FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts – Seeing as the New England Revolution are the runaway leaders in the MLS standings and boast the best home record in the league, FC Cincinnati could have been forgiven for dropping points at Gillette Stadium.
FC Cincinnati didn't just drop points, though. FCC was dominated by New England in a 4-1 rout Saturday at Gillette before an announced crowd of 18,260
The loss saw FC Cincinnati move to 10 straight matches without a win, and 3-8-8 overall in 2021.
Meanwhile, New England's run atop the race for the MLS Supporters Shield, which is awarded to the team with the best regular season record, continued as the Revolution improved to 15-3-4.
At the close of business on Saturday night, New England had a 17-point lead on second-place Nashville SC in the Eastern Conference standings.
Tajon Buchanan, who has been linked with an eventual multi-million dollar move to a European club, opened the scoring for New England in the seventh minute.
Buchanan then assisted on Ema Boateng's goal for 2-0 14 minutes later.
Adam Buksa tripped himself, recovered and still managed to bang in a third for New England as the hosts took a 3-0 lead into halftime, and they wouldn't look back.
In the 55th minute, Brenner Souza da Silva scored to cap a noticeably improved 15-minute spell of pressure at the outset of the second half. Brenner's fifth of the year gave FCC a window of opportunity to climb back into the match, but New England quickly slammed the window shut.
Buksa scored his second of the night just six minutes later to restore the hosts' three-goal lead and settle the host side down.
From there, New England made seemingly easy work of closing out the victory. By the 80th minute, Revolution supporters had seen enough and were heading for the exits.
The Enquirer will update this story.
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts – Welcome to Cincinnati.com's live coverage of FC Cincinnati versus New England Revolution, the leaders in the race for the MLS Supporters Shield. Refresh this page throughout the match for live updates and analysis, and follow Enquirer FC Cincinnati beat reporter Pat Brennan for additional updates on Twitter (@PBrennanENQ).
In-match updates:
• 61st minute – GOAL, New England Revolution (4-1): Adam Buksa.
• 55th minute – GOAL, FC Cincinnati (3-1): Brenner Souza da Silva scored his fifth of the year to put FCC on the board. Luciano Acosta notched his fifth assist of 2021 on the play.
• Halftime: New England Revolution 3, FC Cincinnati 0.
• 33rd minute – GOAL, New England Revolution (3-0): Adam Buksa.
• 21st minute – GOAL, New England Revolution (2-0): Ema Boateng.
• 7th minute – GOAL, New England Revolution (1-0): Tajon Buchanan
• Match underway around 8:10 p.m.
Pre-match updates:
• FC Cincinnati starting XI (bench): Przemysław Tytoń (GK), Nick Hagglund, Geoff Cameron, Gustavo Vallecilla, Ronald Matarrita, Yuya Kubo, Haris Medunjanin, Florian Valot, Luciano Acosta, Alvaro Barreal, Brenner Souza da Silva (Isaac Atanga, Edgar Castillo, Avionne Flanagan, Kamohelo Mokotjo, Quimi Ordonez, Caleb Stanko, Brandon Vazquez, Kenneth Vermeer).
