A Sebastian Giovinco hat trick made it a night to forget for the mistake-prone Revolution, who dropped an embarrassing 4-1 loss to Toronto FC on Saturday at BMO Field.
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Giovinco has 15 goals, two more than New York City’s David Villa. Nine minutes later, Giovinco curled a shot into the far corner, from just outside the area, for his second of the half.
Shuttleworth got a touch on Giovinco’s ensuing penalty kick but couldn’t prevent it from reaching the back of the net to put the home side up 3-0 in the 75th minute.
In the absence of veterans such as American worldwide Michael Bradley, midfielder Benoit Cheyrou and defender Ashtone Morgan, youngsters Jay Chapman, Marky Delgado and Tsubasa Endoh stepped up, helping the Reds string together a season-high three-game winning streak.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us with it being the third game in a short period of time”, Toronto coach Greg Vanney told reporters about Saturday’s game.
“I think in life, and in soccer, it’s definitely good to have some objectives”, Giovinco said. “This year, if you can do it, then you might as well go for it and then at least you can say you tried”. New England sits sixth in the Eastern Conference barely in the playoff picture as seventh-placed Orlando City SC also has 26 points with a game in hand. Not just bringing in players, but (changing) mentality and our mentality defensively has been exactly what it needs to be here: “be hard to play against, when you get scored on once, don’t let it turn into two and three goals against”, said defender Drew Moor.
The loss is the first for New England (6-9-8) in four visits to BMO Field.
The match sees the end of a busy week for Toronto, who defeated the Columbus Crew 3-0 on Sunday before blanking Real Salt Lake 1-0 on Wednesday evening.
Toronto, playing for the third time in seven days, didn’t look exhausted on Saturday. It was the fifth shot on goal that United (5-8-9) attempted after the 88th minute.
Pouncing on a deflected Michael Bradley shot from distance, the 2015 Golden Boot victor buried a first-time dagger inside the left post from just inside the right corner of the 18-yard box.
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“With the two goals, and the cushion, we immediately started to press them higher, we started to release our pressure faster, we started to be proactive in things”, Vanney said.
