Revolution forced to settle for painful tie
FOXBOROUGH — The Revolution improved their home unbeaten streak to 14 games, but surrendered a 94th-minute equalizer and had to settle for a 2-2 tie with Austin FC before a crowd of 26,213 at Gillette Stadium Saturday night.
Tomas Chancalay scored twice, his first goals since joining the team in July, rallying the Revolution from an early deficit. But Alexander Ring evened the score with a left-footer from the penalty arc in the fourth minute of added time.
The Revolution (13-5-8, 47 points) might be missing several starters, along with coach Bruce Arena, but have become a juggernaut at Gillette. The Revolution, who will visit Minnesota United next Saturday, have compiled a 100-4 record in home games.
Emiliano Rigoni opened the scoring, bouncing a Jon Gallagher feed over Revolution keeper Earl Edwards Jr. in the 27 th minute. The Revolution equalized off the kickoff, Chancalay finishing an Ian Harkes cross in the 28th minute. Carles Gil and Nacho Gil started the sequence leading to the goal, gaining possession near the halfway line. Giacomo Vrioni’s near-post run drew defenders, leaving Chancalay open to score his first goal.
Chancalay broke the deadlock just two minutes after the restart, heading in Nacho Gil’s back-post cross off a Carles Gil short corner.
Austin (9-12-6, 33 points) began producing chances as the second half progressed, with Dani Pereira hitting the inside of the right post in the 69th minute, and Owen Wolff’s drive in the 84th knocked out for a corner by Edwards.
Then, after an ill-advised attempt from the halfway line by the Revolution’s Christian Makoun, Austin countered — with Ring finishing past Edwards into the left side of the net to give the scrappy visitors a share of the points to take back to Texas.
Observations from Saturday’s game:
■ Defining moment: The sequences leading to both Revolution goals started with exchanges involving the Gil brothers, unsurprisingly appearing to read each other’s moves. The second goal was set up by what seemed to be an unthreatening short corner from Carles to Nacho along the end line. The timing of the pass might have caught Austin off-balance, with Chancalay anticipating Nacho’s cross, and getting the jump on Adam Lundkvist.
■ Difference-maker: Chancalay displayed finishing touches, and also showed an ability to time his runs and be in the right place at the right time. On Chancalay’s first goal, he laid back, awaiting Vrioni’s near-post run, then capitalizing as defenders failed to clear.
■ Tactical: The Revolution dominated the opening half, pressing effectively and mostly controlling the midfield. But Austin gained momentum in the second half as fatigue seemed to affect the Revolution midfielders. DeJuan Jones, Tommy McNamara, and Makoun provided late relief, and the Revolution might have protected the lead had Makoun kept possession with a run toward the end line, instead of shooting.
■ Statistical analysis: Chancalay scored on the Revolution’s eighth corner kick, but the team produced only two more corners in the final 43 minutes.
■ By the numbers: The Revolution had a sixgame home winning streak snapped, one short of the team record. The Revolution are one win short of the team-best home record (11-2-3), set in 2005. The only Revolution home loss in all competitions (12-1-6, 42-18 goal differential) was to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the US Open Cup.
■ Road ahead: The Revolution start a threegame road trip at Minnesota United next Saturday. Midfielder Noel Buck (England U-19 callup) will miss the game, but could return for visits to the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire.
■ What they said: “We win together, we lose together, and we tie together. It was obviously a mistake at the end of the game. Christian’s got some experience, international experience, so we thought it would be a wise pick to get him in the game. He was doing fine and it’s probably something that he thinks back on now that he probably should have just dribbled to the corner and the time would have been finished.” — Revolution assistant coach Richie Williams (replacing coach Bruce Arena, still out on indefinite administrative leave).