Daniel Gazdag’s goal in the third minute of second-half stoppage time secured the New England Revolution a dramatic 2-1 victory over New York City FC on Wednesday night at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y.
Gazdag delivered a perfect strike from the top of the box out of the reach of NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese’s diving attempt to stop it. The play was set up off a long cross from Ilay Feingold and helped New England (12-8-4, 40 points) avoid what would have been a second 1-1 stalemate with NYCFC (7-9-8, 29 points) in a span of 17 days.
It was Gazdag’s first goal since joining the Revolution and came just moments after he had appeared to score the go-ahead goal, but had that tally wiped off the board by an offside call.
Feingold fired the ball toward the goal and it bounced off New York City’s Thiago Martins as he tried to angle it to Freese. But Freese came out to stop the ball and it got behind both players allowing Gazdag to fire it into the empty net.
After review, Gazdag was ruled to have been offside.
New York City FC dominated most of the match, but struggled to find the back of the net until Luighi’s equalizer in the 71st minute.
Nicolas Fernandez-Mercau set up the score by working the ball near the box and feeding it to Hannes Wolf at the far left corner. Wolf sent the ball in, but it was controlled by New England’s Brooklyn Raines. Fernandez-Mercau stole the ball and then crossed it perfectly to Luighi, who buried it past New England goalkeeper Matt Turner.
It was Luighi’s third goal in his sixth MLS game.
Carles Gil converted a penalty kick to put New England ahead 1-0 in the 12th minute after NYCFC committed a handball inside its own 18-yard box.
Gil was able to get the shot past NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese after Freese denied him on another PK attempt the last time the teams met on Aug. 23.
–Field Level Media
