FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution put an end to their season-high five-game losing streak on Saturday night, riding a 12th-minute goal from Lee Nguyen to a 1-0 win over New York City FC.
It was the first win for the Revolution since a 2-0 win over Chicago on June 13 and pushed them into a tie for third in the Eastern Conference with Toronto FC and Columbus Crew SC, all on 27 points. NYCFC, meanwhile, stay tied for eighth in the East, with 21 points from 20 games.
The winning goal came when Diego Fagundez and Daigo Kobayashi worked a nice combination with Fagundez getting the ball on a backheel from the Japanese midfielder before playing it to Nguyen in the left side of the penalty box. The 2014 MVP finalist then made himself some space with a cut towards the middle and delivered a right-footed shot toward the far post for his third goal of the season.
NYCFC were reduced to 10 men in the 54th minute as Ned Grabavoy was given a straight red card for a studs-up challenge into the left leg of Kobayashi.
The Revolution had a number of chances to add to the lead, the best of the lot being Charlie Davies curling a right-footed shot off the crossbar from the left side of the box in the 70th minute.
The two best chances for NYCFC came in the opening three minutes of the game as David Villa played a backheel to Thomas McNamara, who delivered a cross from the left and picked out the head of Patrick Mullins. The former Revolution forward's header to the low right corner was turned away by Brad Knighton, making his second league start of the season in place of an injured Bobby Shuttleworth (concussion).
In the third minute, Angelino had a low bid from distance skip just wide of the right post.
In addition to Grabavoy, Jason Hernandez will miss NYCFC’s game next Sunday (2:30 pm ET, Fox Sports 1) against Orlando City SC at Yankee Stadium after a 49th-minute caution earned him a one-game suspension for yellow-card accumilation.
New England visit Chicago next Saturday (8:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE), looking to break a six-game losing streak away from Gillette Stadium.
