Early red card costs Revolution at home

Coming off a bye week, preceded by their first multi-goal performance of the MLS season, the last-in-the-league Revolution had at least a little bit of momentum on Saturday night. Visiting were the Philadelphia Union, winless in their last six matches and having allowed 12 goals in the previous five.

It took 14 minutes for that to disappear, a Ryan Spaulding red card putting New England at a disadvantage that would eventually end up a 3-0 Union victory before an announced crowd of 34,947 at a rainy Gillette Stadium.

Julián carranza gave Philadelphia the lead late in the first half when he headed home a rocket cross from Jack McGlynn. Dániel Gazdag did the rest, scoring a pair of second-half rebounds to give him nine goals on the season — as many as New England (2-9-1, 7 points) has in 12 matches as a team.

Despite its struggles, Philadelphia (4-4-5, 17 points) is 3-0-4 on the road, the league’s last unbeaten team away from home. The Revolution, meanwhile, are 1-4-1 in MLS play at Gillette Stadium.

Playing without Tomás chancalay due to accumulated yellow cards, coach caleb Porter gave Dylan Borrero his first start since he tore his AcL last April 29. (He appeared as a sub each of the last three matches.) New England controlled possession early, with Borrero looking sharp, but the match changed with Spaulding’s red card, given when he failed to handle a clumsy back pass from Esmir Bajraktarevic.

Philadelphia’s Mikael Uhre corralled the bounding ball outside the center circle and broke into the Revolution end alone, Spaulding on his hip. Uhre went down, and referee Filip Dujic quickly booted Spaulding from the game for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

“The whole game was done, or thrown down the toilet, after 15 minutes,” Porter said. “I still think it’s harsh . . . I’ve seen that play called a yellow many times, but we should never put ourselves in that situation.”

The player advantage helped Philadelphia break through in the 38th minute. Kai Wagner collected a ball to midfield from Revolution goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic, heading into space on the left side. McGlynn, subbed in for an injured José Martínez in the 28th minute, ran on it and was unchallenged for some 20 yards, rifling a low, leftfooted cross from the corner of the penalty area that carranza — behind Mark-Anthony Kaye — headed down and past Ivacic.

Another poor touch from Bajraktarevic played a part in Philadelphia’s second goal, McGlynn dispossessing him outside the Revolution penalty area two minutes into the second half. He backheeled to Union teammate Nathan Harriel, whose centering ball was headed off the near post by Uhre. It caromed to the middle and to Gazdag, who calmly slotted between sprawling defenders Xavier Arreaga and Nick Lima.

Things were in hand in the 80th minute, when Gazdag made it 3-0. He sent a through ball into the box for Quinn Sullivan, who’d found space astride New England’s Henry Kessler. Sullivan’s rightfooted shot was fisted away by Ivacic, but right to Gazdag, alone in the penalty area.

Defender DeJuan Jones returned as a second-half substitute after missing four matches for New England, which hosts New York city Fc on Saturday.