The New England Revolution have managed to hold onto their early 1-0 lead against the Portland Timbers this afternoon in front of an exuberant home crowd at Gillette Stadium. Frenchman Saer Sene opened the scoring just 28 seconds into the match, getting his head onto a Chris Tierney cross and finishing well over Troy Perkins for the Revs' first goal of 2012. The goal also tied for the 8th-fastest scored in league history.
Due to an injury crisis in defense, the Revs have started captain Shalrie Joseph in central defense, and the Grenadian has acquitted himself well, winning headers and leading the back line. He even found time to wind the clocks back a bit and make an athletic play to prevent Kris Boyd from a certain goal in the latter stages of the first half.
Lee Nguyen and Kelyn Rowe both had good chances to extend the home side's lead, but were unable to convert. Boyd himself has had several looks for the visitors, but his usually-lethal accuracy appears to have remained behind in Portland because he has botched some pretty easy chances.
Timbers defender Hanyer Mosquera had to leave the match in the 23rd minute after possibly breaking his nose in a collision with Blake Brettschneider. He was replaced by Andrew Jean-Baptiste.