The New England Revolution closed out the 2015 regular season with a 3-1 win over New York City FC on Sunday evening at Yankee Stadium. Lee Nguyen, Charlie Davies and Kelyn Rowe each scored for the Revs who finally clinched a berth in the MLS Cup Playoffs with the win.
New England finishes the regular season with a 14-12-8 record and they will now face D.C. United on the road in the single-game Knockout Round on Wednesday night at RFK Stadium with the winner advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinals which start next weekend.
Should the Revolution defeat D.C. United on Wednesday night, they will advance to the two-leg, aggregate goal Eastern Conference Semifinals against either the New York Red Bulls or Columbus Crew SC. The first leg of that series would be played at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, November 1, while the second leg would be played on the road one week later.
The Revs got off to the perfect start when they took the lead just two minutes into the game when Nguyen scored his seventh goal of the season. A Jermaine Jones free kick found the feet of Nguyen who played a terrific one-two with Charlie Davies before slotting a right-footed shot underneath New York City goalkeeper Josh Saunders to give the Revs and early 1-0 lead.
Following the early goal, both sides pushed numbers forward. In the eighth minute, Teal Bunbury fired over the bar for the Revs while Frank Lampard hit a shot into the side netting from close range in the 14th minute for NYC FC. In the 37th minute, New York City defender Chris Wingert had a pair of chances but he was denied on each occasion by Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth.
Less than a minute after Shuttleworth’s saves on Wingert, Davies got on the end of a long ball from Jose Goncalves to score his 10th goal of the season. Goncalves played a long, left-footed pass over the top of the New York City defense for Davies, who shrugged off the challenge of Jason Hernandez at the top of the box and then hit a left-footed shot that beat Saunders inside the far post, making the score 2-0.
Frank Lampard hit the crossbar shortly after the Davies goal and Shuttleworth was forced to save a low free kick from Andrea Pirlo, but the score would stay 2-0 in favor of the Revolution heading into the halftime break.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Revs extended their lead with Kelyn Rowe flicking a near post header past Saunders from a Chris Tierney corner kick, making the score 3-0 in favor of New England. This was the first time this season that the Revs had scored three times in a road game all season long.
The home side pulled back a goal in second-half stoppage time as David Villa converted penalty kick, placing his shot low, past the dive of Shuttleworth, after Revolution midfielder Daigo Kobayashi had been called for a handball inside the box, making the final score 3-1 in favor of New England.
