BOSTON – The New England Revolution suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Charlotte Independence on Wednesday night at Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium, eliminating the Revs from the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the Fourth Round. Charlotte scored the lone goal in the 55th minute through Jorge Herrera as New England exited the competition in their opening game for the first time since 2012.
After a slow start to the first half, the Revs went close in the 28th minute when Diego Fagundez played Kelyn Rowe through behind the Charlotte defense, and the midfielder took the ball around Hunter Gilstrap in the Independence net but just missed the target with an audacious attempt from a tight angle. Charlotte came back into the game after that and twice went close through Alex Martinez as the first half finished scoreless.
The Independence came out strong in the second half and went ahead 10 minutes after the break. Captain Jorge Herrera, who had already had a shot from distance saved by Brad Knighton five minutes earlier, hit a bouncing ball from 25 yards that looped over the Revolution goalkeeper and into the top right corner of the net to put Charlotte up 1-0.
The Revs almost equalized in the 63rd minute when Fagundez again fed Rowe into the area and his shot was tipped away by Gilstrap before Rowe crossed for Sean Okoli less than a minute later, however the Revolution forward was only able to get a toe on the ball and his shot spun wide.
In the closing stages of the game, recent Revolution Homegrown signing Zach Herivaux made his professional debut, replacing Daigo Kobayashi in the midfield. However, his introduction was not enough to help the Revs pull back a goal as they fell to a 1-0 defeat.
Next Game
The Revolution return to MLS action on Sunday, June 21 when they travel south to face D.C. United at RFK Stadium in a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. That game will be shown nationally on ESPN2 starting at 5 p.m. while 98.5 The Sports Hub and Sirius XM FC Channel 94 will carry the game on the radio in English. WMVX 1570 AM Nossa Radio USA will have the call in Portuguese.
New England Revolution vs. Charlotte Independence
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – Fourth Round
June 17, 2015 – Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium (Boston, Mass.)
New England Revolution 0, Charlotte Independence 1
Scoring Summary:
CTL – Jorge Herrera 1 (Alex Martinez 1) 55’
Misconduct Summary:
None
New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; Jeremy Hall, London Woodberry, Donnie Smith, Kevin Alston ©; Tyler Rudy (Scott Caldwell 72’), Steve Neumann; Kelyn Rowe, Daigo Kobayashi (Zachary Herivaux 87’), Diego Fagundez; Sean Okoli (Juan Agudelo 64’).
Substitutes Not Used: Trevor Spangenberg, Jose Goncalves, Chris Tierney, Lee Nguyen.
STATS: Shots 9, Shots on target 2, Saves 2, Corner kicks 7, Offsides 1, Fouls 14
Charlotte Independence: Hunter Gilstrap; Ben Newnam, Bilal Duckett, Mechack Jerome, Patrick Slogic; Alex Martinez (Raphael Cox 80’), Paolo Del Piccolo, Jorge Herrera ©, Andrew Ribeiro, Carlos Alvarez (Jack Thompson 87’); Tomasz Zahorski (Ryan Finley 72’).
Substitutes Not Used: Jacob Lissek, Jack Metcalf, Enzo Martinez, Caleb Calvert.
STATS: Shots 8, Shots on target 3, Saves 2, Corner kicks 3, Offsides 3, Fouls 12
Referee: Mark Kadlecik
Assistant Referees: Scott Kachmarik and Tom Felice
Fourth Official: Randall Kelley
Weather: Clear and 66 degrees
Attendance: 2,763
Charlotte Independence advance to the Round of 16 of the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
Additional Game Notes
- The Revolution are now 15-13-4 in the Open Cup, including 10-4-4 against non-MLS competition.
- This is the first time that the Revs were knocked out in their first game of the Open Cup since 2012. That was also the last time that the Revs failed to reach the Open Cup Quarterfinals.
- Tyler Rudy and Zachary Herivaux each made their Revolution debuts in the game. Rudy started and played 72 minutes in central midfield while Herivaux played the final three minutes after coming on for Daigo Kobayashi in the 87th minute.
- Donnie Smith made his first appearance of the year for New England while Steve Neumann and Sean Okoli each made their first starts.
- Jeremy Hall, Zachary Herivaux, Sean Okoli, Tyler Rudy and London Woodberry all made their New England Open Cup debuts in the game.
- Brad Knighton has now made five Open Cup starts in goal for the Revolution, leaving him tied with Doug Warren for the second-most in club history behind Matt Reis’ 10.
- Diego Fagundez and London Woodberry were the only players to start last weekend’s game against Chicago and then start again tonight. Steve Neumann and Kelyn Rowe each started tonight’s game after coming off the bench against the Fire while Juan Agudelo came off the bench in both games and Scott Caldwell started on Saturday before coming off the bench tonight.
- All three of Agudelo’s appearances in the Open Cup for New England have come as a substitute.
- Jorge Herrera scored the game’s only goal in the 55th minute. That was his first goal in the Open Cup this year, though he is tied for the team lead with three goals in USL play.
- New England has now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 14 Open Cup games and have done so just twice in 32 all-time Open Cup matches.
- This was the second time that the Revs had played an Open Cup game at Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium. They are now 1-1-0 in those two games, having beaten the New York Red Bulls 4-2 in the Fourth Round of the 2012 tournament.
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With one game still to be played in the Fourth Round tonight, the Revolution are one of three MLS teams to have been knocked out of the competition, joining NYC FC and Seattle Sounders FC.
