Brandon Bye’s late header gave the New England Revolution a 1-0 win over visiting Nashville SC on Saturday in Foxborough, Mass.
The scoreless match was finally broken open in the 86th minute when Luca Langoni sent a cross into the box. Bye was in position to head the ball into the net for the first goal of the defender’s injury-plagued season.
The victory snapped New England’s five-match (0-3-2) winless streak and kept the team’s faint playoff hopes alive. The Revolution (9-17-4, 31 points) entered Saturday in last place in the Eastern Conference and likely will need to win their remaining four matches to squeak into the postseason.
Nashville SC (8-14-9, 33 points) face a similarly steep climb with three matches remaining on their schedule. Saturday’s loss ended a three-match (2-0-1) unbeaten run for Nashville.
Goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic made four saves for his fourth shutout of the season. Ivacic saved the victory for New England with a huge stop on Hany Mukhtar three minutes into second-half stoppage time.
Muhktar seemingly scored on the follow-up attempt, but the would-be goal was disallowed due to an offsides call.
Nashville SC has a league-low 31 goals and have been shut out 11 times this season.
Bye’s goal came on New England’s lone on-target shot of the match. Despite holding 58.2 percent of the possession, the Revolution had only six total shots against Nashville. Prior to Bye’s goal, Carles Gil’s near-miss in the 23rd minute was the Revs’ best chance.
Nashville’s top opportunities came in the first half, but Ivacic came up big. The goalkeeper blocked Alex Muyl’s close-range attempt in the eighth minute, then after Muyl’s back-heel pass set up Sam Surridge in the 26th minute, Ivacic stopped Surridge’s dangerous strike.
Revolution head coach Caleb Porter was serving a one-match suspension due to yellow card accumulation, so assistant coach Pablo Moreira was the team’s acting head coach on Saturday.
–Field Level Media