The New England Revolution erased a first-half 1-0 deficit, with two second half goals to leave PPL Park with maximum points. A win for Philadelphia would have pushed them to third place in the Eastern Conference, but some questionable substitutions and evident fatigue saw the lead disintegrate as New England extend their impressive record to three wins in their last four.
Cristian Maidana opened his scoring account last night with an effort he will struggle to better. The Argentine stepped up to take a 30 yard free kick, hitting it beautifully over the wall, taking a deflection off the post and in. Bobby Shuttleworth stood no chance as the confidence began to hit sky high levels at PPL Park, especially considering t was also the first goal New England allowed in 250 minutes.
The lead could have been more convincing at the break but Aristeguieta pinged one off the crossbar early on whilst C.J. Sapong lost his balance on a perfect free kick that Sebastien Le Toux jumped up valiantly to reach in the 38th minute. Shuttleworth was under considerable pressure from the off, as Philly battled hard in their third game in just eight days.
At the other end of the field, New England’s only good first half attempt arrived when Woodberry sent a cross deep into the Union Box to find Davies but they couldn’t find the target.
The Revs found their equalizer 20 minutes into the second half after the Union ket their foot on the gas for the opening stint. Bunbury beat Ray Gaddis to set up the goal just three minutes after coming in as a second-half sub.
Twelve minutes later, Bunbury gave the Revs the lead after coming on the receiving end of a brilliant cross. The 25-year-old got his season opener as John McCarthy battled bravely to stop a charging comeback.
The game almost swung back the way of the homeside but Bobby Shuttleworth made a big save on Maurice Edu in the 77th minute before some scrappy goal-line clearances a minute later on shots from Fernando Aristeguieta and Edu. Those were to be the last great scoring chances Philly had. Curtin made some defensive substitutions that were questionable at best. The final whistle went but the fans were hardly disappointed. The team had been run down to empty this week following two energetic clashes with New York. They gave it their all, scored against a team who had not conceded in their previous two and very almost snatched a point. Now the Union have a chance to recover, rebuild and come back stronger than ever.
