FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution will open play in the 2007 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday, July 10, when the team travels to face the Rochester Rhinos of the United Soccer Leagues First Division (USL-1) at PAETEC Park in Rochester. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7:35 p.m.
A live audio broadcast of the game will be available at revolutionsoccer.net.
Entering the tournament - America's oldest cup competition - in the third round, the Revs will face the Rhinos for the second year in a row and for the fourth time overall in Open Cup play.
The two teams played in the fourth round of the 2006 Open Cup, with the Revolution advancing to the quarterfinals behind a 4-3 victory in penalty kicks. After the two teams played a 0-0 draw after extra time, Revs midfielder Jeff Larentowicz struck the game-winning penalty attempt in the seventh round of kicks and the Revs moved on to face the Chicago Fire in the quarterfinals. The Revs hold a slight 1-0-2 edge in meetings against Rochester in U.S. Open Cup matches.
New England is 5-6-2 all-time in the Open Cup, advancing to the final of the event in 2001 where the team fell to Los Angeles, 2-1, in overtime.
Rochester advanced to the third round of the 2007 Open Cup after earning a 2-1 victory in extra time over USL Second Division member Western Mass Pioneers on Tuesday, June 26, at PAETEC Park. Western Mass took a 1-0 lead into the final 10 minutes of regulation, but Rochester scored in the 83rd minute to pull even before netting the game-winning strike in the final minute of the first extra time session. The Rhinos out-shot the Pioneers 40-5 in the game.
The winner of the New England-Rochester third-round match face the winner of the D.C. United-Harrisburg City Islanders (USL-2) third-round game.
The U.S. Open Cup has existed for more than 80 years and incorporates American soccer clubs of every level - ranging from Major League Soccer pro teams to the amateur leagues. The annual event, which began in 1914, also ranks among the oldest cup competitions in the world. The single-eliminations tournament was born as the National Challenge Cup, and was modeled after England's Football Association Cup.
