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Steve Ralston scored both the Revs' goals in their 2-1 victory Saturday. (Photo credit: Joyce Furia). |
"I think [the match against] Houston and tonight was a more complete performance," said Revs’ coach Steve Nicol. "They are two of the most complete we've had. In between those two we've had a lot a changes and a lot of things disrupting us, but we've managed to get it done. I think tonight we've passed the ball as well as we have all season, but we did make it hard at the end. It's a rotten goal to lose. They never looked like scoring before that, but obviously with 10 minutes to go when a team gets a goal, it's always going to be backs to the wall. We'd rather have kept a clean sheet and made it easier at the end, but we got the three points."
Ralston scored the first of his two goals in the 12th minute. Mauricio Castro combined with Kheli Dube by left corner flag before Dube sent a cross towards the six yard box. Adam Cristman got his head to the ball, but saw his shot hit off the post. Ralston was there making a late run and hit it past goalkeeper Brian Edwards to give the Revs a 1-0 lead.
"It was a glancing header that hit the post and came right back to me," said Ralston. "It was just a tap in. Those have been coming quite frequently lately."
The Revs had another chance in the 22nd minute, on another cross from the left flank. This time Castro sent in the cross and again Cristman got on the end of it. His header, however, was blocked by a Toronto defender.
Cristman turned provider in the 58th minute, picking up the ball off a throw-in and turning his defender before sending a cross into the box. Dube was there at the top of the box and sent a header just wide of the far post.
Ralston doubled the lead in the 59th minute after a Dube shot from near the top of the box deflected off the box and fell to the Revs' captain. Ralston used two cutbacks to open some space in the box before hammering it with his left foot off the far post and into the back of the net, leaving Edwards with no chance. The goal was Ralston's team leading sixth of the season.
"I wanted to hit it first time," said Ralston. "The ball kind of bounced up pretty high. I was trying to cut it back to my right and I thought he was going to block it, so I cut it back to my left.
Toronto pulled one back in the 79th minute when Amado Guevara sent a free kick from about 30 yards out in the direction of Maurice Edu. Edu was challenged by Shalrie Joseph, but the ball was redirected off Joseph's head out of the reach of Matt Reis and into the back of the net to make it 2-1. The own goal was the Revs second in as many games off a free kick.
The club’s all-time leading scorer, Taylor Twellman, came in to loud applause in the 79th for only his second appearance of the season and his first appearance since May 11 when he sprained his ankle quickly after making a return from a knee injury. This time, however, Twellman stayed injury free on his time on the field. Also returning to action for the Revs was striker Kenny Mansally, entering in the 61st minute after being away for over a month with the Gambian national team.
Reis and Michael Parkhurst combined to save the lead in the 88th minute after Jim Brennan came in all alone on the left side of the box on a nice through ball from Jarrod Smith. Brennan's shot was kept out by Reis left arm, but the rebound fell to Smith. With Reis' out of position, Parkhurst was there on the goal line to block Smith's shot. Smith got a head on the ball off of Parkhurst's block, but Reis recovered to make the save and hold on to it.
"[Brennan] was wide open and I tried to go back and help Matt with the initial shot," said Parkhurst. "I just tried to block the back post and Matt got a little bit on it. It went across the box and I kind of just stood there. There wasn't much I could do besides just stand there and he happened to hit it right into me, so I got a little bit lucky there."
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