FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – If you’d given New England Revolution head coach Brad Friedel a pen and asked him to script out how he would’ve liked the opening stages of Saturday night’s meeting with Toronto FC to unfold, he likely would’ve written something close to what transpired at Gillette Stadium.
Pouncing on a pair of TFC turnovers, Cristian Penilla struck twice inside seven minutes – the earliest a player has scored two goals in Revolution history – as the Revs overwhelmed the visitors en route to a 3-2 win in front of 19,000+ on a rainy night in Foxborough.
“We wanted to start out the first 15 minutes making them feel uneasy, uncomfortable,” said Teal Bunbury, who added his fifth goal in the last seven games early in the second half. “I think we were able to do that.”
How the Revs were able to do that involved a heavy dose of what’s become their signature high press, suffocating Toronto FC every time they tried to play out of the back.
Scott Caldwell – wearing the captain’s armband in his first start since April 14 – stepped up to cut out Michael Bradley’s pass to create Penilla’s first, while Diego Fagundez chased tirelessly to force TFC goalkeeper Alex Bono into a mistake that Penilla punished to complete his early double.
Both turnovers were forced in the attacking third of the field.
“When we play against teams who like to build out of the back – and Toronto is one of those teams, and they’re very, very good at it – we like to high press and force them into mistakes,” said Friedel, noting TFC’s injuries across the backline. “We felt that if we won the ball high up the field, we could expose the back four, which we did on numerous occasions.”
While the visitors gained something of a foothold late in the first half – forcing Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner into a series of strong saves to maintain the two-goal lead – New England used another burst of energy to start the second half to stretch their advantage to 3-0.
Bunbury latched onto a brilliant first-time pass from Andrew Farrell and then did the rest himself, fighting off the challenge of Ager Aketxe before finishing to the far post.
“The best thing about [that energy] was that it wasn’t just the first 10, 15 minutes of the game – it was the first 10, 15 minutes of each half,” said Kelyn Rowe, who made his first start since returning from injury. “That’s where you kill teams off.”
Although the Revs needed to battle through a late Toronto fightback, they ultimately held on for the full three points, improving to 20-3-4 in their last 27 home games ahead of next weekend’s visit from Columbus Crew SC.
“There was a little bit of chaos there at the end, but we stuck to it and we got three points,” said Bunbury. “That’s all that matters is winning.”
