Jones’ Late Goal Leads Revolution To Thrilling Home Win Over Crew
Saturday, October 04, 2014
The Revolution were able to get that revenge behind a thrilling 2-1 victory behind an outstanding effort from goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth. "I think we showed Columbus a good battle," Revs midfielder Jermaine Jones said following the game. "I think the goal we gave, we gave it too easy away. But the reaction was good and so we keep going. We trained the whole week on set pieces and on a set piece we scored."
The Crew got the action started off the opening touch when Ethan Finley got behind the Revs defense in the 1st minute. Finally received a nice through ball from Tony Tchani and let a shot off, looking for the far post. The shot rolled just wide of the net.
The Crew stayed on the attack in the 5th minute when they mounted a strong counter attack. The attack allowed Federico Higuain to get space around the top of the box where he ripped a shot for the far post that, again, rolled wide.
The Revs got their first opportunity in the 17th minute off a long throw-in from Andrew Farrell. Farrell delivered the long throw-in to Jose Goncalves who tipped the ball off of Charlie Davies. The ball landed in an open area and Teal Bunbury came in to hammer a shot that flew just high of the net.
The Crew were back on the attack, and nearly pulled ahead in the 18th minute. The play was set up on a beautiful cross by Ethan Finlay, who delivered a perfect ball to Aaron Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld had what appeared to be an open net to tap the ball in, but Bobby Shuttleworth dove in to make an amazing diving save. "I was going to come over for the initial ball but I realized I wasn't gonna get there," Shuttleworth said when asked about the save. "I kinda hit the brakes. Then, at that point, it's just standing tall and trying to react to the ball."
The Revs took the momentum from the save to convert the opening goal of the game in the 20th minute. The Revs got the ball to Bunbury on the left side of the field. He put a touch on the ball then crossed it to Lee Nguyen. Nguyen received the ball well, despite a deflection from Crew defender Eric Gehrig, and put his shot past Steve Clark. The goal was Nguyen's 14th of the season, setting a new record for goals in a season by a Revolution midfielder. The record was set last season by Diego Fagundez with 13. The assist went to Bunbury, his team-leading 6th of the season.
"I think it's just that we were able to keep the pressure high," Nguyen said about the goal. "We were able to win the ball in their side of the half. Teal put in a great ball and it was pretty dangerous. Charlie [Davies] did great to try to put a head on it and it just fell to me. I was able to take a touch and put it away."
The Crew came right back to even the game just five minutes later on a great play by Finlay. Finlay received a strong pass from Tony Tchani and made a perfect first touch to get him past the Revolution defense before he put home his 9th goal of the season.
The Revs got the next real chance off the food of defender Andrew Farrell from distance. Farrell put a shot into the middle, which was deflected, forcing Clark to make a diving save to preserve the 1-1 score.
Just minutes later, Jermaine Jones tried a shot from distance and forced Clark to make another diving save.
The Revs and Crew exchanged decent chances back-and-forth throughout the rest of the half, but went into halftime level at 1-1. Both teams had six shots in the opening half with the Revs having a three to two advantage in shots on target. The Revs also controlled possession, leading the half 54% to 46%.
The Crew got the first good chance of the 2nd half, and once again Bobby Shuttleworth came up with a huge save. The Crew got another great ball from Tchani to Finlay, who made a move past Chris Tierney. Finlay took a point-blank shot but was denied again by Shuttleworth, preserving the 1-1 score.
The Crew had two more chances that were denied by Shuttleworth, as he continued his great night. The first came on a set piece from the Crew in the 62nd minute and then again in the 63rd minute, both shots coming from inside the box to preserve the 1-1 score.
The Revs then pulled ahead in the 67th minute on a fantastic set piece play from Chris Tierney. Tierney delivered a perfect ball to the back post when he found Jermaine Jones for the go-ahead header. Jones picked up his first Gillette Stadium goal while Tierney picked up his 4th assist of the season. "That set piece is what we were training," Jones said. "So I tried to come from the back and I see that the ball comes through, I think Teal [Bunbury], So I tried to make it."
Following the goal, the Revs found themselves up a man on a bizarre play. The ball rolled out off a member of the Crew and when Charlie Davies attempted a quick restart, he was bumped by Waylon Francis. Francis was shown yellow, his second of the night, and forced the Crew to play the remainder of the game down a man.
The Revolution played keep-away for the remainder, including five minutes of stoppage time to come away with the 2-1 victory. The win pushed the Revolution to 15-13-3 with 48 points to maintain 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. Jermaine Jones was credited with the game-winning goal for the 2nd consecutive match.
"It wasn't pretty," Revolution coach Jay Heaps said following the game. "It sure wasn't pretty but I thought it was a hard fought game. You're gonna see these games as things get tighter and so much is at stake. Playoff implications everywhere, six-point games." The Revs will go back on the road for a match in Montreal against the Impact, next Saturday.
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