FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The final regular season match-up between last year’s Eastern Conference finalists sure looked a lot like a primer for a playoff rematch.
An action-packed Wednesday night tilt wound up going in favor of the New England Revolution, who walked away with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls. The result vaulted New England ahead of New York and into first place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The game looked like it might turn into a shootout early on. The Revolution struck just two minutes in after Juan Agudelo touched a pass to the left left to Diego Fagundez, who unleashed a hard effort that found its way past Luis Robles. It was the fourth straight game with a goal for Fagundez, who has six on the year.
Four minutes later, Jose Goncalves looked to clear a ball in the box, but smashed it off the crossbar, causing a rebound that Mike Grella pounced on for his seventh goal of the season.
That scoring pace would not hold up, but in the 21st minute the Revs found themselves with a golden opportunity after Dax McCarty pulled down Lee Nguyen just outside of the box. The Red Bulls captain made up for it, however, robbing Nguyen of a near-post goal on the ensuing free kick by scissor kicking the ball off the line.
In the 65th minute, Scott Caldwell set the Revs up with the lead once more, coming in on a loose ball at the top of the box and flicking it past a wall of defenders to a wide open Kelyn Rowe for a volleyed finish.
Another big save from a positional player kept the score at 2-1. In the 74th minute Sacha Kljestan sent a corner kick into traffic that McCarty met with a diving header, but Fagundez made the stop at the far post.
The win was New England’s sixth straight and they are now unbeaten in eight (7-0-1). New York, meanwhile, lost for just the second time in their last 10 matches (7-2-1).
New England next head over the border with a Saturday date against the Montreal Impact, and the Red Bulls go west to face the Portland Timbers on Sunday.
