The New England Revolution earned a 2-1
advantage over the Chicago Fire in game one of their Major League Soccer
Eastern Conference Semifinal Series on Sunday afternoon at Gillett Stadium.
The Revs came back from a 1-0 deficit to score the equalizer just before the
first-half break, and the winner with 15 minutes to play to take the advantage
in the home-and-home, total goals series.
Chris Rolfe opened the scoring for Chicago in the 17th minute. After winger
Marco Pappa got around defender jay Heaps on the right side, he fired a low
cross into the Revs' penalty area. But goalkeeper Matt Reis got his hands on
it to deflect it away from it's intended target. Unfortunately for New
England, the rebound went right to Rolfe in the center of the box, and he made
no mistake, firing the ball past Reis.
Chicago narrowly missed taking a 2-0 advantage a couple minutes later when
striker Brian McBride fired a shot off the post, and the miss would come back
to haunt the Fire.
The revs pulled even in the 47th minute when they earned a free kick as the
half was about to expire. Kenny Mansally bent the chance into the Fire box,
and Emmanuel Osei got his head on the ball and skipped it past goalkeeper Jon
Busch to make the score 1-1.
The Revs' Shalrie Joseph got the go-ahead goal in the 75th minute off a corner
kick. After the service came in from the right side, Pat Phelan headed on
goal. Busch knocked the ball right to Jeff Larentowicz, who faked like he was
going to shoot before passing to Joseph at the top of the six-yard box. Joseph
took a touch and roofed a shot past Busch to close out the scoring, 2-1.
The two teams will meet for the second and deciding leg of the series on
Saturday at Toyota Park.
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