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CONCACAF Champions League…’Jackie Chan’ Richardson on fire as Joe Public FC shut out New England
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Led by Guyanese ‘Golden Jaguar’ Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, Joe Public FC advanced to the CONCACAF Champions League group stage with a 4-0 victory against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Tuesday night.
Joe Public FC forward Gregory Richardson, centre, scores a goal past New England Revolution defender Amaechi Igwe, left, and goalie Matt Reis
Richardson burned up the turf, scoring a hat-trick and Roen Nelson added a goal as Joe Public became the first Caribbean team to advance past an MLS team in a CONCACAF club competition, winning the two-leg series 6-1 on aggregate after a 2-1 victory last week in Trinidad and Tobago. They also became the first Caribbean club to score three goals or more in a single match in CONCACAF competition against an American club, thanks to the prolific Richardson.
Revs head coach Steve Nicol had nary a striker to name in his starting lineup with Taylor Twellman (cheek), Adam Cristman (toe), Kheli Dube (adductor) and Kenny Mansally (ankle) all out. Khano Smith partnered reserve striker Brandon Manzonelli up top. Michael Parkhurst had the night off as Gabriel Badilla and Amaechi Igwe partnered in the center of defense.
The Revs attack had a makeshift look to it and it showed in the opening stages as the team struggled to get forward. Some neat interplay helped the Revs keep possession, but there wasn’t much in the way of danger in the early stages.
Joe Public looked content to hit the Revs on the break with their pace. That tactic paid off after 17 minutes. Wolry Wolfe collected a loose ball in midfield and slipped a ball through the Revs backline. Richardson surged through Igwe and Badilla, latched on the pass and deposited into the far side netting to give Joe Public a shock lead.
Needing a minimum of two goals to force extra time, New England started to inch forward in search of goals. Combination play from Wells Thompson and Manzonelli created a corner kick opportunity that ended up astray.
Shalrie Joseph should have tied the score after 36 minutes after Jay Heaps played a ball into his run. Joseph walked in along the byeline, but dragged his shot wide from a tight angle.
Joe Public hadn’t given up on getting the killer second goal on the counterattack. Wolfe forced Reis to palm over the bar minutes before the break.
Richardson scored the second on the stroke of halftime to effectively end the tie. Richardson collected from a throw-in on the right side of the penalty area, skipped around Badilla and shot high to the near post past the cheating Reis to place his goal on the highlight reels. The goal sent the Revs from the field to the boos of the Gillette Stadium faithful as all hope had gone in the first 45 minutes.
Things didn’t improve after the break as Joe Public added their third after three minutes. Nelson missed a boatload of chances in the first leg down in Trinidad, but rectified that with a simple finish here. Richardson again provided the impetus as he cut inside and pulled back for Nelson to sidefoot past Reis from just outside the area.
The Revs improved a bit after the third goal with the game well and truly gone, pushing up the field. Joseph went off for a substitute with Saturday’s match in Columbus in Steve Nicol’s mind, but chances were still hard to find.
Richardson added his third when Silan Spann created some space for him and he finished to the far post with a thumping strike to end the scoring. But the night ended in misery for Heaps after he was issued his second yellow card in the 90th minute to cap performance the Revs will likely soon hope to forget.
Joe Public advances to the quarter-final round of the Champions League series’ Group C with Mexico’s Atlante, Olimpia of Honduras and the winner of the Montreal-Real Esteli (Nicaragua) series.
The eight preliminary round winners advance to the 16-team group stage of the tournament, which replaced the CONCACAF Champions Cup. MLS’s Houston Dynamo and D.C. United received automatic berths in the group stage, which opens Sept. 16.
(MLS website)
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