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Guevara's 2 goals lift Toronto FC over Revolution

May 23, 2009 - 11:41 PM By IAN HARRISON STATS MLS Correspondent

TORONTO (STATS) - Coach Chris Cummins didn't feel his Toronto team played as well as they could on Saturday. Against struggling New England, they didn't have to.

Amado Guevara scored twice and Dwayne De Rosario added a goal as Toronto FC beat New England 3-1 and stretched the Revolution's winless streak to six games.

"I don't think it was a great game," Cummins said. "We've played better and lost and played better and drawn."

Guevara scored with a hard shot from the edge of the area in the first half, then looped a free kick into the far corner in the second half, giving him a team-high five goals.

De Rosario scored on a second-half breakaway for Toronto (4-3-4), which has lost once in six games. Shalrie Joseph scored for New England (2-3-4), which has not won since beating FC Dallas at home April 4.

Toronto striker Danny Dichio, who played a part in all three goals, agreed with his coach that the team could have been better.

"We haven't played to the best of our abilities today and we've got a 3-1 win," Dichio said. "We've played much better in certain games and haven't got a result."

Dichio credited a resilient attitude for Toronto's highest-scoring home game this season.

"We never gave up, we kept pushing and pushing," he said. "We didn't wait for that second goal to happen, we made it happen."

Joseph said he's losing patience with New England's mental mistakes and lack of focus.

"We play great in spurts," he said. "We look like a great team that could beat anybody and then sometimes we just lose focus, we lose concentration at what's going on. That's what's so frustrating for me and so frustrating for a lot of my teammates. We don't put it together for all 90 minutes."

Joseph and Steve Ralston started up front for the second straight game, part of coach Steve Nicol's plan to boost New England's stagnant offense.

"We've made more chances today than we have done all season but we haven't taken them," Nicol said. "It can catch up with you and it did today."

The Revolution had scored an MLS-low seven goals entering the game, but took a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute when Joseph met Chris Tierney's cross and sent a glancing header into the far corner. It was Joseph's team-leading third goal and New England's second first-half score of the season.

"It was a perfect ball," Joseph said. "(Tierney) couldn't have found me better. It was an easy chance, put it that way. He put it in a perfect spot and I just had to run onto it and get enough on it that it went in the corner."

Toronto tied it 80 seconds later when Guevara took a short pass from Dichio at the edge of the penalty box and blistered a high shot over the hands of goaltender Matt Reis.

Dichio was also the playmaker on Toronto's second goal, sending De Rosario in all alone with a pass from the center circle. The speedy winger did the rest, racing into the area and scoring with a low shot under the defenseless Reis.

Joseph should have added a second before the break, but took too long to shoot after he was left wide open inside the box.

"It was my fault that I didn't finish that," Joseph said. "We should have been 2-1 up. I let my teammates down by not burying that goal."

Guevara sealed it in the 70th minute with a long free kick that bounced over a leaping Dichio, momentarily confusing Reis, and went in at the far post.

Reis returned to New England's lineup after missing last week's game against Colorado because of a concussion.

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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com.