FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - New England ensured that there would be no giant killing on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium as two early goals helped the Revolution advance to the semifinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a 2-1 over the Harrisburg City Islanders.
New England stamped its name on the game early as Andy Dorman opened the scoring in the fourth minute with his left footed volley before Taylor Twellman added a second in the 17th minute from a Pat Noonan feed.
Matt Tanzini rifled home spectacularly from 30 yards in the 78th minute to throw the City Islanders (USL 2) a lifeline, but the visitors could not find the second goal to send the tie into extra time.
The performance from the Eastern Conference leaders was professional, if not alluring, in dispatching a City Islanders club that beat D.C. United in the third round. With the victory, New England advances to face the Carolina Railhawks (USL 1) in the semifinals on Sept. 4 at Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Conn.
Revolution head coach Steve Nicol shifted James Riley to center back and gave Avery John a start at left back to compensate for Michael Parkhurst's injury. Nicol made one tactical change, inserting Wells Thompson in place of Khano Smith.
Harrisburg head coach Bill Becher left former MLS players Michael Lookingland and Jani Galik on the bench but started with leading goalscorers (six each in USL 2 play) Mo Oduor, Brian Ombiji and Steve Fisher, who dumped D.C. United out of the Open Cup with his goal in the quarterfinals.
Four minutes into the contest, the favored Revoution had the ball in the net. Dorman applied the simple volleyed finish with his left foot from a Shalrie Joseph feed after being given far too much space 12 yards from goal.
Twellman turned his glancing header from a Wells cross into the far corner on 12 minutes, but the offside flag ruled out the effort.
But Twellman added the inevitable second after a piece of slack defending by the City Islanders. Dorman played a simple ball on to the run of Noonan on the right side of the penalty area. Noonan's low cross provided a simple tap-in finish for Twellman.
Dorman was active in a game that started off with physical intensity, instigated by Thompson, which tapered off as the first half as progressed.
New England held the majority of possession and continued to create chances, with Dorman missing wide on 22 minutes and a promising buildup by Noonan negated by the offside flag before the break.
It was more of the same after the halftime interval as Twellman's 48th minute header from a Ralston corner kick was cleared off the line at the far post by David Schofield.
Joseph should have done better with his header from a free kick on 69 minutes, but the defensive midfielder saw the attempt skim off his head and wide from inside the goal area.
New England had slipped into cruise control mode and Tanzini made them pay in the 78th minute with a goal worthy of the highest levels. His 30-yard strike was hit with pace and direction into the upper right hand corner of the net to shock Matt Reis in the Revolution net and put the City Islanders in with a chance to send the match to extra time.
Harrisburg sent players forward in an attempt to scrounge up an equalizer and had most of the play in the final 10 minutes. But their efforts took a major blow when Anthony Calvano was sent off in the 90th minute after barging into Reis, starting a massive scrum in the Revolution penalty area. The Harrisburg attack fizzled in stoppage time and New England killed off the match and sealed its place in the semifinals by killing off the remainder of the contest.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
