FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – An early goal and a big save late propelled Chicago to a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.
The win was the second straight for the Fire, who improve to 3-4-10 on the season, while New England dropped their fifth straight game to fall to 7-8-2.
It didn’t take long for the Fire to ignite, sparked by a
Jeff Larentowicz
interception just before midfield that found the feet of
Mike Magee
.
With a quick turn Magee sent a pass up over the Revolution back line and into the box, where
Quincy Amarikwa
, who missed the Fire’s last game due to a yellow card accumulation, picked up the ball. He muscled out Andrew Farrell and right-footed a shot past Bobby Shuttleworth, giving Chicago a 1-0 lead in the third minute.
It was Amarikwa’s sixth goal in league play this season, and his second versus New England.
The Revs did hold an edge in possession in the first half, but did not get their first shot on goal until the 25th minute, when Teal Bunbury took a Chris Tierney feed into the Chicago box, but his shot low right found the extended reach of
Sean Johnson
(7 saves).
A bigger knock to the Revs came in the 26th minute when Andy Dorman, coming up on a loose ball, collided with
Bakary Soumare
and crashed to the turf with a right knee injury that sent him to the locker room.
New England came out in controlling the pace for the better part of the second half and put heavy pressure on in the 60th minute, with Tierney and Bunbury saw excellent bids pushed aside by the diving Johnson.
Chicago had a golden opportunity to put things away in the 78th minute when Matthew Fondy picked defender AJ Soares’ pocket and faced up Shuttleworth one-on-one from ten yards out, but hesitated and his shot was ultimately snuffed out by the Revs keeper.
The Revs were gift wrapped the opportunity to equalize after Jerry Bengtson was brought down in the box in the 84th minute, giving New England a shot from the spot, but Tierney’s blast was again saved by Johnson, giving the Chicago netminder his second shutout of the season.
The Fire return home to host the Philadelphia Union next Saturday while the Revolution hit the road for two games, starting with a Wednesday night tilt at the LA Galaxy.
