Monday, June 8, 2009

Revolution embarrass Red Bulls, 4-0

The New England Revolution used an offensive explosion vs. the struggling New York Red Bulls to earn their second straight victory, 4-0, on Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium.

New England, which had scored just 10 goals in 10 previous soccer tournament games this season, got two goals from Taylor Twellman and a goal apiece from Jay Heaps and Steve Ralston in the victory.

Twellman's first goal was his 100th career Major League Soccer goal .



The game started with the Red Bulls holding their own for most of the first half, but a late tally by Heaps ensured the hosts would go into the break up 1-0.

Revs midfielder Shalrie Joseph out-muscled a number of Red Bulls defenders in the New York penalty area before passing to Heaps, who fired home in the closing seconds of the first half.

Seven minutes after the break the Revolution doubled their lead when Heaps battled New York defender Nick Zimmerman in the left corner to keep the ball alive.

He then crossed into the box to Ralston, who headed off the post and in.

Twellman scored his 100th career goal less than five minutes later when Joseph crossed from the right side to the striker, who was wide open at the back post.

Twellman made no mistake, heading past New York goalkeeper Jon Conway to make it 3-0.

Twellman added another goal in the 64th minute to complete the scoring.

New England (5-3-4) will be gunning for its third straight win when it plays at Kansas City next Saturday, while New York (2-10-3) will try to recover from its fourth straight loss when it hosts Seattle on June 20 in its next MLS fixture.
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soccer looks troubled heading to '10 World Cup

No nation has benefited more from World Cup expansion than the United States, since it's basically impossible not to qualify now that 32 teams are invited. But after another head-scratcher of a Soccer game Saturday, there's more reason than ever to think the regression from the 2002 quarterfinal run will continue.

The U.S. lost 3-1 in Costa Rica on Wednesday night. More problematic was falling behind to Honduras in Chicago on Saturday before eking out a 2-1 victory. After the match, U.S. Coach Bob Bradley discussed one big problem: the fact that the players he needs the most can't get off the bench with their European clubs and therefore aren't properly conditioned or sharp enough for the national team.

Midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, who should be in the prime of his career at age 27, barely played and didn't score all season for Scotland's Glasgow Rangers. Jozy Altidore, the 19-year-old who was purchased from Major League Soccer by Spanish team Villareal, was lent to a second-division team but still can't get any playing time. And Freddy Adu, who was supposed to revolutionize the game here when he joined MLS at age 14, is a non-factor six years later in Portugal.
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