Revs frustrated by scoreless tie
FOXBORO — The chaos erupted in the middle of the first half as one chance followed another. Most of them fell to a Revolution side desperate to extend a home winning streak to seven matches, but one giltedged opportunity landed with San Jose during the fury, too.
At every single turn and with no shortage of surprise, all of those promising opportunities drifted away, leading to a scoreless draw as the Revs eventually settled for a share of the spoils instead of the desired victory.
“We were bright to start,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “I knew we were going to put a lot into that first half. I thought we would get something, disappointed that we didn’t get it. If we had gotten one or two goals in that first half, the entire complexion of the match would have been different.”
There were plenty of chances in this open affair, but the Revs’ best chances to tilt the proceedings piled up in a frantic stretch before the 30-minute mark.
Juan Agudelo completed a bright counter by heading wide. Lee Nguyen prodded a pass through the goal area just outside of Agudelo’s reach a moment later. Diego Fagundez prompted Earthquakes goalkeeper David Bingham to rush off his line to block.
Antonio Delamea even watched Earthquakes fullback Shaun Francis clear his goal-bound header off the line to round off the furious sequence.
“It’s one of those things where we had a lot of chances and we were playing well defensively, but the ball just didn’t want to go in the net,” Fagundez said. “It’s frustrating because we were working so hard to get those three points.”
San Jose carved out more than enough in a diligent road display to grasp the victory themselves. Danny Hoesen hit the post during the Revs’ barrage just before the half hour, while Fatai Alashe forced Cody Cropper to kick away just after the 60-minute mark with his effort from 6 yards.
“I think we defended well throughout the 90 minutes,” Cropper said. “We kept their opportunities down. They got one or two chances. At the end of the day, my job is to make those saves and help the team change the momentum. That really helped us in that scenario.”
A couple of timely interventions did not prove enough to deliver the desired result, though. Even in the middle stretch of three games in eight days, this draw represents two points dropped. The onus now falls on the Revs to respond accordingly ahead of a visit from D.C. United on Saturday.
“Look, we have a quick turnaround,” Heaps said. “We have to take the point, make some adjustments, make some changes to the lineup and get ready for D.C. on Saturday.”