Game 16: New England v. Kansas City

Wright 92+

Klein 66, Brown 91

It was a typical Revolution performance: industrious, uneven, strong goalkeeping and dreadfully lacking in offensive creativity. Unfortunately, that lead to defeat, as Kansas City came in and took a match that most fans had circled as three points in the bag. The Revolution never looked much like taking the points in this encounter with both sides slogging through a dreadful mess of clumpy play. It was far from the beautiful game on display this night.

The Revolution offense sputtered early and often in this match with Wolde Harris the main culprit. Time after time, he would post up as if a center in the NBA, and the next minute give the ball away without a hassle or make a dreadful pass. He could not do anything even close to substantial in the box. It was the typical Wolde performance in 2001, and he was withdrawn after 55 minutes to a smattering of boos and silence.

Neither Caté nor Andy Williams could find a way to orchestrate something noteworthy to break down the Wizard (not the Earthquakes as the Foxboro Stadium announcer would have you believe) defense. The Revs' best chance of the night came off of a Caté free kick in the thirteenth minute. Standing thirty yards from goal, Caté drove a shot into the Kansas City wall, the deflection falling nicely to an unmarked Mauricio Wright. Wright drove the ball off Bo Oshoniyi's left post. Sadly, that was the type of offense the Revs created all night.

El Gato was busy on this night. His main nemesis came in the form of Jamaican International Onandi Lowe. Lowe, a big, burly striker, was handled well by Jay Heaps all night. Surprisingly, the rather slight Heaps used his tremendous vertical leap to neutralize the aerial threat of the Jamaican. Lowe's main challenge on net came in the 44th minute with Fernandez saving well down to his left off a Lowe free kick. Matt McKeon then tested the Bolivian a minute later, but Fernandez quickly dove right to deflect it away.

It was only a matter of time before the Wizards got on the board, and it was again Onandi Lowe who got things rolling in the 66th minute. A missed challenge by Jay Heaps allowed Lowe to ghost in unmarked. He crossed to Gary Glasgow (who had been nearly) silent until this point), whose first attempt on goal was blocked. On the second attempt, Glasgow smartly passed out to the left flank to a wide-open Chris Klein (Chrono was not even close to Klein, a second half sub for Lassiter), who calmly slotted home for a 1-nil KC lead.

Unfortunately, the Revolution deficit did not seem to translate to any apparent offensive urgency either on the bench or on the field. For a good ten-minute stretch in the second half, Chrono (as tired as he was) played center striker. However, that left Chris Klein open to cause trouble down the left, where he dominated for most his fifty minute night.

In a distinct twist of irony, referee Alex Prus (after haphazardly controlling most of the match) added five minutes of extra time to the match. Sadly, the Wizards scored first to seal the deal. A mistimed, risky challenge by Mauricio Wright allowed Chris Brown to ghost in completely unmarked. He rounded Fernandez, but was thwarted once by a sliding Jay Heaps. Brown finished it off with a grounded scissors kick into the back of the net. Mauricio Wright's juggling tally a minute later wasn't enough, as the Revolution had their five-game unbeaten streak snapped in a truly disappointing fashion.

Revolution Man of the Match: Jose Fernandez
Time after time, Gato was left stranded by his defense. Time after time, Gato came up with the big save to keep the Revolution in the game. With most any other keeper in net, this is a 4-1, 5-1 game. Gato was on his game tonight when most of his teammates were not.

-"To win games, we have to score goals number one. It's even harder when your offense comes from a central defender (Mauricio Wright)."

-"The whole season we haven't been able to find the right combination to score the goals."

-"Of course they're going to mark players who play well and score goals (on the increased marking of Caté)"

-"Wolde is not going through the best time of his career. Like I said before, Caté is being marked tight. Someone needs to step up and get behind what Caté is creating."

-"I thought he (Jose "Gato" Fernandez) played great. He had nothing to do with either of the goals."

-"Looking back at the first 25 minutes, we played pretty well. We created chances and moved forward. One goal would have opened up everything, and we could not do it."

-"Sometimes we complain about the schedule being Wednesday-Saturday, and there isn't much preparation time, but after what happened to us against Chicago, it was good that we were able to get back into the saddle."

-"We deserved a win. We were strong on both sides of the ball. That's more like the way we want to play than we have been playing."

-"Brownie really made the Hollywood show out of it" (referring to Chris Brown's goal in the 91st minute)

Fernandez (7)

Pierce (5)
Wright (5)
Heaps (6)

Cloutier (5)
Alvarez (5)
Williams (5)
Asad (5)
Chronopoulos (4)

Cate (5)
Harris (4)

Subs
Sunsing [for Wolde, 59] (6)
Torres [for Asad, 80] (5)

Oshoniyi (6)

Burns (5)
Vermes (6)
Garcia (4)
Prideaux (6)

McKeon (5)
Zavagnin (5)
Brown (6)

Lassiter (4)
Lowe (6)
Glasgow (5)