Seven minutes of madness sent New England hurtling on their way to their worst-ever defeat at Gillette Stadium.
The tide turned against the Revolution halfway through the opening stanza in a 4-0 defeat to Chivas USA. While the Revs weren't particularly accomplished in possession during the opening 25 minutes, they had done a decent job of restricting Chivas to operating in midfield, according to defender Darrius Barnes.
“I thought we had them where we wanted them,” Barnes told MLSsoccer.com after the defeat. “They didn't pose any threats. Everything they were knocking around was in the middle of the park. They really weren't a threat.”
Zach Thornton's long goal kick in the 26th minute didn't look particularly threatening either, but it led to the opening goal. Chivas forward Justin Braun rose highest to flick Thornton's hoof in behind the Revolution back line. New England defender Kevin Alston missed his attempted clearance and the error allowed Jesus Padilla to collect the long ball, scoot around the onrushing Preston Burpo and slot into the vacated net.
Marko Perovic compounded the problems two minutes later by earning the Revolution's third red card in two games. Perovic lashed out with his left arm after Ben Zemanski grabbed hold of his shirt to concede a tactical foul in the center of the park. The swing hit Zemanski in the face and procured a red card from referee Steven DePiero.
“It sucks,” Revolution midfielder Khano Smith said about the back-to-back blows. “We just shot ourselves in the foot. We were getting outplayed before that anyways and then we went down to 10 men. After that, it was just hard work chasing the ball. They kept the ball well anyways [when the Revs had 11 men].”
Chivas all but sealed the three points in the 33rd minute as Braun collected a pass from Mariano Trujillo and scampered through two Revolution defenders before tucking home his second goal of the season at the near post.
“The first two goals were both weak goals,” Barnes said. “The majority of goals, even with the man disadvantage, we could have done something about them. They weren't pinging the ball around and picking us apart. That's just something where we'll have to go back to the drawing board, look in the mirror and toughen ourselves up. Everybody has to do their role on the team to make sure we don't get played through like that.”
New England boss Steve Nicol labeled the two goals “rank bad” in his post-game assessment and criticized his team's poor start to the contest and its slow response to the early setbacks. Nicol said his team managed to engineer a reply in the second half despite conceding Padilla's second and Blair Gavin's first MLS goal, but noted that the Revs had placed themselves in a difficult spot with their first-half errors.
“I thought we showed some fighting spirit in the second half, but, again, it's not enough, particularly when you're a man down and two goals behind,” Nicol said. “Giving a team two goals at the start and a man as well, it's an impossible task.”
