New England 2, Orlando City 2 - Chaos Reigns In Closing Minutes As Revs Draw Again

Just when you think you're going to get a New England Revolution or Orlando City match that isn't controversial, stoppage time happened at the Orange Bowl.

The Revs and OCSC played out to a 2-2 draw that saw one of the fastest PK goals in MLS history from Kaka and ended with Lee Nguyen's first of the year from the spot in the 96th minute.

For all the controversy we're going to talk about, lost will be the first minute penalty called against the Revs when Je-Vaughn Watson clipped big Julio Baptista seconds after the opening whistle. Baptista goes down fairly easy, and might've handled in the build up but there's no doubt Watson caught his ankle and Kaka made no mistake from the spot to give Orlando the 1-0 lead.

From that point though it was all Revolution, who commanded 58% possession and took eleven shots in the first half though only put two on target. Several searching crosses for Teal Bunbury and even one to London Woodberry were among the half chances New England had before their equalizer.

That would come in the 37th minute when Chris Tierney played in a cross from the left flank that found Gershon Koffie in the center of the box. The ball deflected nicely to Bunbury who had time to settle the ball before roofing it past Joe Bendik in the OCSC goal. Moments later, Diego Fagundez nearly found Bunbury wide open only to have Seb Hines make a saving tackle to deny the Revs a go ahead goal

The continued their solid play until a double change from Orlando saw Adrian Heath put Cyle Larin and Kevin Molino into the attack and the momentum shifted almost immediately. In a repeat of the earlier Seb Hines tackle off the line, Kaka played in Larin who seemingly had a wide open goal only to be stuffed by Watson.

Both teams continued to push for a winner as the Revs had several good chances on the counter scrambled away, including a nifty sliding toe poke tackle from Hines to deny substitute Charlie Davies a shot on goal. Bobby Shuttleworth was also called into action several times in the closing minutes, denying Antonio Nocerino and Molino has he tipped back-to-back efforts over the crossbar.

In the 92nd minute is when the wheels came off. Under constant pressure, the Revs were struggling to clear their lines and Molino latched onto a loose ball inside the area. However, his controlling touch before his shot was a clear handball but it went unnoticed by Baldomero Toledo as Molino slotted home for what seemingly was the winning goal.

Until two minutes later when Toldeo whistled a handball against Servando Carrasco, which was ruled initially to be outside the area. The ball in question clearly came off Carrasco's shoulder and shouldn't have been an infraction, but the Orlando player was a yard inside the box and after conferring with his assistant Toledo pointed to the spot.

Lee Nguyen stepped up and equalized as boos and trash rained down from the stands for what was the last meaningful action of the game. Jay Heaps and his counterpart Heath exchanged words after the final whistle though Heaps did praise the OCSC coach for the key tactical change in the second half.

Jay Heaps & Adrian Heath need to be held off each other post game but Heaps just gave Heath praise for formation change in 2nd half #NEvORL

— Monica Gonzalez (@MonicaGonzo) April 17, 2016

The draw is the Revs fifth of the year, giving them eight points from a 1-1-5 record. The story will be Toledo's ending to the game but the focus should be on the Revolution still failing to convert on decent chances. For all their dominance in the first hour, the Revs only put six of twenty shots on target and despite his four saves, never really tested Bendik.

Jay Heaps and his side will lament again about the referee's but we've seen this too many times this season. The Revolution simply aren't scoring and the referees have nothing to do with that.

The Revolution are on the road next Saturday at DC United for a 530pm kickoff.