FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Every objective that the New England Revolution set out to accomplish in Saturday night’s regular-season finale against Toronto FC was met in a relatively comfortable 1-0 victory.
Lee Nguyen’s 18th goal of the season was also his league-best ninth game winner and the Revs walked off the Gillette Stadium field with three points, a clean sheet and no injuries.
To boot, they continued the momentum which has seen them go 9-1-1 through the past 11 games, making them the league’s hottest side entering the MLS Cup Playoffs.
“We wanted to be solid in the back and keep a clean sheet,” said Nguyen, who strengthened his league MVP case by putting his name on the score sheet for a 10th time in the past 11 games. “At the same time, we wanted to make it exciting for the fans who came out and get three points going into the playoffs on a strong note.”
While the 32,766 fans in attendance cheered loudest when Nguyen finished off Chris Tierney’s cutback 10 minutes before halftime, the most important number for the Revs may have been zero, as in zero goals conceded. It was the Revolution’s first shutout since Aug. 30, coincidentally a 3-0 win over Toronto FC.
It couldn’t have come at a better time with the playoffs looming next weekend.
“It’s been a while since we’d gotten one and it’s kind of perfect to get one going into the playoffs,” said goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth, who made four saves on the night. “That’s what we need to do at home.”
“That was part of what we really wanted to do,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “I thought our defense was really good. I think Bobby had one or two good saves, but no one was behind us and that was key number one.”
Helping lead the backline was center back A.J. Soares, honored as both the Revolution Defender of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year prior to kickoff. But Soares himself was quick to point out the contributions of everyone on the field, not just those playing in defense.
“The whole group defended and I think you’ve got to play like that in the playoffs,” he said. “You’re coming up against teams that are as good as you, so you need all 11 guys defending and doing the work on both sides. We did it today.”
Now they’ll look to do it in the postseason, using Saturday’s game as a blueprint.
“In the huddle before the game, we said let’s pretend like this is a playoff game,” Soares said. “We said let’s see if we can do it, and we did it.”
