FOXBOROUGH – The New England Revolution opened a four-game homestand and extended their winless streak to eight games in the process.
Dynamic striker Martin Ojeda recorded a brace to lift Orlando City SC to a 2-1 victory over the Revolution before 24,954 on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
The Revolution slipped to 6-10-7 overall, 2-6-2 at home, and 0-6-2 in the last eight. The Revolution look to reverse the skid when they host last-place CF Montreal on Friday night.
The Revolution’s last win (3-0) was at Montreal on May 31.
“I have a lot of confidence in the group, but it always stops with me, I take the responsibility, and I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Revolution coach Caleb Porter said. “The buck always stops with me.
“The results haven’t been good enough, and it is about results for sure. The team is fighting, the team is bought in, and the team is giving everything it has. What we have to work on is the mentality and the focus. The group is giving everything they have and not getting rewarded for it.”
The Revolution were playing their fifth game in 13 days, but Porter made only cosmetic alterations to his Starting XI, which was blitzed 5-3 by the New York Red Bulls on July 16.
Ilay Feingold, who played 17 substitute minutes against the Red Bulls, started in place of Brandon Bye at right back while Mamadou Fofana replaced Keegan Hughes at center back.
Fofana was suspended from the Red Bulls’ game for yellow card accumulation.
Orlando City took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute, the result of an egregious collaboration of miscues by the Revolution. Central midfielder Eduard Aluesta forced a turnover at midfield and lofted a rainbow shot that sent the Revolution’s center backs into a panicked retreat.
Ojeda got behind the Revs’ defenders and beat keeper Aljaz Ivacic to the ball at the top of the penalty area. Ojeda sidestepped Ivacic and shot the ball off his left foot into the vacated net for his team high 11th of the season.
The Revolution is not a team that’s equipped to chase the game, but the homeboys created several quality scoring chances late in the frame that failed to produce the equalizer.
“I felt in the first half it was kind of a chess match, so there weren’t a ton of chances, and then we lost focus and gave up the first goal,” Porter said. “When you get down 1-0, the game gets a lot harder, and we just weren’t switched on in that moment. That first goal killed us.”
Porter made an interesting substitution at the start of the second half, reconfiguring his formation to create more offense. Porter inserted striker Tomas Chancalay in place of left center back Tanner Beason.
The shift rejuvenated the Revolution attack and brought the play to the Orlando City zone in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
Chancalay briefly stamped his genius on the game when he tied it 1-1 in the 55th minute. Feingold made a cross that cleared the penalty area and found Chancalay on the left flank.
Chancalay pivoted to the middle and beat OCSC keeper Pedro Gallese to the near post for his third of the season.
“I thought 1-1 and it was going to be all us,” Porter said. “I thought Tomas did well, turned the goal well, and brought good energy, and that is what we expect out of him.”
The euphoria was short-lived when Ojeda secured the brace in the 58th minute. Ojeda gained possession in the penalty area and beat Ivacic with a bullet from 12 feet.
The Revolution had several quality chances to tie the match, but either misfired or were denied by Gallese.
“We got burnt again giving the ball away,” Porter said. “We gave the ball away, and we got burned, and that’s the way it’s been going for us.
“When you let your guard down in this sport, even for a minute, you are going to get punched in the nose, and we did.”
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