FOXBOROUGH — Should the Revolution continue their late-season run and squeeze into the playoffs, they will be unlikely to have home-field advantage.
But the Revolution are capitalizing on their own turf during the regular season, moving within a point of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with a 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact before a crowd of 20,080 on Saturday night.
Lee Nguyen’s 68th-minute goal made the difference as the Revolution (10-12-5, 35 points) extended their home streaks to five wins and 371 shutout minutes. The Revolution, who have seven games scheduled this month, have not lost a September home match since a 4-2 defeat to the Impact in 2014.
But the Revolution are winless (0-10-3) away from home and are preparing for road games against Atlanta United on Wednesday and Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.
“We’ve already done film on Atlanta and they’re playing [Sunday against FC Dallas],’’ Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “But we’re keeping our players 100 percent tasked on each game as if it’s a playoff game.’’
Both teams seemed to be in a postseason mode, though the Revolution got off to a slow start, Cody Cropper kick-saving on Ignacio Piatti in the opening seconds after Claude Dielna lost possession in the penalty area.
Montreal (10-11-6, 36 points) played conservatively, playing a formation that appeared to morph from a 3-5-2 to a 5-3-2. The Impact threatened on counterattacks and had a chance to open the scoring as Anthony Jackson-Hamel missed an open net in the opening minutes of the second half.
The Revolution threatened late in the first half. A Juan Agudelo run through the middle set up Teal Bunbury, who faked right-footed and had a close-range left-footer saved by Evan Bush (39th minute). Nguyen headed wide off a Scott Caldwell cross (43rd).
The Revolution went with Benjamin Angoua at right back in place of Andrew Farrell, and the change appeared to pay, except when Jackson-Hamel went in near the goal area, squandering a chance off a 48th-minute Chris Duvall cross.
Heaps added Diego Fagundez as a 57th-minute substitute for Agudelo, and the Revolution’s attacking persistence paid off on a solo move by Nguyen, who drilled a low shot inside the left post after getting past Laurent Ciman and avoiding Victor Cabrera. The sequence started with a Duvall giveaway, Bunbury then centering for Nguyen just outside the penalty area, Nguyen then getting past a sliding Ciman to score his ninth goal of the season.
“I felt it was going to take a special play, because they had so many guys behind the ball,’’ Heaps said. “It was a little bit of a fiery game for Lee. He was getting kicked real early. He got kicked three times on one play twice — normally you get six fouls in a game, someone’s getting a yellow card.
“I felt the energy from Lee was, ‘all right I’ve had enough of this, I’m going to put this game on my back.’ He’s a class player and I think he shows it year after year and in crunch time and tonight was as crunch time as you get. There wasn’t four goals like last week [a 4-0 win over Orlando SC] — we needed one and he found it and he created it and he scored it.’’
Two minutes later, the Revolution had a chance to extend the lead as Fagundez outraced Bush, then chipped off the bar, Kei Kamara drilling a point-blank rebound off the bar.
The Impact added forwards Dominic Oduro and Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla in the late going, threatening on a Cabrera header off the top of the net (83rd).
Nguyen then chipped on to the top of the net (88th) off an impressive run by substitute Krisztian Nemeth.
“We had a good effort defensively,’’ Nguyen said. “We’ve got to keep that same mentality [against Atlanta]. It’s not going to be easy, it’s a tough team that has a lot of great attacking players. If we can stay solid and hold the fort down defensively, we’re a team that can punish teams on the other side.’’
