After an alarming season opening loss to FC Dallas, the Philadelphia Union have now made it two wins in a row after a 3-0 home opening victory at Talen Energy Stadium against the New England Revolution on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Revs, without forward Charlie Davies, were shut out for the second straight match and are still waiting to earn their first win.
CJ Sapong victimized the Revolution's center backs with two goals in the first half and Sebastien Le Toux put the exclamation mark on a relatively comfortable win, which was aided by a red card to Revolution right back Je-Vaughn Watson. The result could have been even more flattering had Revs goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth not come up with several big stops, including two penalty-kick saves.
Box Score
- 18' – PHI – CJ Sapong (Fabinho)
- 33' – PHI – CJ Sapong (Warren Creavalle)
- 93'+ – PHI – Sebastien Le Toux (Leo Fernandes, Chris Pontius)
- Full box score
- Stats
- Highlights
Three Things
TURNING POINT:
The match turned in a matter of just a couple of minutes in the first half. First New England's
Lee Nguyen
saw his free kick
bounce off both Union goal posts
in the 35th minute (earning the commiserating tweet below from
Saad Abdul-Salaam
, who
experienced his own infamous double-post moment
). Then his teammate
Je-Vaughn Watson
was sent off for
a wild, straight-legged foul
on the Union's
Roland Alberg
, who started in the No. 10 role.
SHUTTLEWORTH'S HEROICS:
It'll prove very little consolation for New England goalkeeper
Bobby Shuttleworth
, but the MLS veteran made history when he stopped two penalty kicks in the match, one by
Ilisinho
in
first-half stoppage time
and another off the foot of
Sebastien Le Toux
with
11 minutes remaining
. And he joined some exclusive company in the process:
Next up
- PHI: Saturday, April 2 at Chicago Fire (5 pm ET, MLS LIVE)
- NE: Saturday, March 26 at New York City FC (3 pm ET, MLS LIVE)
