FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – After weeks of stagnant play and blown leads, the New England Revolution finally found their form on Saturday night as they beat down the lowly Chicago Fire 2-0 at Gillette Stadium.
A crowd of 18,997 watched as the hosts collected their first victory since April 1 – snapping a six-game winless streak – and welcomed new striker Kei Kamara, who joined the club midweek following a blockbuster trade with the Columbus Crew.
The Revs out-shot the visitors 16-4. Kamara alone had six. But, New England got goals from Lee Nguyen, who scored off a corner kick in the 22nd minute, and rookie Femi Hollinger-Janzen, who registered his first professional strike in the 84th, less than 12 minutes after entering the game for Diego Fagundez.
“It was an important game for us, I think we needed to win for a variety of reasons,” said Revolution coach Jay Heaps. “We needed to get back into the hunt. The reality is we’ve been playing well, but not 90 minutes well…We needed to put together a complete game, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Heaps needed a patchwork lineup to accommodate his side’s number of injuries. In the attack, Charlie Davies and Teal Bunbury were unavailable, which prompted Heaps to deploy Nguyen, Fagundez, and Juan Agudelo behind Kamara in a hybrid 4-5-1 formation.
Chris Tierney and Jose Goncalves were out injured too, which forced Kelyn Rowe, a natural midfielder, to slot in at right back while London Woodberry patrolled the other flank. And Je-Vaughn Watson, who has played at full back for most of this season, paired at center back with Andrew Farrell.
That said, the back line held up, as the Revolution collected their third clean sheet of the season – their first since the April 1 victory.
But New England’s attack also did a fine job of taking the pressure off the makeshift defense.
In fact, it was Kamara – who only had two full training sessions with the Revolution after arriving from Columbus mid-week – that helped spark the offense.
A one-two between Kamara and Nguyen in the 21st minute resulted in the corner kick which led to the Revolution’s first goal.
The decisive play – dubbed by the Revolution as “The Duke” (likely in honor of Heaps’ alma mater) – started when Nguyen played the corner short to Fagundez, who then found Scott Caldwell at the edge of the box.
Caldwell immediately returned the ball to Nguyen, who took one touch in the penalty area before curling a shot in off the far post. The strike was Nguyen’s second of the season and first in the run of play.
“It’s one of those ones we kind of just set up perfectly for it,” Nguyen said. “It worked out better than it did in training, it’s always great when a play that you’ve been training a few times comes out perfectly.”
In the 31st minute, Caldwell advanced toward the box and chipped the ball Kamara, who back-heeled the feed in tight space by had his bid snuffed out by Chicago’s Mat Lampson.
Nguyen sent a cross into the box in the 52nd minute looking for Kamara, but the glancing header was cleared off the line by Chicago midfielder Arturo Alvarez.
Kamara showed off his acrobatics in the 66th minute, his bicycle kick attempt coming off the side-netting.
But, the newly acquired striker was involved in the Revolution’s second striker. In the 84th minute, Nguyen served the ball forward to Agudelo, who was alone on the left side of the box.
Agudelo then chipped it centrally toward Hollinger-Janzen, who headed the ball into the net – exploiting open space caused by Chicago’s defenders marking Kamara.
“Definitely happy to get a goal this time,” Hollinger-Janzen said. “Words can’t describe how happy I was ater it went into the back of the net, great ball by Juan there for the finish. Great to come out of here with three points, just got to keep it going.
Hollinger-Janzen seemed nervous about talking to a crowd of media in the locker room in the aftermath of scoring his first professional goal.
By contrast, Kamara, a new man in a new town, looked perfectly at home and was all smiles as the press asked him about his first competitive outing with New England.
“It’s really fun when you can win a game like that,” Kamara said. “I’m excited to be here, but even more excited right now.
“It was a good game. When you play at home you have to take it to teams. Playing at home, that’s what matters. You have to get three points.”
If you want to reach Julian email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @juliancardillo
Chicago Fire
