The New England Revolution claimed a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at PPL Park behind a second half goal from Diego Fagundez. With the win, the Revs extended their unbeaten streak to five games, going 4-0-1 since a July 18 win over NYC FC at Gillette Stadium while also snapping an eight-game road winless streak that dated back to a 2-1 win over Philadelphia on April 19.
Diego Fagundez and Lee Nguyen each had chances for New England inside the game’s opening 30 minutes while Tranquillo Barnetta and C.J. Sapong threatened Bobby Shuttleworth’s goal at the other end. Late in the opening half, Sebastien Le Toux had the best chance of the half for the Union, getting played in on the left before firing a shot that was parried away by Shuttleworth, keeping the game scoreless heading into the halftime break.
New England would go in front early in the second half when Diego Fagundez beat Union goalkeeper Andre Blake from 18 yards out. The attack started near midfield with Chris Tierney quickly taking a throw in to the feet of Charlie Davies, who flicked the ball into the path of Fagundez. Fagundez ran at Philadelphia defender Richie Marquez and then hit a right-footed shot from the edge of the area, catching Blake flat-footed and giving New England a 1-0 advantage. That was the third goal of the season for Fagundez and the 25th of his MLS career, making him the youngest player in league history to score 25 goals, doing so at 20 years and 196 days of age.
After the goal, the Union threw numbers forward but the Revolution defense held strong and did not allow a single shot on goal in the final 45 minutes. Juan Agudelo nearly doubled the Revolution lead late on after he was played cleanly through into the box, only for his close range shot to be saved by Blake. In the game’s final seconds, Philadelphia midfielder Cristian Maidana was sent off, forcing his side, who will visit Gillette Stadium on Sept. 26, to finish the game with 10 men.
