FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Jay Heaps was a player when the New England Revolution won their only Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title in 2007. Now he’s led them back to the final as a coach.
Kei Kamara, Je-Vaughn Watson and Teal Bunbury scored to lift the Revs to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Fire in Tuesday night’s semifinal at Gillette Stadium, sending New England to their third-ever Open Cup title game and their first since they lifted the trophy in 2007.
The Revolution will visit either the LA Galaxy or FC Dallas in the final. Those two sides will square off at StubHub Center on Wednesday night (10 p.m. ET on ESPN2) to determine the Revs’ destination.
“The Open Cup, for us, it’s a chance to win a championship, a chance to win a trophy,” said Bunbury, whose 85th-minute goal sealed New England’s place in the final. “That’s what guys play for is to win championships for our team, for the organization and for our fans. For us, it’s huge.”
New England were on the front foot from the start on Tuesday night and were rewarded in the 16th minute when Kamara converted from the penalty spot after Kelyn Rowe was clipped inside the box.
Chance after chance for the Revolution to extend the lead went begging, though, leaving the door open for Chicago’s equalizer through David Accam in the 40th minute.
The goal could’ve been a potential backbreaker for the Revs just before halftime, but instead they broke the Fire’s back, responding through Watson in the 42nd minute to regain the upper hand.
It proved to be the game’s pivotal moment.
“It was a big moment for us, because we were so disappointed that (Accam) goal went through,” said Heaps. “It was basically a comedy of errors … and I can’t believe it was alive for as long as it was.
“But I love that we responded well. We had a pretty tough week in terms of putting our head down. We talked about it a lot on Sunday and Monday, about having a response tonight. I think our guys really did that. They came out and used a moment, when they got knocked down, to get back up.”
That was true for the Revs on Tuesday night, and Heaps is hoping it will be true in context of the season as the Revolution continue to press on with the final 11 games of the league campaign.
New England are in the midst of a difficult run, having gone 2-5-1 in their last eight league games, but Heaps believes the Revolution’s journey to the Open Cup final can be the spark they need, drawing parallels to the club’s 2007 campaign.
“We were sputtering a little bit in 2007 and we made it to the Open Cup final, and then we went on to the MLS Cup final and had a real chance to win that,” Heaps said. “I’d like to use this platform – this is very similar – to get us out of a little bit of a funk.
“(This could) get us back in and believing in each other the right way, and working for each other the right way so that we can do a lot better than we have been the last couple weeks.”
