FOXBOROUGH — The fan and media attention focused on Kei Kamara, who had been a Revolution player for less than 72 hours when he took the field Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. And Kamara was also the focal point for both his new team’s offense and the Chicago defense as the Revolution took a 2-0 victory over the Fire before a crowd of 18,997.
Kamara did not figure directly into the scoring as the Revolution (2-3-7, 13 points) snapped a six-match winless streak. But Kamara, acquired in a deal Thursday with the Columbus Crew before the MLS trade deadline, meshed with his new teammates and appears capable of providing a spark the Revolution have lacked in getting off to their least productive start to a season in terms of victories.
Kamara became expendable after disputing a penalty kick with Federico Higuain in the Crew’s 4-4 tie with the Montreal Impact last week.
“We know who he is, he’s punished us before in games,’’ Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “When you have someone in the league you know well, when they come in the locker room it’s instant respect. It energizes the team, and I could tell right away.’’
The Revolution capitalized on an uninspiring Chicago (1-4-4, 7 points) team that failed to threaten. The Fire’s speedy forwards, David Accam and Kennedy Igboananike, were easily neutralized by a jerry-rigged defense that included Kelyn Rowe, the Revolution’s second-leading scorer, making his first start at right back.
Kamara’s presence as a lone striker gave the Revolution a physical point of reference that changed the team’s offensive dynamic. Kamara helped win a corner kick that led to Lee Nguyen’s 22d-minute goal, and drew defenders as Femi Hollinger-Janzen was unmarked for a header in scoring his first professional goal in the 84th minute.
“Kei caused a lot of problems for them and opened up space for us,’’ Nguyen said. “I want to thank Columbus — he’s so smart, so athletic. He wins everything. You’re going to have to watch him. He adds another dimension to our attack. Now we’re lethal on crosses and we can play to the middle.’’
Kamara performed as expected, providing a target for long balls, a force in the air, a threat near the goal. Kamara also displayed a trait he was not as well know for — unselfishly laying off balls for teammates in the penalty area.
“There are some good players out there,’’ Kamara said. “I really want to connect with them on the field, and it looked like we’re kind of understanding each other a bit faster than I expected, but it’s going to be a lot of work on the training ground.’’
Kamara helped set up the opening goal, his left-foot volley going out for a corner, after playing a combination with Nguyen. Kamara also was more than willing to go for goal, his 51st-minute header cleared off the line by Brandon Vincent, a 66th-minute bicycle kick going wide. Kamara took six shots, two more than the Fire.
Nguyen scored off a set play from a corner kick called “The Duke,’’ in reference to Heaps’s experience playing both basketball and soccer for the Blue Devils.
“Because there’s a basketball cut in it,’’ Heaps said. “We’ve run it a couple times. In training it works all the time.’’
Nguyen started the play, taking a short corner from the left to Rowe, who played back to Scott Caldwell. Nguyen ran onto Caldwell’s slow-rolling return pass, sending an open shot off the inside of the far post, his second goal of the season, and first in the run of play.
“It’s nice to feel welcome,’’ Kamara said. “When I can interact with the fans it gives me that extra boost, extra motivation, because it makes you feel like you’re playing for something and you’re appreciated. And that’s what my career has been about.’’
The Revolution struggled to finish again until Hollinger-Janzen headed in a Juan Agudelo cross from 15 yards.
The Revolution have had less than three victories at this point in the season only once before, when they began the 2004 season with a 2-7-3 record.
“This was an important game for us,’’ Heaps said. “The reality is we’ve been playing well, but not 90 minutes well. We needed to put together a complete game.
“It wasn’t our best stuff, it wasn’t our best attacking game, but we didn’t have any deficiencies. It’s important we maximize this home stand.’’
