By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com
FOXBORO -- At some point, missed opportunities must turn into goals.
The New England Revolution were holding onto that theory for dear life on Saturday night against the Seattle Sounders at Gillette Stadium. It was a theory that eventually turned out to be true, turning into a 3-1 Revolution win, which snapped a four-game losing skid.
Chris Tierney found himself on both ends of that theory, and just one minute after he failed to put in what looked like, from the press box at least, a "gimme" goal out front of Seattle's net, the Revs midfielder scored his first career MLS goal and tied the game at 1-1 in the 70th minute.
Tierney followed that up by setting up Marko Perovic for New England's second goal in the 73rd minute.
And even though Perovic' goal stood as the game-winner, following Kheli Dube's 81st minute strike into the top-left corner, the night belonged to Tierney, who turned tragedy into triumph after failing to put away an open-netter on the left post in the 69th minute.
"It's fine, you know, I don't really measure my game by goals, to be honest," said Tierney after the win. "But it's always good to get on the score sheet. I'm happy to get the first one in, so I get that zero off the stat sheet. But, you know, it's just about the performance tonight. I think, all around, we were pretty good tonight. We deserved to win, so I'm happy we did."
Tierney's first career goal came on a header from the exact same spot where he had tripped over a ball just a minute earlier. Kevin Alston made a deep throw-in from the right sideline that was sent over to the left post by Shalrie Joseph from the top of the box. Tierney quickly reacted and put it in the net, tying the game at 1-1, and making up for his previous attempt.
"On the first one, I realized they kind of weren't tracking that back-post run," said Tierney. "I knew Shalrie's always going to mix it up in there, and things happen when he's in there throwing his body around. So I was just hoping another chance would come, and luckily it did. You can't miss two of those, I guess."
The goal came after Seattle midfielder Steve Zakuani put the Sounders up 1-0 in the 59th minute, beating a diving Matt Reis with an uncontested shot from the top of the box.
At the time, the goal was devastating, given the fact that New England had four shots on net in a scoreless first half, but nothing to show for it.
"We felt we were kind of pushing it, which we wanted to do," said Nicol. "We had some chances, and couldn't take them. And obviously going one behind was disappointing to say the least, but again, the players just kept pushing."
After Tierney's game-tying goal in the 70th minute, the midfielder created another big play by dribbling the ball at the top of the box, with his back to the net. His patience was enough to let Perovic come in and take over, slipping the ball past Sounders goalkeeper Kasey Keller from the right post, as several Seattle defenders were caught out of position after trying to take the ball from Tierney.
Then, in the 81st minute, Dube scored his first goal of the season, sealing the deal on the Revs' seventh win of the season.
Dube and forward Ilija Stolica made Seattle's defense look foolish, as Dube took the ball down the right side of the field, and flipped a ball up to Stolica at the top of the box. Stolica, with his back to the net, then turned around and sent a nice lead pass into the box, where Dube finished the give-and-go by plastering a ball into the top-left corner for the 3-1 lead.
"It's been a long time coming," said Dube. "It feels good."
And so does Saturday night's win, which, would have never been the result, had Tierney not completely shifted the momentum.
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard