Sports stats



MLS New England Revolution

Early Red Card Cripples Revs in Loss to Montreal

September 9, 2013 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
New England Revolution News Release


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Diego Fagundez and Kelyn Rowe each scored one goal, but after playing 85 minutes down a man and having two penalty kicks awarded and converted against them, the New England Revolution fell to the Montreal Impact, 4-2, on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.

The Revs were forced to play with 10 men for almost the entire match as goalkeeper Matt Reis was shown a red card in the fifth minute and referee Sorin Stoica awarded Montreal two penalties in the first half. Marco Di Vaio - Major League's Soccer leading scorer this season - scored two goals and Patrice Bernier converted both penalty attempts for the visitors.

Reis, who had started the last four matches, will be unavailable for the Revs' match on Saturday at Chicago, a team which he's shut out twice this season.

Di Vaio, who had nine of Montreal's 14 offside calls, extended his league-leading goal-scoring total to 17 goals.

Revs head coach Jay Heaps made one change to the lineup that entered tonight's match riding a three-game undefeated (2-0-1) streak. Dimitry Imbongo came in for Juan Agudelo, who missed the match with a hamstring injury suffered last Friday in Toronto.

A game-changing decision from Stoica in the fifth minute set the tone for the game. As Di Vaio whiffed on a shot, Reis made a play on the ball and brought down Di Vaio with the ball well out of the Italian's reach. Stoica immediately pointed to the spot and showed Reis red. Bernier converted the first of his two penalties past substitute goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth and gave Montreal a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute. The Revs played the rest of the match down a man, with Chad Barrett coming off out of the midfield to make way for Shuttleworth.

The Revs leveled off the foot of teenager Diego Fagundez in the 26th minute. The 18-year old played Dimitry Imbongo into space at the top of the box, but Montreal defender Jeb Brovsky deflected the ball directly into Fagundez's path and he slotted it home for the 1-1 score line.

Bernier converted the second of his two penalties in the 33rd minute to give Montreal the 2-1 advantage. Revs captain Jose Goncalves defended Felipe Martins near the edge of the box and cleared the ball, but Martins fell to the ground and Stoica again pointed to the spot. Shuttleworth guessed correctly on Bernier's shot, but the ball was inches out of his reach and Montreal re-took the lead, 2-1.

With four minutes of stoppage time added for the penalties and the goalkeeper change, Di Vaio used the time to send Montreal into the break with a 3-1 lead. Taking a pass from Hassoun Camara, Di Vaio cut inside on his defender and calmly slotted the ball inside the near post as Shuttleworth came off his line.

The Revs came out of the break with two chances to pull a goal back - Lee Nguyen's low attempt from distance in the 49th minute and Rowe's rising attempt from the edge of the area in the 53rd minute - but both attempts were narrowly off target.

Despite the Revolution's attack to open the second half, Di VAio and Camara combined again in the 56th minute as Di Vaio scored his second of the evening to push the score to 4-1.

Rowe scored the Revolution's second goal in the 76th minute and drew New England within two. After taking a pass from Saer Sene, Rowe worked his way through the Montreal defense along the edge of the penalty box, cut back to back to his right foot to create space and launched an angled chip over Impact goalkeeper Troy Perkins.

However, despite the two-goal difference, the Revs were unable to further cut the Impact lead as four minutes of second-half stoppage time expired. Despite the loss, the Revolution remain in the fifth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as the team heads to Chicago next weekend because of other results around the league.

The Revolution returns to action later this week when it travels to face the Fire in a match on Saturday, Sept. 14, at Toyota Park. Kickoff is set for 8:30 p.m. ET, and the match will be broadcast live on TV by Comcast SportsNet and on the radio by 98.5 The Sports Hub.

For up-to-the-minute information on the Revolution, visit the team's official web site at revolutionsoccer.net, or join the conversation and interact with fans on any of the team's social platforms: Twitter (@NERevolution, #NERevs), Facebook (NERevolution), Google+ (+NERevolution), Instagram (NERevolution), Pinterest (NERevolution), Vine (NERevolution), YouTube (NERevolutionSoccer) and Flickr (NERevolution).

For more information about 2014 ticketing options, including multi-game plans and individual game tickets, please visit revolutionsoccer.net/tickets.

Check out the New England Revolution Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Major League Soccer message board...

Major League Soccer Stories from September 9, 2013


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central