New England coach Steve Nicol lamented the Revolution's inability to maintain its early advantage in its wild 3-3 draw at Real Salt Lake on Monday night.
Goals from Rajko Lekic and Chris Tierney staked the Revs to a two-goal lead inside the first 16 minutes against 10-man RSL, but the topsy-turvy affair ultimately yielded just one point after the Claret-and-Cobalt's spirited fightback.
“We’ve thrown two points away, bottom line,” Nicol told reporters after the match.
WATCH: FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Although Nat Borchers's controversial and seemingly harsh dismissal after three minutes and those two quick tallies provided the Revs with a sizable cushion, they failed to build upon their early fortune and see out the match for their first road win of the campaign.
Real Salt Lake grasped the match by the scruff of its neck by retaining possession, while New England gave the ball away too cheaply, made too many mental errors and permitted the hosts to push onwards in search of goals. Will Johnson and Álvaro Saborío struck on either side of halftime to restore parity for RSL as the Revs squandered their advantage with a half an hour to spare.
“We tried to spread them out and pass it a little bit and it just wasn’t really happening for us,” Revolution midfielder Chris Tierney told reporters after the match. “We had spells where we kept it and created a few chances, but the second half was rough, especially when things got evened up and it went 10 on 10.”
Shalrie Joseph's header restored the Revolution advantage against the run of play on 63 minutes, but Ryan Cochrane's second yellow card four minutes later reduced the visitors to ten men and encouraged RSL to once again go in search of the equalizer.
It finally arrived with seven minutes to spare as Fabian Espíndola capped off a quick and incisive team move by poking home inside the far post to give RSL one point and leave the Revs lamenting the two they felt they had dropped by failing to consolidate their advantage.
“We’re disappointed, that’s the bottom line,” Tierney said. “2-0 up, a man up, there’s really no excuse to throw away points. We needed three, we wanted three, but unfortunately we didn’t get them.”
