FRISCO, Texas — In their quest to shed their history of slow starts to the MLS season, the New England Revolution had the schedule and the weather working against them.
Saturday night at Toyota Stadium, the Revolution couldn’t beat them — or FC Dallas, either — giving up two goals in five minutes in the second half of a 2-1 defeat.
“We don’t control the schedule,’’ Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “All we can do is keep grinding. Heads are down in there because we’re disappointed and thought we put in a good effort. But if we continue doing that every week, we’re going to get on the right side of things.’’
Revolution nemesis Maxi Urruti, who scored twice to lead Dallas past New England in last year’s US Open Cup final, scored two second-half goals.
The Revolution (0-2) opened the season with a 1-0 loss at Colorado. Last week’s home opener against Orlando City was postponed because of poor weather. That sent them back on the road against Dallas (2-0-1), winner of last season’s Supporters Shield for the league’s best record and a team that had already played five games (three in the CONCACAF Champions League).
Oh, and the Revolution haven’t beaten Dallas since 2011, and they haven’t won in North Texas since April 24, 2008.
Still, the Revolution got out quickly Saturday night, dominating possession and attacks in the early going. That pressure paid off in the ninth minute, when on the second of back-to-back New England corner kicks, Dallas’s Cristian Colman bumped into Antonio Mlinar Delamea as the Revolution defender turned the corner toward the net. Delamea went down and referee Alan Kelly blew his whistle, awarding a penalty kick, which forward Lee Nguyen — a native of nearby Plano, Texas — buried with a low shot.
They came close to doubling that lead in the 13th minute when Kei Kamara’s hard shot forced goalkeeper Chris Seitz to make a tricky save.
But on a warm Texas evening, Dallas gradually began to take charge, and finally erupted in the second half.
But on a warm Texas evening, Dallas began to take charge, and finally erupted in the second half.
In the 71st minute, Dallas defender Maynor Figueroa blasted a long ball down the right side for winger Michael Barrios, who beat Revolution defender Chris Tierney to the ball and cut inside. Goalkeeper Cody Cropper came off his line to knock the ball away, but it fell right to Urruti, who made a move and took a shot that deflected off a defender and into the net to tie the match.
“It was an individual error on my part,’’ Tierney said. “I just misjudged it. I’m the first one to [admit it]. I needed to make that play and I didn’t make it. Then I had a chance to block it the second time around and we couldn’t make the play.’’
Six minutes later, Urruti struck again, and again the goal was set up by a long pass on the right wing, this time from Hernan Grana. Urruti outfought defender Benjamin Angoua for possession and fired a rocket that beat Cropper high to the near post for the winning score.
“I feel like we have to make those individual plays,’’ Heaps said. “It comes down to moments in the game and understanding what the moment calls for, and collectively, can we make one more play, two more plays to win the game.’’
The Revolution tried to turn up their offense for the final minutes, but generated little. For the game, they were outshot, 15-4.
“We have really good offensive players, but we’re going to have to put some things together so we can connect a lot better to create more chances and put them away,’’ Kamara said.
“That was the difference. Dallas looked more like a team tonight. But that’s the team we’ve seen last year — Supporters Shield, Open Cup. They’ve done well. And for us, I guess we’re a team that’s still working to get there.’’
The Revolution are hoping a return home will make a difference as they finally make their home debut — weather permitting — Saturday against the expansion Minnesota United.
“We really would have liked to take some points out of these first two games,’’ Tierney said. “It just makes our home form that much more important. We’ll be revved up to play this weekend. We have to get a good result at home to start turning things around.’’
