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It took the New England Revolution until stoppage time of their fourth game to score a goal by someone other than "Own Goal." It was certainly worth the wait.
Lee Nguyen finished a long dribble following a quick restart with a low drive past San Jose Earthquakes keeper Jon Busch in second half stoppage time as the Revs won their first game of the year 2-1 at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Rain had saturated the field since the mid-afternoon in San Jose and the goalkeepers especially were having problems keeping a hold of the ball. Victor Bernardez opened the scoring with an own goal after a scramble in the box with Busch and Saer Sene. Bernardez was only able to slide the ball into his own net with Sene looking to pounce on the rebound. Head coach Jay Heaps praised his side for the opening goal, despite not scoring it themselves.
"It wasn't without trying," said Heaps after the game via teleconference. "Our effort the last week was really good, we were progressing to get chances and we continued to work on that all week and it was a good strike for us even if we didn't score it ourselves.
But it would be a rocky end to the first half for New England, who conceeded most of the possession to end the first half and San Jose came out the halftime break looking the stronger side. Owning most of the possession for the half, it seemed only a matter of time before that pressure turned into a goal.
Chris Wondolowski obliged, sending a close range effort past Bobby Shuttleworth in the 69th minute to tie the game. The Revs were boxed into their own area for several minutes leading up to that chance and Wondolowski finished it from close range as Shuttleworth had little time to react from his position on the near post.
The Revs spent most of the second half on the counter, and it produced several decent looks at goal including a stinging shot from Andrew Farrell that was blocked as close range by Quakes leftback Jordan Stewart. The Revolution had several shouts for dangerous free kicks, notably when referee Dave Gantar ruled play on following a Clarence Goodson challenge on Charlie Davies at the top of the box.
The winning goal came in stoppage time following a rare San Jose foul, who committed only five fouls on the night. Charlie Davies was fouled and played a quick restart to Scott Caldwell which caught the Quakes defense off guard (probably because the ball was still moving when the restart happened) and Lee Nguyen who was all alone down the left side. His run carried him all the way to the penalty area and with no defender stepping up, he choose to shoot and fired a low drive to the right of a diving Busch to seal three points for the Revolution.
For the Revolution this could be the win the propels them out of their slow start the 2014 season. Even a draw at their previous 0-2-1 record would have been a positive but Jay Heaps was glad the result worked in the Revs favor.
Obviously we would have taken the point, because of where we were and because I thought they were in control of the game," said Heaps. "We had a little more space for the counter (in the second half), we gave Lee a little more space and Diego a little more time. I thought once we broke into space that we'd like our chances 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 because we have guys like Charlie (Davies) that can push the backline and guys like Lee that can create themselves some space."
With the win the Revolution snapped a 21-match unbeaten streak for the Quakes at Buck Shaw field and improved their record to 1-2-1 with four points on the year. The Quakes sit at 0-2-1 with one point, last in the Western Conference with a game in hand.
The victory set off wild celebrations on Twitter, as the Revolution "out-Goonied" the Goonies in stoppage time, where the Quakes had scored more goals than any team in MLS over the last few seasons. Even the Revs Twitter account got in on the fun, it's good to have three points.
Goonies never say die! The #NERevs top the @SJEarthquakes, 2-1, on the back of @LeeNguyen24's stoppage time goal. pic.twitter.com/7rIphQnZbs
— NE Revolution (@NERevolution) March 30, 2014
