Heading into tonight’s match against Montreal Impact at Gillette, everything was set up perfectly for the Revolution. Chicago and Houston had lost and the Revolution had a chance to move into fourth place in the east.
But four minutes into the game and those hopes were dashed when Matt Reiss pulled down Di Vaio in the penalty box and was sent off. Clear penalty but Di Vaio was going away from goal and I thought the red card was a bit harsh. Bernier stepped up and made it 1-0 Impact.
After the early goal, Montreal surprisingly sat back and let New England attack them, seemingly willing to hit NE on the counter-attack through Di Vaio. With Kelyn Rowe bossing the midfield that tactic seemed to backfire in the 26th minute when Diego Fagundez was in the right place at the right time to score his team-leading 10th goal of the season and tie things up.
But five minutes and referee Sorin Stoica was the center of attention again when he pointed to the penalty spot when Goncalves was adjudged to have fouled Felipe. Soft call. But it didn’t matter to Bernier as he made it 2-1.
If the two Montreal goals had question marks over them, the third was pure class. Two minutes into added time in the first half and Camara long cross field ball found Di Vaio in the box. The Montreal forward made AJ Soares look like a schoolboy before putting the ball in the back of the net. Pure class.
It was almost a carbon copy in the 59th minute when another long cross ball from Camara found Di Vaio one on one with Soares. Di Vaio turned Soares and slotted the ball past Shuttleworth. Really poor defending by Soares again.
Kelyn Rowe made it 4-2 with a brillant solo goal in the 76th minute but that a consolation goal, as the two Di Vaio goals had ended this match as a contest.
Would have been interesting to see how this game would have played out if NE had played with 11-men all game. Jay Heaps will take heart with the way that Rowe, Caldwell and Nguyen dominated the midfield for long periods of the game, but defensive mistakes caused the Revolution any chance of a result.
The Revs next game is another six pointer, as they travel to Chicago next weekend. If New England are to keep their playoff hopes alive, they need at least a point from that match.
