Big crowd leaves home opener disappointed

“It’s tough. We have a great crowd today and it’s our home opener and we’re on the wrong end of a loss and a result that we didn’t want,” new head coach Caleb Porter said. “I’m encouraged by the way the team played, especially in the second half. There’s a lot of good in there and we need to keep a perspective. We need to stick to the process.”

The hosts were without both the injured Bobby Wood and Giacomo Vrioni, who was suspended because of his red card in last Saturday’s loss at D.C. United. Forced to shuffle up front, Porter put Tomás Chancalay at striker and retained Carles Gil, who was removed at halftime of Thursday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup victory with a tight Achilles’.

The Revolution came out strong and active, but squandered their best chances and were denied a potential penalty in the 22nd minute. Esmir Bajraktarevic went down in the penalty area after Toronto’s Deybi Flores stepped on his left foot, but no call was made by the match’s replacement referee Wesley Costa — the empasse between the league and officials’ union continues.

A penalty was again denied on review, with video showing Flores knocking the ball away before he made contact with Bajraktarevic.

“The referee observed the defender cleanly playing the ball, and no foul was committed,” Costa told a pool reporter.

Not five minutes later, Toronto took the lead. Federico Bernardeschi took the ball near the right corner of the penalty area, switched to his left foot, and had a shot blocked by New England’s Dave Romney. The ball caromed across the box to Insigne, who just missed the post with a screamer earlier in the half. Given space to work by Andrew Farrell and spying Ravas slightly off his line at the near post, Insigne lofted beyond Ravas’s reach and into the far side netting.

“We started bright. We started with energy. We were kind of knocking on the door to score. We had a couple good moments, I think, where we should score. We have to find a goal with our positive play in those first 20 minutes,” Porter said. “And then, Insigne pulls a rabbit out of a hat and finds a world-class goal. . . . It’s an unbelievable play out of him. Those type of goals happen in this sport and we have to respond better when that happens.”

It was Toronto’s first goal of the year after it opened with a scoreless draw at FC Cincinnati last Sunday. Their 26 goals in 34 MLS matches last season tied for worst in the league.

With Toronto folding into its defensive shell, New England dominated possession the rest of the way, ending with 19 shots to Toronto’s eight and all 11 corners awarded in the match. The Revolution didn’t force Toronto keeper Sean Johnson into a second-half save until the 72nd minute, however, and Matt Turner’s backup for the United States at the 2022 World Cup was up to the challenge.

He stretched to the top corner to keep out Carles Gil’s curler from 25 yards, denied Nacho Gil’s header in the 80th, but was at his best three minutes into stoppage time. Carles Gil fed from deep left in the penalty area back toward the middle, Chancalay touching on to a closing Matt Polster. Polster carried to the top of the box and fired low toward the bottom corner.

Johnson, who’d been leaning left, reacted back across his body and got a right hand on the shot, which flew harmless over the crossbar.

The Revolution are back to Champions Cup play Wednesday — part of a run of eight games in 26 days to begin the season — when they host Central American Cup champions Liga Deportiva Alajuelense in the first leg of their Round of 16 meeting. (They’ll again be without Vrioni, who accumulated two yellows in the opening round.) Their next MLS match is Saturday at Atlanta United.

Sunday’s announced crowd of 29,293 trailed only the 32,864 at the team’s inaugural home game on April 27, 1996. It easily outpaced their prior Gillette Stadium opener record of 22,006 from May 11, 2002 — the first event at the new stadium, then known as CMGI Field.