Pros

Revs Advance in Open Cup By Sean Donahue
Beat Harrisburg, 2-1
August 8, 2007
Andy Dorman and Taylor Twellman each tallied in the opening 20 minutes and the Revs withstood a late scare to advance to the semifinals of the US Open Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Harrisburg City Islanders (USL Division 2) Wednesday.

New England completely dominated the opening period and was unlucky to go into halftime with only a 2-0 lead. Continued solid play from the home side kept Harrisburg from threatening Matt Reis' goal, but the visitors scored a stunning late goal to make things interesting.

Andy Dorman scored for the Revs in their 2-1 Open Cup victory Thursday.

Dorman put the Revs in front just four minutes in when the ball bounced around the box after a corner kick. Shalrie Joseph eventually found Dorman near the top of the box, who with his left foot slotted it past a flat-footed Matt Nelson to open the scoring.

"If you can get it on target there when it is coming through so many bodies, it's so hard for the 'keeper to react, so I just tried to do that and I think it went through a player's legs and ended up in the back of the net, but I probably could have had 3 or 4 in the end," Dorman said. "We had a lot of chances and I would have liked to have taken a lot more of them."

Twellman should have added to the score in the 9th minute when he was left wide open in the box and found with a perfect Joseph cross, but could only head it directly to Nelson.

Three minutes later Twellman thought he had made it 2-0, but his header into the back of the net off a Wells Thompson cross was ruled offside.

In another three minutes Twellman would finally get his goal after Pat Noonan sent a cross through the six-yard box. Twellman only needed to tap it in to make it 2-0 for his third goal of this year's Open Cup.

Dorman ought to have done better in the 21st minute after the ball fell to him inside the box. Dorman again went for the left-footed shot, but sent it just wide of the net.

"We had some chances [in the first half], but we didn't take them," said Revs coach Steve Nicol. "The object was to try and make the game as comfortable for us as possible. For 75 minutes we did that."

Twellman nearly made it 3-0 in the 48th minute when he put a powerful header on frame off a Steve Ralston corner. Nelson had no chance, but a defender managed to head it off the line to keep the visitors in the match.

Harrisburg pulled one back in the 78th minute on a spectacular free kick when substitute Matt Tanzini powered one home from about 30 yards past a poorly positioned wall and a helpless Reis to make the score 2-1.

"A two man wall was fine," Reis said. "It is just they weren't together. They were spread apart and I was yelling at them to get closer. It ended up going right through them. If Adam [Cristman] had taken a step to his left, then it would have hit one them right in the chest and then it would have been averted. It is just a mental mistake again. Unfortunately we keep doing it. It's hopefully not going to hurt us to bad, but in the last couple of games it has been a situation where we have really hurt ourselves just by doing the little things wrong. He did hit the snot out of it though."

"It was a fantastic goal they scored," Nicol said. "The game was dead until then, but obviously after that when they bang balls forward anything can happen. I think generally we were comfortable in the game, but getting that goal just makes you sit up a wee bit."

Harrisburg was down to ten men in the 90th minute after Anthony Calvano pushed down Reis in the box. Calvano received an initial yellow and then a second for the ensuing fracas in the goalmouth. The ejection essentially ended any hopes of a Harrisburg comeback.

The Revs move on to face the Carolina Railhawks of the USL Division 1 on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at Veterans Stadium in New Britain, Conn. The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Semifinal match is scheduled to kick off a 7 p.m.

New England returns to league action on Sunday, August 12 when they take on David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy at 7 p.m.