The New England Revolution wasted no time getting a goal in Saturday night's home match against the Seattle Sounders, taking a 1-0 lead thanks to a Saer Sene strike in the 12th minute. The goal was Sene's eighth of the season, tying him for the highest goal tally by a Revolution player since 2007.
Sene received the ball in midfield and played in Blake Brettschneider with a deft touch. Brettschneider dribbled through two defenders and tried a shot, but had it blocked. He collected his own rebound, made his way to the byline and crossed low for Sene, who had a simple tap in on the goal line.
The goal was a controversial one because replays appeared to show that Sene was clearly offside when Brettschneider played the cros. Regardless, the linesman saw nothing wrong with it and the goal stood.
New England has had the better of the play so far, creating a couple of half chances and generally looking crisp in their passing. Interestingly, Jay Heaps decided not to go with a stock 4-4-2 formation. In an attempt to get all of his top talent on the field simultaneously, Heaps ran out a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation. Shalrie Joseph and Clyde Simms are the two holding midfielders with Benny Feilhaber playing an advanced role as a central playmaker. Blake Brettschneider is the lone striker, playing a target role, while Saer Sene (right) and Lee Nguyen (left) play the wings.
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