FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The battle for the top of the Eastern Conference table was certainly not without its talking points.
With a 1-0 lead and two early second half ejections, the New England Revolution defense stood strong enough to walk away with a 1-1 draw against first-place D.C. United on Saturday.
Charlie Davies put the hosts ahead just before halftime, but D.C. tied it up in the 80th minute courtesy of substitute Jairo Arrieta.
In the back-and-forth action of the opening half, New England’s greatest chances came on low crosses, three of which slipped into the penalty area without a connecting entity on the final end.
One of those chances came from Chris Tierney during first-half stoppage time, but the service was cleared away by Chris Pontius before a Revolution boot could get to it.
On the ensuing corner from Tierney, Juan Agudelo made solid contact in the air with a header and United goalkeeper Bill Hamid stopped the point-blank effort, but Davies was on the scene to clean up the rebound for his fifth goal of the season, giving the Revs a 1-0 lead just before the halftime whistle.
Things did not start so well for New England in the second half, beginning in the 52nd minute when Tierney, in an attempt to challenge for a 50/50 ball, went spikes first into the knee of Pontius, drawing a straight red card ejection.
Just six minutes later Lee Nguyen, who was already carrying a yellow in the game, followed Tierney into the locker room after receiving a second yellow for making contact with the head of D.C. United's Davy Arnaud on a tussle for the ball.
Playing down two men for the first time since a 3-0 loss at Sporting KC on Aug. 10, 2013, the Revolution hunkered down and continued to hold D.C. without a shot until the 80th minute, when the breakthrough came for the visitors.
It was at that time that D.C. substitute Taylor Kemp slid a pass across the box from the left side and Arrieta found it on the near post, ushering it home to level the game.
The rest of the way the Revs successfully defended their point, but D.C. United remained atop the conference standings.
D.C. head west to Portland for a midweek tilt on Wednesday (10:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE), while the Revolution gear up for an MLS Cup rematch against the LA Galaxy next Sunday night (7 pm ET, FOX Sports 1 and FOX Deportes).
