourth Official: Ted Unkel

Weather: Sunny and 81 degrees

Attendance: 15,775

Team Records:
New England Revolution: 6-4-6, 24 pts.
Chicago Fire: 4-8-2, 14 pts.

Additional Game Notes

With the win, the Revolution are now 6-4-6 for 24 points on the season. They remain in second place in the Eastern Conference, four points behind D.C. United, who play away to Orlando City SC on Sunday night.
The win snaps the Revs’ six-game winless streak, which had been the longest in MLS.
New England is now unbeaten in their last 17 home games, going 10-0-7 at Gillette Stadium since July 30, 2014. This season, the Revs are 4-0-5 in nine games at home.
This was the 50th all-time regular-season meeting between the Revolution and Fire with New England going 19-21-10 in those games.
Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made one change to the team that lost 2-0 to the Portland Timbers last weekend at Providence Park. Diego Fagundez returned to the starting lineup in place on Kelyn Rowe, who started the game on the bench.
Fagundez made the 100th appearance of his career in the game, becoming the youngest player in MLS history to make 100 or more appearances. At the age of 20 years and 119 days, Fagundez is 45 days younger than Eddie Gaven, who previously held the record at 20 years and 164 days.
The Revolution were without Jermaine Jones, who underwent bilateral sports hernia surgery on Friday. Darrius Barnes was also out through injury, missing his ninth straight game while recovering from left knee surgery that he underwent in late April.
This was the second straight game in which the Revs failed to score in the first half and the third time that they had done so at home this season. This was the first of those games that did not end 0-0.
Diego Fagundez gave the Revs a 1-0 lead in the 48th minute
Fagundez has now scored in each of his last two appearances, both of which have come at home.
Fagundez is now tied with Wolde Harris for eighth place in club history with 24 goals.
Charlie Davies doubled the New England lead just two minutes later, heading home a Teal Bunbury cross for his team-best sixth goal of the season.
Davies is now tied for sixth in MLS in goals and he is two ahead of Juan Agudelo for the team lead.
That was the 20th regular-season goal of his MLS career, making him the 155th player in league history to score 20 goals in his career.
The two goals in three minutes were the shortest span between two Revolution goals this season. Only one other time this season had the Revs tallied two goals in a five minute span.
There was one minute and 52 seconds between the two goals.
Teal Bunbury was credited with the only assist on Davies’ goal. That was Bunbury’s 10th assist in a Revolution shirt in all competitions. New England is now 9-1-0 when Bunbury has an assist and 8-0-1 when he has a goal.
Bobby Shuttleworth finished the game with four saves for his fifth shutout of the season and his first since April 25 against Real Salt Lake.
Of Shuttleworth’s five clean sheets, four have come at Gillette Stadium.
Shuttleworth was making the 90th appearance of his MLS career, becoming the 32nd goalkeeper in MLS history to play in 90 games.
Scott Caldwell and Kelyn Rowe each played in the game. They are the only two Revolution players to appear in all 16 games that the club has played this season.
This was the second straight meeting between the Revolution and Fire that ended with New England winning and scoring twice behind goals from Fagundez and Davies.
Andy Dorman and London Woodberry were each booked on the night. They are now each one game away from a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation. Dorman’s booking was his MLS-high seventh of the season while Woodberry’s was his fourth and third in his last four games.
Andy Dorman’s seven yellow cards are a MLS career-high.