FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – With the largest crowd of the season on hand Sunday evening to watch the New England Revolution, the New York Red Bulls stormed their fortress leaving the home team picking up the pieces after a 2-0 loss in front of 23,950.
The defeat was the Revs’ first on Gillette Stadium turf since Sept. 8, 2013, a run of nine games – including a playoff victory over Sporting Kansas City – without a loss.
“We want everyone to come in here and think that it’s going to be a hard game,” winger Diego Fagundez said following the match. “It’s the first loss, but we can’t do anything about that [now], we just have to look forward to the next game.”
New England came into the game with a 4-0-1 home mark on the season and had allowed only one goal, which came in their last home match against D.C. United, one that snapped a 423-minute scoreless streak.
It took the Red Bulls 17 minutes to produce the second opposing goal at Gillette this year and 76 minutes to produce the third, sinking New England before their two-week league World Cup hiatus.
“It’s disappointing,” midfielder Andy Dorman told the media. “I think today, especially at home, we were looking to sign off going into the break on a positive note.”
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The one positive that does come out of the match for New England is that they remain at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with a slim, one-point lead over both Sporting and United.
Trending toward streaky, New England hope to benefit from the layoff by killing the downward momentum of a current two-game slide while providing an opportunity to regroup.
“We need to just relax and make sure that our batteries are charged,” said Fagundez. “It will be tough, but we have to make sure we’re focused.”
When MLS play resumes the Revs will be out to rebuild their fortress, and they’ll get their chance right away when they host the Philadelphia Union on June 28 in their first action back.
