Revolution roll to 4-0 home win over Real Salt Lake

revolutionsoccer.net

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution defeated Real Salt Lake 4-0 on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium, scoring a pair of goals on either side of halftime to extend their unbeaten streak to six games. Juan Agudelo and Scott Caldwell each had a goal and an assist in the win for the Revs, who are now in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 4-2-2 record for 14 points. With the win, the Revs are now unbeaten in their last 12 regular-season home games, dating back to last season, tying a club record.

The Revs carried the play from the opening whistle, generating multiple opportunities through forward Charlie Davies, but were unable to find the back of the net until Chris Tierney opened the scoring in the 39^th minute. A natural left-footed player, Tierney collected a pass from Juan Agudelo at the top of the Salt Lake area and faked a shot with his left foot before pulling the ball back to his right. Tierney then curled a right footed shot past goalkeeper Jeff Attinella into the bottom right corner for his first goal of the season, making the score 1-0 New England.

It was 2-0 four minutes later as Charlie Davies broke in behind the Salt Lake defense and hit a low, right-footed shot that could only be parried by Attinella. Juan Agudelo was the first to react to the rebound and buried the loose ball into the open net, doubling the New England lead.

Despite playing with a two-goal lead, the Revs continued to force the issue at the start of the second half and extended their lead to 3-0 just five minutes after the restart. Scott Caldwell collected a pass from Tierney and he curled a short cross into the center of the penalty area for Davies, who headed home from six yards out for his second goal of the season.

Caldwell capped the Revs’ best offensive output of the season by scoring his first career MLS goal in the 84^th minute. Juan Agudelo and Steve Neumann were each denied by Attinella from close range, only for the rebound to fall to Kelyn Rowe, who prodded the ball back to Caldwell who lashed a left-footed shot into the net from the edge of the area, extending New England’s lead to 4-0.

While the Revolution attack was producing its best offensive output in nearly a year, Bobby Shuttleworth was able to earn his fourth win of the season, making three saves for his fourth clean sheet of the season.

Full match highlights and statistics can be found here.

Revolution Santander Man of the Match

JUAN AGUDELO – Helped spark the Revolution attack with a goal and an assist four minutes apart late in the first half to send the Revs into the break with a 2-0 lead. He finished with a game-high six shots and three shots on goal.

Next Game

The Revolution will be back at home next weekend when they host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, May 2 in a match between two of the three teams that entered the weekend tied for first place in the Eastern Conference. That game, which is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET, will be televised locally on Comcast SportsNet and will be followed on the network by Revolution Postgame Live while 98.5 The Sports Hub and WMVX 1570 AM Nossa Radio USA will carry the game locally on the radio in English and Portuguese respectively.

New England Revolution vs. Real Salt Lake
April 25, 2015 – Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
New England Revolution 4, Real Salt Lake 0

Scoring Summary:

NE – Chris Tierney 1 (Juan Agudelo 1) 39’

NE – Juan Agudelo 2 (Unassisted) 43’

NE – Charlie Davies 2 (Scott Caldwell 1) 50’

NE – Scott Caldwell 1 (Kelyn Rowe 2) 84’

Misconduct Summary:

RSL – John Stertzer (Yellow Card) 10’

RSL – Alvaro Saborio (Yellow Card) 56’

RSL – Luke Mullholland (Yellow Card) 81'

New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth; London Woodberry, Andrew Farrell, Jermaine Jones ©, Chris Tierney; Scott Caldwell, Andy Dorman; Teal Bunbury (Kelyn Rowe 68’), Lee Nguyen (Steve Neumann 80’), Juan Agudelo; Charlie Davies (Diego Fagundez 62’).

Substitutes Not Used: Brad Knighton, Jose Goncalves, Kevin Alston, Sean Okoli

STATS: Shots 25, Shots on target 13, Saves 3, Corner kicks 8, Offsides 1, Fouls 14, Possession 52.7%, Passes 446 (77.4%)

Real Salt Lake: Jeff Attinella; Tony Beltran, Aaron Maund, Elias Vasquez, Demar Phillips; Kyle Beckerman ©, Luke Mullholland (Kenny Mansally 81’), John Stertzer (Pecka 56’), Luis Gil; Olmes Garcia, Alvaro Saborio (Devon Sandoval 58’).

Substitutes Not Used: Lalo Fernandez, Phanuel Kavita

STATS: Shots 7, Shots on target 3, Saves 9, Corner kicks 2, Offsides 2, Fouls 14, Possession 47.3%, Passes 411 (74.5%)

Referee: Ismail Elfath

Assistant Referees: Eric Boria and Corey Parker

Fourth Official: Robert Sibiga

Weather: Partly Cloudy and 54 degrees

Attendance: 17,982

Team Records:

New England Revolution: 4-2-2, 14 pts.

