After his goalkeeper saved an 88th minute penalty that he had conceded, James Riley sat on his chair in the New England Revolution dressing room and admitted that he owes Matt Reis dinner.
The Revs defender blotted an evening of otherwise excellent work with an injudicious handball on a Columbus corner that presented Eddie Gaven with a golden opportunity to save a point for the visitors. Fortunately for Riley, his goalkeeper came up huge.
"I just mistimed my jump and the ball looked to stay up a bit. I felt there was a man on my inside and tried to get my hand up and throw off his timing," Riley said. "I feel horrible having put the team in that position. I felt like I was in the air for a long time when I did it."
Riley was bailed out by Reis, who maintained his 100 percent record of stopping spot kicks this season. Having denied Josh Wolff of the Kansas City Wizards on April 15, the Revolution goalkeeper guessed right against Gaven, whose penalty was well-struck but at a good height for Reis, who reacted smartly to palm the shot around his right post.
"It depends on who is taking it, whether he is a power player or not," said Reis of his technique against penalties. "I just try to get a feeling and a read of the player. I felt he'd go across me with more power and usually when right-footed players do that they put it to the right. I was fortunate to get a good step on slippery ground and it was at waist level which is always a bit easier for goalkeepers."
Reis' heroics helped to secure a win for the Revolution that was set up by the first goal of Jeff Larentowicz's professional career. The second-year professional poked home a left-footed shot in the 34th minute, having reacted first to a bouncing ball in the Crew penalty area. Having established himself as a solid defensive midfielder this season, Larentowicz was pleased to be able to contribute at the offensive end, though he couldn't remember the last time he scored a goal.
"Apart from one in training on Thursday, I'm not sure," he said. "It just kind of got stuck on Jay's waist and popped to me. I just tried to turn and get a shot in. It was a relief for the team and a personal relief for me too. I was just glad to get one to help the team out."
The heroics of Larentowicz and Reis were crucial to the Revolution, who watched as several of their Eastern Conference rivals picked up maximum points from their games this weekend. However, though Steve Nicol was pleased to have finally picked up maximum points - the first time his side has done so since July 8 - the New England coach was disappointed with the overall performance of his side.
"It was hard going and probably the worst we have passed the ball for a while," Nicol said. "We didn't move it well, yet we end up with the three points. The field was a bit sticky but we didn't look to pass it quickly enough. Still, I'd rather be complaining about not passing the ball well than saying we did well but didn't win."
Nicol admitted that his goalkeeper had dug Riley out of a hole, adding that "there are occasions when something happens to your brain and you decide to do what (Riley) did." The game's other main moment of questionable decision-making occurred in the 63rd minute when the Crew's Joseph Ngwenya was sent off for grabbing Andy Dorman's throat after the Revs man had collided with Bill Gaudette.
"Andy and Bill got in a stupid thing and they both should know better," said Nicol of the incident. "(Ngwenya) somehow got involved and he is normally very mild-mannered. It could have been avoided."
With that red card having been accompanied by eight yellows, next week's return fixture in Columbus looks to have some added spice with memories of tonight's events sure to be fresh in the mind. However, the Revolution know that with just a quarter of their regular season schedule remaining, now is the time to let their play do the talking.
"Tonight was huge. If you look at New York getting points last night, the east is so tight that three points is big. If you have a bad run of games, you can end up out of the play-offs," said Reis, whose feelings were mirrored by those of tonight's match-winner.
"We have been saying for the last couple of weeks that we need to start a run now and it hasn't worked out," said Larentowicz. "We had a home-and-home against the (Chicago) Fire where we sort of missed an opportunity and now we need to continue this throughout the rest of the season because the conference is getting tighter and tighter."
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
