The road wasn’t kind to the New England Revolution as they suffered consecutive losses to the LA Galaxy and FC Dallas. The defeats extended the Revolution’s losing streak to seven straight, which is club’s longest in the post-shootout era (2000-present).
The Revolution’s busy week started in Carson, California as they faced the Galaxy in a Wednesday night showdown. The scoring started early as Robbie Keane was able to find the back of the net in the 10th minute. The forward was afforded too much space, allowing him to hit the upper right corner from 20 yards out.
Keane played provider in the 18th minute when he offered a beautiful pass to Gyasi Zardes. While Bobby Shuttleworth had denied the sophomore minutes earlier, he wasn’t able to do it again as Zardes made it 2-0.
The game took a turn as A.J. Soares and Dan Gargan recieved red cards in the 28th and 36th minutes, respectively. Soares, who was operating as a defensive midfielder, was sent off for a studs up tackle on Juninho. Meanwhile, Gargan’s last play of the night was a takedown of Teal Bunbury, who was alone on goal. Gargan’s foul would result in a penalty kick, which was converted by Lee Nguyen to cut the deficit in half.
The game wouldn’t stay close for long as Zardes scored in the 48th minute. Stegan Ishizaki and Keane would put the game out of reach with tallies in the 75th and 78th, respectively. Both teams would end the game with 10 men, but it was Galaxy who would collect full points as final score line was 5-1.
The disappointing result would prompt head coach Jay Heaps to make five changes to the starting lineup for Saturday’s fixture against FC Dallas. Among the new inclusions were Charlie Davies, Steve Neumann and Stephen McCarthy, all of which were making their first starts of the year.
The new players brought great energy to the team, but they still conceded a first half goal. Andres Escobar was the culprit as picked up a loose ball in the 29th minute before putting a high shot past Shuttleworth.
The Revs would continue to battle and had decent long range opportunities from Nguyen in the 49th minute and Neumann in the 83rd minute. However, the Revs would prove unable to breakthrough.
The visitors would allow a second goal in the 91st minute while committing numbers forward in search of an equalizer. Victor Ulloa put Tesho Akindele in a one-on-one situation with Andrew Farrell. Akindele offset Farrell before increasing the lead to 2-0, which became the final score.
The Revolution will now have a week of practice to prepare for their home meeting against the Columbus Crew on July 26th.
(Image courtesy of Kari Heistad)
