FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution’s unbeaten streak has run its course.
Los Angeles FC added to its league-best record Saturday night with a 2-0 win at Gillette Stadium over a Revolution side that entered the weekend without a loss in its last 11 regular-season games.
Diego Rossi opened the scoring in the eighth minute with his 13th goal of the season, a perfectly floated lob into the far panel of the net. Latif Blessing then put the match out of reach by slamming home the dagger from inside the six-yard box midway through the second half.
In the end, a season-high announced crowd of 25,515 came to Gillette Stadium to see the resurgent Revolution (9-9-6, 33 points) face off against the star-studded LAFC (16-3-4, 52 points) and most left unhappy.
While the Revolution produced some chances and showed promise, Los Angeles looked a step better for most of the night.
“The better team won the game, no question about that,” Revolution coach Bruce Arena said. “I think for us to have a chance to get a result in this game we had to do better with some of the potential goal-scoring opportunities we created. We just wasted a number of the opportunities we had tonight —we had a breakaway, had a couple of runs at goal where we had a man advantage and didn’t make the right play — that was our theme in the attacking third of the field.”
LAFC entered the weekend with the league’s best attacking record, defensive record, and league-leading scorer Carlos Vela. New England ended the match second-best to LAFC, too, including on corners, shots, shots on goal, and possession.
Rossi gave the visitors a lead they would not relinquish early as he found space behind Brandon Bye on the left flank off a Jordan Harvey through pass. Rossi entered the box, chested the ball down, and then lifted it up and over goalkeeper Matt Turner for a picture-perfect finish inside the far post.
LAFC nearly doubled the lead in the 42nd minute, when Turner’s save on a Vela shot ricocheted off Andrew Farrell and nearly rolled into the net before Farrell recovered in time to clear the ball off the line.
Turner was equal to another bid from Vela from the right side of the box in the 54th minute and finished the match with five saves.
But the Revolution, which didn’t record their first shot on goal until the 59th minute, also regretted a few missed chances.
Teal Bunbury fired narrowly wide on a 50th-minute breakaway and Cristian Penilla’s 69th-minute bid off a shot from the top of the box following a corner kick also just missed.
“If you convert one of them, you’re really giving them a game,” Arena said.
Bunbury concurred with Arena about the team’s missed opportunities.
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“I think we were missing on opportunities — myself included — I think we just didn’t handle the ball too well, so we have ourselves to blame,” Bunbury said. “But it stinks, losing at home, getting shut out at home., disappointing.”
While the Revolution (9-9-6, 33 points) whistling away some decent looks, Los Angeles FC (16-3-4, 52 points) took advantage of the game’s wide-open, end-to-end tempo and buried their second in the 77th minute. Vela started the play at the top of the box, then dished to Harvey, who played the ball over to Eduard Atuesta, who finally found Blessing wide-open for an easy finish.
New England, which remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, would have achieved a new club record for longest regular-season unbeaten run with a win or a tie. Arena said he expects his team to rebound at Seattle next Saturday.
“On the night, we’re certainly disappointed losing, but hopefully we can learn something from this,” Arena said. “We’ll be fine.”
Saturday’s match-up also became the sixth all-time in MLS to feature two former United States men’s national team coaches on opposing sidelines – Arena with New England and Bob Bradley with Los Angeles FC. It was the first such meeting since 2006.