Revs defend own turf
Kamara, Agudelo strike
FOXBORO — The Revolution have made Gillette Stadium an undesirable destination in the coldweather stretch of the MLS season.
The Revs got secondhalf goals from forwards Kei Kamara and Juan Agudelo to secure a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo before 14,725 yesterday at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution (2-2-1) previously disposed of Minnesota United FC 5-2 in the March 25 home opener.
“I feel like teams don’t like coming here and playing games the way that we come out,” Agudelo said. “We come out flying and we come out to press, and there is the cold weather and people complaining about the turf and other things. We just use it as a positive for us to move up the table. Our mobility was better in the second and we stretched them out.”
The Revolution broke the deadlock on an excellent collaboration between midfielder Lee Nguyen and Kamara in the 52nd minute. Kamara got behind Houston defender Jalil Anibaba, remained onside, and took a lead pass from Nguyen.
Houston keeper Tyler Deric made the initial stop but couldn’t secure the ball. Kamara corralled the rebound and fired a diagonal shot from the right side for his second goal of the season.
“One thing we really worked on this week was timing the runs right,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “It was great that he stayed with it, and I have to be honest that I turned away after the first save.”
The Revolution made it 2-0 on an opportunistic play by Agudelo inside the Houston box in the 72nd minute. Midfielder Kelyn Rowe fired a centering pass from the right flank that Deric deflected back to Agudelo. With Deric hopelessly out of position, Agudelo launched a swift kick for his third of the season.
“That was an awesome feeling and I was focused a lot on the first touch,” Agudelo said. “As soon as I brought it down I knew I just had to put it on target.”
His goal came about 10 minutes after Revs goalkeeper Cody Cropper made a huge save to protect the lead. Dynamo striker Erick Torres broke into the box unguarded but was denied on a diving stop by Cropper.
“You need your keeper to make that one save when the game is 0-0 or 1-0, and that preserved our lead,” Heaps said.
Houston midfielder Ricardo Clark drew a yellow card in the 16th minute for a violent trip of Nguyen in the center circle.
Nguyen was attended to for several minutes but remained in the game. He endured another hard takedown in the 26th minute when he was undercut by Houston midfielder Boniek Garcia.
“Every time he has one or two extra touches he has a player on him, and he’s done a great job these first five games of getting himself out of trouble and finding the open man,” Heaps said.