FRISCO, Texas – Juan Agudelo gave the visiting New England Revolution a perfect start with a sixth-minute goal in Tuesday night’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final against FC Dallas.
Gershon Koffie’s interception in midfield and incisive pass to Agudelo kick-started the sequence, while Agudelo’s clever turn and powerful finish precipitated a celebration with the traveling support.
Unfortunately the early strike only served to wake up the hosts, who responded with three goals before the halftime whistle en route to an eventual 4-2 win and an Open Cup title.
New England’s reaction to taking an early lead left them frustrated at the final whistle.
“It was a dream start,” said Lee Nguyen, who was also involved in the buildup to the opener. “Unfortunately if you don’t keep playing that game and keep attacking, Dallas has enough players that they’re going to hurt you. They’re very good on set pieces and it cost us the cup.”
“We got the early goal and I felt like even if we just held on a little bit longer, we would’ve had more motivation and more belief to win the game,” said Agudelo. “We just let them back in a little bit too easily and a little bit too quickly.”
FCD equalized through Maxi Urruti in the 15th minute before grabbing the lead for good in the 40th minute. New England was then forced to make a pair of injury-related substitutions – both Koffie (ankle) and Je-Vaughn Watson (groin) exiting the match – before Mauro Diaz buried a penalty in first-half stoppage time.
The Revolution looked briefly like a comeback might be on the cards as they began the second half brightly, but Urruti struck again in the 61st minute to put the result beyond doubt.
A second goal from Agudelo in the 73rd minute – his fourth in the past three games – offered the young forward scant consolation as he processed the difficult loss postgame.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Agudelo said. “I know when I’m older, I’m going to remember this, that we just let it slip through our fingers when we were up 1-0.”
Agudelo and the Revs will take Tuesday night to lick their wounds following a second cup final loss in less than two years, but they’ll have to quickly turn their attention back to league play as they’ll head directly to Montreal on Wednesday morning ahead of Saturday night’s critical meeting with the Impact.
The Revs have pulled themselves back into the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference with wins in their past two league matches, making this weekend’s trip to Stade Saputo critically important with just five games remaining in the regular season.
“We’ve got to process [the loss] and learn from it,” said Nguyen. “This was a big stage, so hopefully the guys learn and when we come up to this stage again, we’ll be better. But we’ve got a big game against Montreal this weekend and it’s like the past two weeks – it’s do or die.”
“What happened, happened,” Agudelo said. “We’re upset, but we have to have a very short memory because we have a huge game on Saturday. Everybody’s got to stay focused for that one.”
