FOXBOROUGH — The Revolution earned a favorable ruling on a Video Assistant Referee call and stifled the highest-scoring offense in the MLS to take a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City before a Gillette Stadium crowd of 17,015 on Saturday night.
The Revolution (4-2-2, 14 points), off to the second-best start to a season in team history, took the lead as Teal Bunbury’s 44th-minute goal was validated, following an video review ordered by referee David Gantar.
The Revolution have had a faster start to the season once — a 6-0-2 record after eight games in 2005.
Sporting Kansas City (5-2-2, 17 points), which entered the match with a seven-game unbeaten streak and the league’s best record, struggled to create chances, but nearly equalized as Johnny Russell’s 63rd-minute shot was cleared off the line.
The scoring play led to controversy, as Bunbury appeared to be in an offside position as he received the ball, most of the players stopping as a linesman’s flag had been raised.
“A lot of times what happens with players, especially in a situation where everyone sees where the player is offside, everyone kind of stops,’’ Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. “Not saying that’s an excuse, but that happens. The linesman has his flag up, Teal turns around and just kicks it in the net and now they’re checking on it. The part I don’t know is if they ever made a call one way or another.’’
Bunbury finished from point-blank range, his fourth goal of the season, the play initially negated because offside.
The sequence started as Juan Agudelo outmaneuvered two opponents, sailing by a sliding Jimmy Medranda at the halfway line, advancing to the left side of the penalty area. Agudelo held possession, then found Fagundez in the penalty arc, Roger Espinoza challenging from behind. The video replay apparently determined Espinoza touched forward to Bunbury.
But Espinoza said he actually hit Fagundez’s foot, not the ball, which would mean either a foul on Espinoza or an offside call.
“I saw Fagundez going to hit the ball, so I just challenged for the ball,’’ Espinoza said. “I can’t really tell what exactly happened, I just remember hitting the bottom of his cleat and he was going to shoot and the ball went through.
“Did I think it was the right call? It doesn’t really matter — I thought he was offsides, but I don’t make the rules here,’’ Espinoza said. “If I would have hit the ball, yeah, but I hit the bottom of his cleat. And he was in the full motion of swinging, so he kind of hit it and I hit the back of his cleats, so we challenged the ball at the same time. They should’ve called the foul then, right?’’
Fagundez was initially credited with an assist.
“It was an ugly goal, but at the end of the day we’ll take that ugly goal,’’ Fagundez said. “I was 100 percent, I told Teal right away don’t even worry about it, it’s a goal. “
“The referee said we have to review it we have to see if it was offside, and it was clear that I didn’t go to shoot or pass it.’’
“I didn’t have to appeal it, I knew the referee was going to do his job and give us the goal, but in this league you never know what could happen. But at least we finished the play out and we’re coming out with a win.’’
The Revolution defended well against Russell, who has scored five goals this season, three in a 6-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps last week.
Russell had a near-post shot saved by Matt Turner 10 seconds into the contest, then nearly equalized in the second half.
But the Revolution had most of the best chances, Gabriel Somi firing on the left and Cristian Penilla breaking through several times on the left wing. Andrew Farrell cleared Russell’s shot off the line, then moved into the attack as the Revolution produced threats on the outside.
A Fagundez 80th-minute goal off a Krisztian Nemeth shot off the post was disallowed after Nemeth was called for handling.
“[SKC] changed the way they play, they went very, very direct because they knew we were going to press them,’’ said Revolution coach Brad Friedel, who believed the goal should have been allowed.
“I saw the linesman put the flag up – I thought it was offside,’’ Friedel said. “Then, when you look, it came off their player so I believe video review got it correct.’’
“I got a little glimpse of it but people tell me it was the correct decision.’’
Said Vermes: “It’s not clear and obvious who kicked the ball. Roger is wearing orange shoes and Fagundez is wearing green and the orange shoe is in front of the green. It’s a hard thing to say, you just have to chalk it up and say it’s a learning lesson. I think VAR is good for the game but we’re going to go through these growing pains because I don’t actually understand what happened.’’
