The New England Revolution used a strong mid-game surge to beat the visiting D.C. United on Wednesday night in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The 2-1 victory sets up a quarterfinal match up against the New York Red Bulls in the Cup quarterfinals.
The visitors opened the scoring early on a seventh-minute strike from José Guillermo Ortiz. Following the goal, D.C. kept sustained pressure and frustrated the short-handed New England squad, which only dressed 17 players on the evening.
With a mere amount of time remaining in the first half, midfielder Diego Fagundez equalized the score, with a beautiful free kick in the 44th minute.
“I practiced it today and yesterday,” said Fagundez of his goal. “I told Chris (Tierney) and Farrell that I would score today. I had my chance and i’m glad I could take it.”
STUNNER. pic.twitter.com/6iOYVFKUI2
— NewEnglandRevolution (@NERevolution) June 29, 2017
Fagundez took his free kick from 20 yards out and curled it right past D.C. keeper Travis Worra.
With the two teams deadlocked at 1-1 at halftime, it didn’t take long for the Revs to take full advantage of the shift in momentum. Rookie forward Brian Wright scored his first professional goal for the go-ahead score in the 48th minute.
“It was a great effort from everybody, from start to finish.” New England coach Jay Heaps said. “We knew what we needed to do and we didn’t have a full bench because of injuries and callups.”
For New England, it was the first Open Cup win over United since the 2001 Semifinals when the Revs advanced and eventually finished as the tournament’s runner-up. This puts the Revolution into the Quarters for the fourth time in the last five years.