The New England Revolution extended their lead atop the Eastern Conference as they dispatched the David Beckham-less Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 in front of a sell-out crowd Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium.
While the assembled crowd of 35,402, the second-largest stand-alone crowd in Gillette Stadium history, was not able to see Beckham after he was ruled out with a flare-up to his ankle injury prior to the match, the crowd did see the home side control most of the play and increase their margin atop the East to six points ahead of D.C. United.
Taylor Twellman scored in the 55th minute to give the Revolution a deserved victory. The Eastern Conference leaders dominated play in midfield and limited LA in the offensive third while creating numerous chances in the attacking end.
Revolution head coach Steve Nicol named Michael Parkhurst, returning from a slight knee injury, in his starting 11 with James Riley dropping to the bench. Khano Smith continued at left midfield, preferred to Wells Thompson.
Beckham missed out for Los Angeles as head coach Frank Yallop was forced to name a makeshift lineup that included Mike Randolph at fullback for his first career start. Abel Xavier missed out with tendonitis in his left leg while Kyle Martino was suspended. After recovering from flu-like symptoms, Carlos Pavon earned a start up top alongside Edson Buddle.
New England started the stronger of the two sides and nearly opened the scoring on eight minutes. Pat Noonan wriggled free on the edge of the penalty area and crossed to Twellman. Twellman's slide connected with the cross, but diverted the effort onto the outside of the right post before sliding out into touch.
Smith crossed for Twellman in the 13th minute, but Twellman dragged his powerful header just wide with LA goalkeeper Joe Cannon rooted on his goal line.
Twellman, active in the opening minutes, was given plenty of time and space by Ty Harden a minute later, but he sliced wide from 16 yards.
Smith again provided service for Twellman on 33 minutes with an accurately pinged far post cross, but the U.S. international headed over the bar from six yards.
The visitors' best chance of the opening stanza came just before the break when Chris Klein ripped a drive from 30 yards, only for Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis to get down well to his right to tip the effort around the post.
It was only a matter of time before Twellman found the net and he struck to put the Revolution ahead in the 55th minute. Desperate defending from the Galaxy aided Twellman, who latched onto a Shalrie Joseph through ball that wasn't cleared by center back Ty Harden, and turned and lashed home a low shot from the heart of the area.
Landon Donovan embarked on a solo run on 65 minutes attempting to get his team on the board, but his pass across the face of goal was cleared away by the Revolution defense.
Los Angeles were enjoying more of the possession in the second half but it was left to New England to create more of the chances on the counter attack with Noonan and Twellman wreaking havoc on the Galaxy backline.
It was not all good news for New England after Steve Ralston was withdrawn on 87 minutes after suffering a knee injury when he collided with Gavin Glinton a few minutes earlier.
Los Angeles managed to carve out one chance in injury time after Glinton slid in through the Revolution back line only for Jay Heaps to block his effort. New England rode out the match's final stages to secure all three points and a six-point cushion atop the Eastern Conference, while the Galaxy have now gone four matches without a victory in a desperate bid to crawl back into the playoff picture.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
