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Khano Smith scored on a penalty kick to give the Revs a 1-0 win. (CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com). |
Revs’ Coach Steve Nicol again opted to go with a 4-4-2 formation, but with so many absence, he was forced to start several players out of position. Left sided defender Amaechi Igwe got the start on the right side of the defense, while reserve midfielder Chris Tierney started at left back. Phelan got the start in the center of the midfield and Smith start on the left wing.
"We had three minimum salary players, a developmental player, a Generation adidas player, [basically] we had half the reserve team playing tonight and I thought every one of them did a great job," said Nicol. "We never left any holes. [Pachuca] had one chance in the first half where the guy might have scored and they put it wide. After that, there were a couple of half chances but nothing else. We kept a good shape and we still made a couple of chances ourselves. We won the game [thanks to] a stroke of luck with the penalty, but we deserve all we get at the moment because we're working for it."
Despite the weakened lineup, the Revs looked confident going forward early and Jay Heaps looked to have scored the first goal of the match in the 4th minute. The Revs earned a free kick on the left flank when Kenny Mansally was fouled by a Pachuca defender after winning a header. Chris Tierney took the deep free kick, sending a cross into the box, where Heaps looked to have beat the offside trap and headed a shot into the top of the net. Referee Walter Quesada, however, whistled the play offside.
Matt Reis came up big in the 6th minute after Damian Alvarez beat Michael Parkhurst to a through ball and slid in to direct a shot of frame from inside the box. Reis had come forward enough to cut down Alvarez's angle to shoot and managed to block the shot with his body.
Pachuca should have made it 1-0 in the 43rd minute after Alvarez dribbled around Igwe, avoided at tackle from Parkhurst and went alone in the box. Alvarez shot around a charging Reis, but saw his shot go wide of the far post.
Kheli Dube had the Revs best chance in the 48th minute when Mansally found him inside the box. Dube beat his defender and sent a well placed shot to the far post, but Pachuca goalkeeper Miguel Calero got just enough on it to tip it wide.
Alvarez again nearly gave Pachuca the lead in the 69th minute, when he took a shot from over 30 yards out. The Argentinean's effort was barely tipped by Reis, but clanged off the post and went back into play, where Parkhurst managed to clear it.
"That thing was moving all over the place," said Reis. "I got a piece of it, luckily it went off the post and out."
Dube had a great chance in the 82nd minute, when Khano Smith played him in on goal with a nice throughball from near midfield. Dube targeted his shot for the upper right corner, but Calero managed to tip it out for a corner kick.
The Revs had a huge scare in the 84th minute when Phelan was knocked unconscious colliding with Nyassi when trying to head away a corner kick. Phelan was on the field with play stopped for over six minutes before finally being stretchered off the field, still showing little signs of movement. Phelan regained consciousness and was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital for further evaluation. He is believed to have suffered a concussion. Brad Tyler entered the match as a replacement.
"I saw Phelan go up and there were two guys that hit each other," said goalkeeper Matt Reis. "I don't know if it was heads or the ball or what it was, but he was out cold."
The Revs finally got the chance they needed to win the game in the 6th minute of stoppage time, when a Nyassi cross was blocked by a handball from Julio Manzur. Quesada immediately pointed to the spot for a penalty kick. Smith buried it into the right side of the net with Calero diving the wrong way to give the Revs the win. Though Smith doesn't normally take penalties for the Revs, he frequently takes them for the Bermuda National Team.
"It certainly wasn't planned, I can assure you of that," said Nicol. "Shalrie Joseph is the designated penalty taker. If Steve Ralston is not on the field then Shalrie should have taken it. We've gotten away with it because Khano put it away, so it is obviously a good penalty. But had it gone the other way, then we certainly wouldn't have been quite as forgiving."
"Stevie was going nuts," said Smith. "He didn't want me to take it, but I asked Shalrie if I could have it and he said, 'go ahead.' If I would have missed it, I'm sure [Nicol] could have had something to say about it."
The win leaves the Revs at the top of Group B with six points heading into the final group match in Los Angeles against Chivas USA on Saturday.
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