Sweeney: Bunbury, Penilla did as they were told, and made a difference

FOXBOROUGH — Over the season-plus of Brad Friedel’s tenure as Revolution manager, fans lamented — constantly lamented — the gaffer’s substitution patterns. It was flummoxing to many, hair-losing to some, and for more than a few, caused sales at their local package store to skyrocket on Saturday nights.

And on a few occasions so far during the start of the Bruce Arena Era, that has happened, too: some have wanted to tap Arena on the shoulder and say, “Hey, you know you can use all three subs, right?”

On Saturday, Arena did get to use all three — part in parcel of the Revolution coming away with a 2-1 win over visiting Houston.

The first came in the 57th minute, as Diego Fagundez — who has still yet to score in 2019, but came close early — came off in favor of Teal Bunbury. Bunbury, who went the full 90 on Wednesday, got right into the action.

“(The coaches) just said go out and make a difference,” Bunbury said afterward.

Four minutes later, Arena subbed Cristian Penilla on for Homegrown striker Justin Rennicks. The South Hamilton native didn’t have a bad game for his first MLS start, but with the Dynamo looking like they were starting to grow fatigued, the Revolution needed some fiery pace to ignite the game. After all, it was 1-1, and this was a Houston team that had already played 180 minutes of football in the previous seven days.

“(Houston) hit the wall a little bit physically the last 30 minutes and it showed,” Arena said.

The duo of Bunbury and Penilla were needed, and both had quite the hand — well, foot — in the win.

Penilla would use his moves and touches to break free in that left channel, testing Dynamo goalkeeper Joe Willis’ reflexes. A couple, he wound up putting into the side netting in front of The Fort.

Another, Willis charged off his line and stopped. It looked pretty bleak at that point.

And Bunbury wasn’t having much luck, either. He had cleared a 64th-minute corner by Houston, getting deep in the defense. Four minutes later, Bunbury had a go from a rather tough angle after Juan Fernando Caicedo had a stellar effort on the ball, even while getting mugged by a Houston defender. That go went high.

Bunbury would lay off a volley to Juan Agudelo. The ensuing shot didn’t have a lot behind it, and Willis saved it.

A few minutes later, DeJuan Jones found Bunbury’s noggin. Bunbury put the ball over the bar. Getting closer.

And the Revolution finally broke through just a few seconds into second-half stoppage time, with Penilla and Bunbury connecting to pop it in. Penilla raced through traffic and drew Willis to him.

At the far post was Bunbury. He left-footed it in, and that gave the Revolution three necessary points.

“(Their performances were) very good,” praised Arena. “Cristian was a handful. Teal's such a smart player and can play effectively on both sides of the ball. He's a very good player, he can play a number of positions on the field, he just helps our team; he's a smart player. He's technically good, he's a great teammate on and off the field. So, you know, really pleased with that.

“Cristian, we’ll continue to work with him, and certainly bringing him into a game with 30 minutes left and you need a goal. He's a tough guy to deal with so you know I thought he did an outstanding job tonight.”

“It was a lot of work,” Bunbury said. “First of all, from all the guys from the first minute. I mean, it wasn't our prettiest game, but guys put the work in, and Houston's a good team that came out to play. You come into games and you want to make an impact, whether you're starting or coming off the bench, and I think everybody did well. But yeah, we had a few chances; all of us did. And that for me is all Penilla's work. I mean, he took on two, three guys, drove the keeper out with him, was able to chop it back. And I had all the time in the world to kind of just make sure I was getting it on target.

“Any time you come in, you want to make an impact defensively, and offensively. You want to lift the spirits of the guys a little bit. And that was my job: to go in there and try to work my tail off into to try to win the game.”

Right after the goal, Arena subbed Jalil Anibaba on for Carles Gil — a smart, defensive tactical substitution that hasn’t been seen in these parts in some time -- and Anibaba helped preserve the win in stoppage time.

Especially with the Dynamo chasing the game, desperately looking for an equalizer that wouldn’t come.