Revolution 2, Fire 1: Golazo from Gustavo Bou propels New England to victory

Gustavo Bou finally scored in the 86th minute for the New England Revolution after numerous close calls in the second half, giving the Revs a 2-1 victory in an important Eastern Conference tilt at Gillette on Saturday evening.

The Chicago Fire wasted no time getting into referee Alex Chilowicz book as Nicolas Gaitan was issued a yellow card in the first minute. Soon after, Teal Bunbury came up limping and reaching for his hamstring but appeared to walk it off, until the 12th minute when Bruce Arena was forced to use his first substitution to bring in Cristian Penilla.

The home team opened the scoring in the 17th minute as Carles Gil fed a pass into Brandon Bye who drove down towards the goal line and put a perfectly placed pass in the path of Wilfred Zahibo.

After Matt Turner made a diving stop on a ball that found it’s way through traffic in the 39th minute to show why he was the recent recipient of a contact extension, the Revs gave up the equalizer. Francisco Calvo headed home Nicolas Gaitan’s free kick in the 41st minute to return the game to level terms.

The second half saw the Fire have multiple opportunities leading to a number of corner kicks early on but nothing would end up in the back of the net. Gustavo Bou responded with a shot on goal that was stopped by Chicago keeper Kenneth Kronholm.

Both teams struggled to take hold of the game. Bou had another strong chance in the 81st minute but again failed to get the ball past Kronholm. He later sent a free kick just high in the 84 minute.

Moments later, in the 86th minute, Bou got the game winner with an absolute missile into the top left corner for his fifth goal of the season in just his seventh game. The goal was accompanied by a yellow card to “La Pantera” for the well-deserved celebration that brought the 16,236 in attendance to their feet.

The Revs return to action next weekend when they welcome Toronto FC.