The New England Revolution took a big step closer to wrapping up a playoff spit with a 2-1 win over the Columbus Crew at a wet Gillette Stadium. With the win, the Revolution claimed sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Sporting Kansas City and four points behind first-place D.C. United.
Lee Nguyen opened the scoring in the 20th minute, getting on the end of a Teal Bunbury cross and slotting a shot past Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark. The goal was Nguyen’s team-best 14th of the season, which sets a new Revolution record for goals by a midfielder.
The lead would last just five minutes before Columbus equalized through Ethan Finlay. Tony Tchani played him in behind the Revolution defense and Finlay rolled a shot past Shuttleworth and inside the far post, leveling the score at 1-1.
Jermaine Jones gave New England the lead in the 67th minute when he headed home from a Chris Tierney free kick at the back post.
Jones, who has been brilliant since arriving in New England spoke after the match about the difficulty of playing on turf that also has markings for the Patriots NFL match on Sunday:
“Playing on turf in the rain is really difficult. You have to change your whole game. Sometimes you think you can take the ball down nicely, but it comes in so fast that it makes it hard. It was my first game on turf and raining, but now I know how it is.
First time officially playing with football lines as well. It’s a little confusing, but I can see the difference between yellow and white, so it was ok.”
