Gil brothers propel Revolution to victory

Revolution 1 Charlotte 0

A miserable night of high-30s cold and driving rain at Gillette Stadium at least yielded a happy ending for the Revolution, who earned their first MLS victory of the season, 1-0, over Charlotte FC on a Carles Gil goal near the end of the first half.

The captain teamed with his brother Nacho during one of the too-rare periods of dry skies, finishing a counterattack by threading a rebound through four bodies and into the far corner three minutes into first-half stoppage time.

His 40th Revolution goal across all competitions was essentially the last chance of the match for the Revolution (1-4-1), but it was enough to end their run as the last of MLS’s 29 teams to win in the league this season. Charlotte (23-2), which had scads of chances early and late, remained winless on the road (0-3-1).

The visiting Crowns dominated the first 15 minutes of the match, and their failure to score felt like a squander. Never more so than when Revolution goalkeeper Henrich Ravas had a backpass taken from him by forward Patrick Agyemang in the seventh minute. Agyemang was too casual, and his leftfooter toward the wide-open goal hit the side netting.

New England started getting out of its own way by the 20-minute mark, with Tomás Chancalay setting up Giacomo Vrioni for three strong chances the remainder of the half. Vrioni missed on a pair of headers. After Chancalay missed his own chance in the 34th minute, chopping a volley into the top netting, Vrioni broke in alone in the 45th only to be stopped by Charlotte goalie Kristijan Kahlina.

The breakthrough came soon after when Nacho Gil’s pressure on Jere Uronen forced a turnover in the New England end. The ball cycled through Vrioni to Carles Gil, who carried into the penalty area and played ahead to Nacho. His close-range shot was blocked by Kahlina, but carried back to Carles, whose first touch made it through a maze of bodies for New England’s first lead in more than 400 minutes of MLS play.