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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution was so close.
But with a minute and half to go and a 2-1 lead at home in front of its largest crowd of the season, the team came apart and lost control to the Los Angeles Galaxy, who scored twice in second-half stoppage time to steal a 3-2 victory Saturday night.
The announced crowd of 36,573 groaned and booed as the final whistle sounded to snap the Revolution’s promising seven-game unbeaten run.
New England imploded in the second and third minutes of added time. First, David Romney headed in a Romain Alessandrini corner kick to tie the game at 2-2. Seconds later, Chris Pontius found space in between New England’s defenders off a giveaway as play restarted, and he pounded a shot into the back of the net to give the Galaxy the lead and the three points.
“For me, it was one of the worst losses that I’ve suffered at this stadium. To have so many people come out …,” Revolution striker Juan Agudelo said, his voice trailing. “I was just hoping we would clear everything out, and we didn’t. That’s just plain and simple. We didn’t mark up on a couple of occasions.”
The coda to Saturday night’s match in no way reflected what transpired for most of the game.
New England was the better team for the majority of the contest despite going down to 10 men in the 23rd minute, when match referee Robert Sibiga sent off Revolution midfielder Cristian Penilla for kicking out at Alessandrini after a scuffle in midfield.
But the Revolution’s response to losing a player was almost surreal.
Diego Fagundez opened the scoring just five minutes after Penilla was sent off; It was Fagundez’s sixth goal of the season and came off a give-and-go with Luis Caicedo.
“I’m proud of my players for the effort they put in, going down a man,” said Revolution coach Brad Friedel. “To come undone on three goals in the manner we did is heartbreaking. It’s sickening. But, the players know they put in a valiant effort and we were the valiant side.”
Los Angeles, which traveled to New England without superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic, equalized in the 38th minute as Pontius converted the first of his two goals on the night. He emerged unmarked in the penalty area to belt a cross from Ashley Cole inside the far post.
The Revolution returned fire and took back the lead in first-half stoppage time. Caicedo advanced into the penalty area and headed a driven cross from Andrew Farrell into the net, past Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham. It was Caicedo’s first career Major League Soccer goal.
New England carried its positive play into the second half as the Galaxy continued to take a back seat in the game’s momentum despite having a man advantage.
Teal Bunbury hit the left post in the 74th minute off another cross by Farrell, and Cole cleared a drive by Agudelo off the line in minute 79.
The Revolution, who at the point in the match outshot the Galaxy by a 4-to-1 ratio despite playing with only 10 men, appeared to get more help as Cole earned his second yellow card and was sent off by Sibiga for a late swipe on Agudelo in the 85th minute.
Instead, the Galaxy pressed forward. First came a preventable score off a corner kick. Then came the gut-punch from Pontius.
“It was probably where we were almost saying, ‘OK. That’s good. We’ll be happy with a tie,’ that the second goal came out of nowhere a bit,” Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid said. “When we made it 2-2, I can’t say what they were thinking, but maybe they were thinking, ‘Let’s get after it again. Let’s win this game,’ and they were just a little bit open for a moment in the back. We were able to take advantage.”
Friedel was calm and measured in the postgame press conference. He blamed individual mistakes, but declined to single out players.
“If you look at the goals, you’re going to look at individual mistakes not a collective scenario,” Friedel said. “What you saw tonight is not really characteristic of a team falling apart or breaking down. It was a case of losing concentration at individual moments.”