Real Salt Lake: 2-2-3, 9 pts.

Additional Game Notes

With the win, the Revolution are now 4-2-2 for 14 points on the season. They are now alone in first place in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of D.C. United, who play in Vancouver later tonight, and the New York Red Bulls, who host the LA Galaxy on Sunday.
New England is now unbeaten in their last six games, going 4-0-2 in that time after dropping their first two games of the season. The six-game unbeaten streak is the longest for any club in MLS this season.
The win allowed the Revs to extend their home unbeaten streak to 12 games, tying a club record. Since a 3-0 win over Colorado at Gillette Stadium on July 30, 2014, the Revs are 9-0-3 in regular-season home games. That equals a streak from Sept. 18, 2004 through July 27, 2005 in which the Revs also went 9-0-3.
Including the MLS Cup Playoffs, New England is now unbeaten in their last 14 games at Gillette Stadium, setting a new club record.
The Revs snapped a seven-game winless streak against Real Salt Lake with tonight’s victory. New England had been 0-6-1 in the last seven games against RSL since the last win over them on August 23, 2009.
With the win, Jay Heaps now has an all-time record of 44-43-23 in 110 games as head coach of the Revolution. This is the first time in his career that Heaps has a winning percentage of .500.
Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made two changes to the team that beat the Philadelphia Union last weekend at PPL Park. Teal Bunbury and Chris Tierney each returned to the starting lineup, replacing Kevin Alston and Kelyn Rowe, who began the game on the bench.
This was the first game that Rowe had not started this season. He entered the game as one of four players to have started all seven of the club’s matches this year.
Revolution captain Jose Goncalves began the game on the bench after missing last weekend’s game with a left calf strain. In his absence, Jermaine Jones wore the captain’s armband for a second straight game.
Darrius Barnes, who underwent surgery on Thursday to repair a torn patellar tendon in his left knee, missed his second straight game while Daigo Kobayashi missed his fourth straight game with a strained left hamstring.
For the first time in club history, the Revs had three different players from New England score goals.
Chris Tierney opened the scoring in the 39^th minute with his first goal of the season.
That was the eighth goal of his MLS career and he now has at least one goal in each of the last six seasons.
Juan Agudelo was credited with the assist on Tierney’s goal for his first assist of the season and his first with the Revs since October 12, 2013.
Both of Agudelo’s assists with the Revolution have been game-winners.
Agudelo scored the club’s second goal four minutes later. That was his first goal of the season at home and he is now tied for the team-lead with two goals.
Charlie Davies made the score 3-0 in favor of New England in the 50^th minute, scoring for the second consecutive game. This is the first time that he has scored in consecutive games for the Revs since August 2 and August 16, 2014 when he scored his first two goals for the club.
Tonight’s goal was his fifth in the regular season as a member of the Revolution.
Scott Caldwell had the only assist on that goal. That was his first of the season and the fifth of his career. The Revs are now 3-0-2 in games that Caldwell tallies an assist in.
Caldwell, who was playing the 63^rd game of his Revolution career,
Only three field players – Andrew Farrell, Avery John and Rusty Pierce – had appeared in more games for the Revs than Caldwell without scoring a goal entering the weekend.
Caldwell tied his career-high for shots (2) and shots on goal (1) in the game.
Kelyn Rowe was credited with the lone assist on Caldwell’s goal, giving him two on the season. He is now the Revs team leader in assists.
That was the 20^th regular-season assist of his Revolution career, making him the 10^th player in club history with 20 career assists for the club.
Agudelo and Davies are tied with Kelyn Rowe for the team-lead in goals with two each.
With the clean sheet, the Revs have now gone 546 minutes without conceding a goal from open play. That streak dates back to the 84^th minute of the Revs 2-0 loss to NYC FC on March 15. They have allowed two goals since then, with the first being from a penalty kick and the second coming directly from a free kick.
In four home games this season, the Revs have allowed just one goal, keeping three clean sheets.
Bobby Shuttleworth is now tied for the MLS lead with four shutouts. He has never had more than nine clean sheets in a single season but is on pace for 17 this season.
The Revs outshot RSL 25-7 and had 13 shots on target compared to just three for the visitors. Both the 25 shots and 13 shots on goal were season highs.
The 13 shots on goal are tied for the fourth most in club history while the 25 shots are tied for the sixth most in club history.
The Revs’ four goals are the club’s most in the regular season since they scored five in consecutive games against Seattle and Philadelphia in May 2014.
No Revolution players were booked in the game. This was just the second time this season that no Revs were booked in a contest.