FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As London Woodberry walked off the field and down the players’ tunnel following pregame warmups, an enthusiastic fan shouted some encouragement from the front row.
Hey Woodberry! You’re getting an assist tonight!
It took less than nine minutes for the prophetic fan’s prediction to come true as Woodberry’s teasing cross from the right wing was buried by Charlie Davies to hand the New England Revolution an early 1-0 lead, eventually helping the Revs to a 2-1 win over the previously unbeaten New York Red Bulls.
“That’s my goal going into each game,” said Woodberry, who registered his first career assist in his 11th career MLS appearance. “I want to get on the score sheet, whether it’s a goal or an assist. Today, luckily, Charlie got on the end of one and helped us get the win.”
The goal also helped the Revs get off to a fast start, which was exactly what they wanted to do against a Red Bulls side which was playing its third game in seven days.
“They had three games this past week, so we wanted to bring it to them early,” said Woodberry. “It was tough because they’re a good team, but I feel like that was our main goal in the first part of the game.”
“In the first 20 minutes we wanted to pin them and test their backline,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “I thought we did that. I thought Charlie’s goal was great, but I thought there was another one – another turnover that we could get something.”
New York eventually gained a foothold and had shifted the momentum heading into the halftime break, but New England found a crucial second goal in the 60th minute following a fantastic bit of interplay.
Juan Agudelo, Scott Caldwell, Davies and Lee Nguyen were all involved in the buildup before Teal Bunbury smashed a right-footed shot past Luis Robles, giving the Revs a cushion they would ultimately require when Sacha Kjlestan pulled the Red Bulls within one in the 73rd minute.
“You knew they were going to bring in Bradley Wright-Phillips and Lloyd Sam and really wreak havoc on the game, and they did,” said Heaps. “I think that it was important for us to get that goal.”
Heaps admitted that he would’ve preferred a third goal to put the game completely out of reach, but in the end a stout defensive effort held off the hard-charging Red Bulls and the Revs were able to extend their current unbeaten run to seven games (5-0-2) and their home unbeaten run to a club-record 13 (10-0-3).
“I thought we did a great job rolling up our sleeves,” said Heaps. “After we gave up one, we could’ve easily given up another one, but our guys dug in deep and didn’t give much after that.”
