New England’s Diego Fagundez found his second goal of the season Saturday, but it would not be enough to send the NY Red Bulls home with no points. (Photo: David Silverman)

In what looked to be a wet and messy game by match start, the skies cleared up for what would be a fair test as the New York Red Bulls faced the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium Saturday night. After a 0-0 first half and Red Bull star Thierry Henry remaining on the bench, scoring opened up in the second which lead to a 1-1 draw between the Eastern Conference foes. New York will remain on top in the East at 21 points (6-4-3), while New England sits at 7th place with 10 points (2-4-4).

Although the first half was rather uneventful, both teams had a few close goal opportunities. Possession undoubtedly favored the Revolution, not only capturing a 55.3% possession by game’s end, but out shooting New York 12 to 9 with three more shots on target. Perhaps New England starting Dimitry Imbongo over Jerry Bengtson was a factor in this regard. Imbongo looked as if he had something to prove in his first start of the season with his constant motor and ability to create one beautiful run of his own that almost lead to goal.

New England would strike first come second half, finally scoring from a corner kick in the 54th minute. Chris Tierney launched the ball out of the right corner as Diego Fagundez positioned himself nicely for a shot on goal. The kick was first saved by New York keeper Luis Robles but the rebound came right back to Diego who easily cleaned up the play for his second goal of the season. Criticism has come the past few matches for lack of offense from the Revolution but one thing is for certain, Diego Fagundez is doing his part in the Starting XI. It may look like a tough decision for coach to pick a pair of starting strikers out of group consisting of top talents such as Jerry Bengtson and now Juan Agudelo, but fans should hope Jay Heaps does not switch out Fagundez as he remains the hot player on the pitch.

The 1-0 lead for New England would sadly only last one minute. Just seconds after Diego’s score, the Red Bulls’ Lloyd Sam would catch the Revolution defense off guard and  drive a grounder under Bobby Shuttleworth for the 1-1 tie in the 55th minute. The defense is partially at fault here, but it was rare to see Shuttleworth rather unprepared for Sam’s tough-angled shot. New York’s goal instantly took away the energetic atmosphere at Gillette Stadium and would end up being the last goal scored of the match.

The Revs have only scored two goals in their past three matches, leaving their banged up defense to do all the dirty work to stay competitive. It is clear the team misses leader A.J. Soares in the back line as well as Kevin Alston’s speed in the left back position. Even when the defense does hold, the scoring must not come so inconsistently. New addition Juan Agudelo hopes to change that, and if Jay Heaps sees Agudelo as the threat up top he claims to be, one can hope New England will score two or three goals per match more often.

Looking towards next week, the Revs will head to BBVA Compass Stadium next Saturday to face the highly-competitive Houston Dynamo (6-2-2). The match will start later than most in the MLS at 8:30pm ET.

Matt Bloom

(Photo: David Silverman)

After pulling away with a 1-0 lead in the 51st minute, the New England Revolution could not hold in the second half, conceding two goals to Real Salt Lake and ultimately losing 2-1. The Revolution fall to 2-4-3 on the year, putting them all alone in 7th place with 9 points in the Eastern Conference.

The first half of play was dreadful at best, as the dreary rain seemed to bring on dreary play over the two clubs for the first 45 minutes. On seven corner kicks for the Revs, not one found it’s way on target in the first half. Scoring opened up in the second, starting with a New England goal in the 51st minute from Ryan Guy. Kelyn Rowe controlled the ball beautifully outside the box only to send it over as Guy struck a rocket out of the air and past Real Salt Lake goal keeper Nick Rimando. However Guy’s athletic back flip celebration may have come too soon.

New England fell back into a much too comfortable state following the goal, allowing a Devon Sandoval goal to come in the 77th minute from a rebound off Bobby Shuttleworth. The rookie’s strength was clearly enough to overpower Goncalves in front and tip the ball over Shuttleworth who was recovering from his fall to the ground. Following the equalizer, Olmes Garcia would give Real Salt Lake the lead just 12 minutes later, also sneaking a rebound goal past Bobby in the 89th minute. With the go-ahead goal in place, New England would find themselves in a tough situation down 2-1 with time ticking away.

A controversial yellow was given to Carlos Salcedo in extra time as he dragged down Revolution defender Stephen McCarthy on his attempt to complete a header in the box. This was Salcedo’s second yellow of the match, making the booking a red card with just minutes left. Unfortunately, a semi-healthy Saer Sene could not capitalize on the penalty kick. Keeper Nick Rimando read Sene like a book, moving to his lower-right side for the save and sealing up the victory for Real Salt Lake at 2-1.

Only mixed feelings can come from such a wild match since certain players looked great while others performed under par. Rowe and Nguyen once again continued to shine in the midfield while Andrew Farrell and Stephen McCarthy remained strong in the defensive core. After substitutions, a whole new game came about for Real Salt Lake. They found the back of the net twice and made Juan Toja look foolish towards the final minutes. Jerry Bengtson was once again non-productive, allowing a critical scoring opportunity early in the match to slip away.

Overall the Revs played solid considering their team is still quite injury plagued and an experienced Kalifa Cisse could not make the start in the 4-1-4-1 formation. The defense stood tall for most of the match but scoring will continue to be the focus of the team’s troubles. Just when it looked like the shots on target number was on the rise, New England put up a dismal 3 shots on net while Real recorded 7. Perhaps a healthy Juan Agudelo could turn these stats around since the Jerry-Fagundez scoring combo clearly is not impressing anyone.

The Revolution will look for a critical three points this Saturday when they host their Eastern Conference foe New York Red Bulls. April 20th was the last meeting between the two squads with New York capturing a 4-1 victory at Red Bull Arena. With the talents of Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill coming in, the Revs must step up the scoring to compete with the 20 point team. The match will kickoff at 7:30pm ET at Gillette Stadium. Coverage can be found on Comcast Sportsnet New England and 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Matt Bloom

This afternoon, the New England Revolution have traded for Chivas USA striker Juan Agudelo for an undisclosed amount of allocation money according to President Brian Billelo and other sources. 20-year-old Juan currently leads Chivas with 2 goals in four games started this year, while also contributing 1 assist. In his fourth year professionally, Agudelo is an exciting starter both in the MLS and internationally. Most notably, this season is Agudelo’s last of his contract, a healthy one at that at $175,000. Whether or not New England intends to keep the Colombian native for the future is unknown, but with a healthy salary bump expected he could surely be used against the designated player policy the MLS has.

This move is critical to a defensively strong team in the Revolution who just haven’t been able to find the back of the net during the 2013 campaign. A striker like Agudelo brings a lot to the table, as his speed and goal scoring abilities are top notch in the MLS. Hopefully some chemistry with Jerry Bengtson or Saer Sene could push New England along to a team with constant fire power up top.

As Agudelo packs his bags, it looks as if Agudelo could be worked into the roster as soon as Saturday’s game against the New York Red Bulls (his first MLS team). According to Agudelo’s twitter account @jagudelo11, Juan will now wear number 10 for the Revs. New England will next host Real Salt Lake Wednesday night at 8pm ET.

Matt Bloom