Vrioni scores Revolution rally winner to give Toronto FC another road loss

Substitute Giacomo Vrioni scored the winner as the New England Revolution rallied on Saturday to beat Toronto FC 2-1, setting a franchise record for the longest undefeated home run to open a season.

Lorenzo Insigne scored for Toronto in the 90th minute, a shot on target, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

New England (10-3-6) improved to 7-0-3 at Gillette Stadium, beating its opponents 23-9 in Major League Soccer this year. The Revs have also won three straight and are undefeated in six games (3-0-3).

Toronto (3-7-10) has slipped to 0-6-4 in league games this season and has won just four of 44 games (4-29-11) away from home since the start of the 2021 season.

Saturday’s game completed a trio of games for Toronto against the top teams in the league. TFC came to visit Nashville, who started second overall in the league on June 10, tied 1–1.

Both teams entered the game with a depleted roster, with Toronto missing 11 players through injury or international duty. TFC could only manage a seven-player bench.

Third-string Toronto goaltender Greg Ranjitsingh started for the second game in a row, with starter Sean Johnson and backup Tomas Romero away with USA and El Salvador respectively. His midweek start at Cincinnati was his first in the league since September 2020 and only the sixth of his career.

Kerr opens the scoring

Toronto took the lead in the 11th minute on a well-placed header from Deandre Kerr. Insigne found Cristian Gutierrez in the Revs penalty area and the fullback, making his first start for Toronto, sent a perfect cross to Kerr to finish for his third of the season.

In fact, Bobby Wood pulled New England back in the 33rd minute after Matt Hedges’ attempt at a clearing header went straight to the USA international. Wood, using Gutierrez as a screen, beat Ranjitsingh at short end with the Revs’ first shot on target for his seventh goal of the season.

New England appeared to have taken the lead in the 41st minute on Gustavo Bou’s daring heel, diverting Brandon Bye’s low cross past Ranjitsingh, but the offside flag was raised.

Both sides withdrew star players at half-time, with Bou and Toronto’s Federico Bernardeschi not taking the field for the second half.

Italian Giacomo Vrioni, replacing Bou, put New England ahead in the 52nd minute. Wood controlled a long ball and sent a cross over those two defenders on its way to elude Vrioni, who moved to the right to make room for a low angle shot that beat Ranjitsingh.

It was the former Juventus man’s fourth goal of the season, one of New England’s designated players.

The Revs could have extended the lead three minutes later after Insigne lost the ball in midfield. As the Italian stood transfixed, apparently unhappy by a teammate’s pass, Carles Gil charged down the field. He found Woods, whose shot was stopped by Ranjitsingh.

New England goalkeeper Jordje Petrovic, back from international duty with Serbia, made a superb one-handed save to deny Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty in the 72nd minute, after a fine feed from Insigne.

Bradley brought in Sigurd Rosted, Shane O’Neill and Themi Antonoglou to open the second half and retool his defence.

Hedges returned to the starting line-up after a two-match absence, but only lasted one half.

New England missed defenseman DeJuan Jones, who is away with the US national team. Dylan Borrero, Nacho Gil, Henry Kessler, Brazilian Maciel, Christian Makoun and Tommy McNamara were injured.

New England won 2-0 when the teams met at BMO Field on May 6.

Toronto will host Real Salt Lake this Saturday.

CF Montreal, Charlotte FC play to scoreless draw

Jonathan Sirois finished with four saves to visit CF Montreal, Kristijan Kahlina saved three shots for Charlottte FC and the two clubs drew scoreless on Saturday night.

Montreal is only 1-8-2 in its 11 road games this season and was outscored 24-5. Only the 1998 Miami Fusion and 2017 Real Salt Lake clubs had worse differentials over 10 games (minus-20).

Charlotte is 5-1-4 in her last 10 home games in all competitions. Montreal is the only team to shut out Charlotte in the run-up.

Charlotte beat Montreal 13-9 with a 4-3 lead in shots on target.

Montreal returns home on Saturday to host New York City FC. Charlotte is lazy.