On a night where FC Dallas came out of the gates with an MLS-record four goals in the opening 19 minutes of the match, the New England Revolution looked at their performance with a very simple explanation: just an off night.
Revolution head coach Steve Nicol noted his team's sluggishness at the start.
"We gave them the first three goals," he said. "We were clearly slow to begin the game. It's two things. It's either one of those aberrations that you have during the year -- we had one at New York last year. But we have to look at preparation as well."
The hosts scored early and often. Kenny Cooper got his fourth goal of the year in the fourth minute for the Hoops, sending a header past Revs goaltender Matt Reis. Cooper, who beat New England defender Michael Parkhurst to the ball, scored off a great setup from defender Chris Gbandi, who made his first start for FCD in four games.
Just three minutes later, Carlos Ruiz got the first of two scores for the home team. Seeing that Reis was out of position, he launched an absolute bomb from midfield, sending the ball into the left side of the opposing net for FCD's second goal.
Then, in the 16th minute, he scored again, latching onto a poor clearance from Reis that he sent into an unguarded goal. Ruiz has now scored in four consecutive games for the Hoops and has a team-leading five goals on the season.
FCD closed out the scoring in the 19th minute when Ramon Nunez beat Reis from the top of the box after a great cross from Ruiz, who got his third assist of the season on the tally. Midfielder Richard Mulrooney also assisted on the goal for his first point since his return.
Nicol was impressed with the aggressiveness the Hoops showed to open the match.
"They came to play," he said. "When you start the way we did, everything tends to go against you. A lot of it was self-inflicted but you have to give them credit. They came out and looked hungrier and readier than we did."
New England did manage five shots in the first half, but their only serious chance to break through came in the 45th minute when rookie forward Willie Sims, making his first career start, had a one-on-one opportunity against FCD's Dario Sala, but he was whistled offside.
At the break, Sala left the game with a right groin strain and was replaced between the posts by Jeff Cassar, a nine-year MLS veteran, who was seeing his first action of 2006.
The Revolution got a couple of solid chances early in the second half, but both were flagged offside. In the 50th minute, midfielder Andy Dorman's apparent goal was nullified and in the 53rd minute, Taylor Twellman was whistled after getting a great feed from Steve Ralston.
Cassar came up hobbled in the 63rd minute but finished the game and made two saves on Revs forward Taylor Twellman, in the 84th and 88th minutes, in their final chances of the evening.
"It's one of those games that doesn't happen very often, maybe once a year or once every two years," said Ralston. "The good thing is that we get to play next week again because that was embarrassing. They outplayed us."
Not only did the loss end the Revolution's two-game winning streak and their four-game streak against the Hoops, but the shutout also marked the first time in three games that Twellman, who has 12 career goals in 10 games against FCD, failed to score.
Ralston says that although he and his mates are disappointed with tonight's setback, they know it isn't indicative of how good they are.
"We're a good team," he said. "We just didn't play like it tonight. A lot of the goals came off turnovers, guys not following runners, things like that. They had a couple of good goals. We were terrible. We weren't ready to play."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
