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RED BULLS 1, REVOLUTION 0

Revolution continue winless, goal-less ways

HARRISON, N.J. — The Revolution seem to have solved some of their defending problems. But the team’s offense failed to click, despite a change in formation, as the Revolution fell, 1-0, to the New York Red Bulls on Sunday.

The Revolution (6-12-9, 27 points), held scoreless for the third successive match, surrendered a 55th-minute goal to Bradley Wright-Phillips in falling 5 points out the sixth and final Eastern Conference playoff place.

Revolution coach Jay Heaps paired Teal Bunbury with Kei Kamara up front, then brought in Diego Fagundez and Juan Agudelo in the second half. But the combinations failed to produce as the Revolution’s winless streak stretched to six games, their scoreless streak to 362 consecutive minutes.

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The Revolution went with a two-forward setup from the start for the first time this season in a 0-0 tie at San Jose Wednesday.

“It’s a good formation, it frees us, the forwards, a bit,” Kamara said. “At the same time, it’s really new. How many games left in the season? It’s something we have to work really fast to adapt to because, defensively, it can hurt us if we’re not playing the right way.”

The Red Bulls (11-9-7, 40 points) dominated early, Kemar Lawrence hitting the left post in the fifth minute. The Revolution retaliated, producing several threats late in the first half, then made a strong start to the second half, Kelyn Rowe volleying just over the bar in the 50th minute.

But the Revolution struggled to clear, setting up Wright-Phillips’s goal. Andrew Farrell lost possession, then Jose Gonçalves regained control in the penalty area, but was stripped by Alex Muyl, whose shot was parried by Brad Knighton directly to Wright-Phillips, who volleyed into an open net from close range.

“It was a tough goal to give up because it felt like, New York’s a really good team, so when they break you down you can understand it,” Heaps said. “But when we play into their hands and lose it — part of our game plan was not to do that. [There were] a couple situations that put them in a position of power. I felt like we had a good performance overall, but to give up that goal was hard.”

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The Revolution changes might have been implemented too late to make a successful playoff run. But the team appears to have recovered its confidence defensively, following a four-game stretch in which it was outscored, 13-2.

“I’m confident,” Heaps said. “I see what we can do, and just have to make sure that translates on the field. We’ve had some not very good games and we need to turn it around because time is running out. The one thing about this league is if you can get one, you can get two, you can get three games in a row and you keep plugging along, and that’s what we have to do.”

Said Knighton: “I felt like the last several weeks we’ve been very sound defensively. We’ve just got to keep building on that. Like I said, the goals will come at the other end, we’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep working hard in training and we’ll turn this thing around.”

The Revolution attacked until the final whistle, including six minutes of injury time, the match ending shortly after Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles appeared to have collided with a teammate, then confronted Agudelo in the penalty area.

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That would be the tensest moment of the match, the controversy of the Revolution’s 1-0 victory over the Red Bulls April 1 apparently forgotten. In that game, Fagundez scored in the 55th minute off an Agudelo feed while the Red Bulls called for the action to halt because of an injury.

“[Robles] thought I shoved [Ronald] Zubar into him,” Agudelo said. “For me, I know that’s a dangerous place, so I’m not going to do that. I was just trying to tie the game, you know? I’m not that type of person. He apologized after and I apologized. I’m not the type of guy that takes it personal.

“But maybe we were being too nice today. I thought we should have come out a little feistier, because we have to get some points.”