BOYDS, Md. – There was a period in Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal meeting with D.C. United when the New England Revolution felt like it was in prime position to pull out a victory and advance to the semifinal round for the first time since 2008.
The Revs recovered well from being outshot 10-2 in the first half and conceding a 44th-minute goal, leveling the score through Juan Toja eight minutes after the halftime interval. And for 15 minutes after pulling even, the Revs looked the likelier of the two sides to grab a second goal.
But a defensive lapse on a corner kick allowed Dwayne De Rosario to loop home a 69th-minute header and put D.C. back into the lead for good on a night when the Revs failed to capitalize on their chances and conceded what they admitted were bad goals en route to a 3-1 loss.
“We had chances, but we gave up three goals,” said center back A.J. Soares. “We made mistakes on the goals and we really shouldn’t have let any goals in. Every single one of them was kind of a turn-off. But that happens in soccer and sometimes you have to score four to win. We didn’t score four and we let in more than we scored, so that’s just what happens.”
The Revs twice hit the post, including an early Diego Fagundez chance which would’ve opened the scoring and a late Juan Agudelo strike which would’ve pulled New England level. But overall, the Revs were outshot 15-5 and forced D.C. goalkeeper Joe Willis to make just one save.
Head coach Jay Heaps lamented his side’s lack of energy on the night, while Soares admitted that the Revs had no one to blame but themselves for their Open Cup exit.
“We should’ve gotten a better result if we would’ve really taken the game into our own hands, but we let them stay in it and we let them come at us,” Soares said. “In the end, they beat us because we let them beat us.”
