Posted by The New England Revolution registered an important 3-2 win over a depleted Toronto FC at a rainy Gillette Stadium, as Teal Bunbury provided the decisive strike with his fifth goal of the season. Bunbury, whose most prolific professional campaign saw him score 9 goals with Sporting Kansas City, struck in the first minute of the second half to hold off the reigning MLS Cup Champions, who started without Sebastian Giovinco and the injured Jozy Altidore.
The Revs high-pressure strategy allowed them to dominate the Canadian side in the early stages, with new signing Cristian Penilla scoring a quick-fire double inside seven minutes. On four minutes, a sloppy giveaway by Toronto’s Michael Bradley was intercepted in midfield and eventually poked into the path of Penilla, who took three touches before firing a low right-footed drive past the outstretched Alex Bono in the Toronto goal.
The Canadians did not appear to have learned from the first goal, and another attempt to play out of the back saw them concede a second three minutes later. Following Bono’s ill-advised pass to an under-pressure Ager Aketxe, the Basque, with his back to goal, played a blind square pass right to the feet of Penilla. With Bono out of his goal, Penilla was left with the simple task of slotting into the open net from outside the box.
The Revolution threatened to put the game out of sight mid-way through the first half as Bunbury was put through on goal by Diego Fagundez. Bono thwarted Bunbury’s attempt to round the keeper, but Bunbury still had time to lift a ball to the back-post, where Fagundez hit the side netting from close range. With 22 minutes played the Revs had outshot Toronto 8-0. Soon after, however, Tosaint Ricketts forced a diving save from Revs goalkeeper Matt Turner, who was made to work again five minutes later to stop a curled effort from Auro.
Although Toronto came into the game as the first half progressed, any momentum they had built-up going into halftime was destroyed within seconds of the restart, as Bunbury added the Revs decisive third goal following a direct run down the right-hand side of the field. Bunbury’s run allowed him to work enough space in the box to unleash a shot that deflected off visiting center-back Jason Hernandez and snuck inside the back post.
With a three goal advantage, it seemed unlikely that Bunbury’s strike would represent his fourth game-winning goal of the season, but Toronto was right back in the game on 54 minutes, with Revs defender Antonio Delamea turning a low Jay Chapman cross into his own net.
The pressure was turned up further on the home team minutes later as Giovinco came on for Ricketts. The Chris Mavinga was introducted and Michael Bradley, who had started as a central defender, was pushed into midfield. The attacking changes nearly paid dividends shortly afterwards, as Chapman spooned over from close range after an inventive cutback from Giovinco. The Italian international then tested Turner with a curling long-range effort required a diving save from the Fairfield University product.
Even with Toronto desperately searching for two more goals, the Revs looked set to hold-on comfortably until left-back Chris Tierney felled Auro in the 88th minute, giving the Canadian side a penalty. Giovinco stepped up to take the spot-kick and cooly converted to bring the CONCACAF Champions League runners-up to within one.
In his enthusiasm following the goal, Giovinco picked the ball out of the net and began running toward the halfway line. When Revs midfielder Wilfried Zahibo tried to punch the ball out of Giovinco’s arms, Giovinco responded by putting his hands in Zahibo’s face. After consulting with VAR, referee Mark Geiger gave Giovinco a red card, and Toronto was down to 10 men.
Following the long stoppage in play to sort out the Giovinco-Zahibo melee, the Revolution managed to hold on and bring their home record on the season to 4-1-1. In contrast, Toronto is left languishing at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, having only collected two wins from their first nine games as they focused their early season energies on CONCACAF Champions League play.
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