If ever there was a word to describe the New England Revolution's performance against Toronto FC on Sunday night, it would be "ruthless."
Despite staring down the firepower of Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, and Sebastian Giovinco, the Revs went North of the border and pulled out a victory. Helped initially by a Damien Perquis own goal, Diego Fagundez and Kelyn Rowe added tallies to keep New England hot and focused on the playoffs with a 3-1 win.
Moreover, the Revs were ruthless with their chances. Toronto produced 21 total shots, but only scored once; New England had just 7 shots, but yet managed three goals. The visitors let no mistake by the hosts go unpunished.
Lee Nguyen nearly kicked the scoring off in the first minute when he took advantage of a Damien Perquis mistake and got free at the top of the box, but he fired wide when you really would have expected him to score.
Perquis made up for Nguyen's miss in the 4th minute, though. Jermaine Jones played a diagonal ball that slipped Teal Bunbury in down the right channel in the box, and Bunbury's pullback was knocked into the net by Perquis for an own goal.
From that point forward, it was all Toronto. Giovinco put on a clinic, shredding through New England's defense at will, and Bradley was imperious in midfield. Despite that, Toronto couldn't find the breakthrough.
New England didn't seem to recover until about the 39th minute. After a long stretch of watching Toronto dominate, the Revs strung together a composed series of passes in the final third. This sustained possession resulted in Nguyen receiving a pass back from Bunbury, and then pushing it laterally across the top of the box toward Fagundez. The young home-grown ripped it first-time across his body to the far post and doubled the advantage.
Toronto again took the initiative in the second half, and in the 55th minute, they found paydirt. Justin Morrow beat Jeremy Hall to the byline - he did that a lot on the night - and lobbed a cross to the far post. Robbie Findley rose was largely uncontested as he snapped his header off the post and in.
The Reds continued their assault, but an inexplicable error from Michael Bradley put the nail in the coffin for the home side. Bradley dithered on the ball in his own box for no discernible reason, and Lee Nguyen forced it off him to allow substitute Kelyn Rowe to fire home easily.
New England comes home and goes right back to work against the Red Bulls on Wednesday night.