Final
East rivals tangle as DCU hosts Revolution
Jun 19, 2015 - 6:00 PM Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of heated Eastern Conference rivals will clash on Sunday when D.C. United welcomes the New England Revolution to RFK Stadium.United comes into the fixture looking for a rebound performance after suffering a 1-0 loss to expansion side Orlando City SC last time out.
The only goal of the contest came in the 30th minute when Orlando forward Pedro Ribeiro was taken down by Taylor Kemp in the box. Kaka stepped up to the penalty spot and fired to the right of United goalkeeper Bill Hamid.
Hamid guessed correctly and made the save, but left the rebound in front of goal and Kaka easily nodded it home.
D.C.United had their best chance of the game in the 62nd minute when Miguel Aguilar who was just brought in sent a cross to Fabian Espindola. Espindola's left-footed shot from the left side of the box just missed to the left.
"I didn't have a problem with our effort. There were obviously spots we could be could better with the ball or a little more clinical, more cutthroat when we are in the final third," said United head coach Ben Olsen. We just couldn't get the goal. It wasn't my favorite performance from the ref tonight. But it was a good win for Orlando. They earned it tonight."
New England, meanwhile, comes into the match looking for a second straight win following a comfortable 2-0 defeat over the Chicago Fire last time out.
Both team created quality opportunities in the first half, but neither side could find the breakthrough as the clubs went into the intermission scoreless.
The Revs grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck just three minutes into the second half when Diego Fagundez marked his 100th appearance in a Revolution shirt by blasting a wicked strike with pace into the top corner to put the hosts in front.
Just two minutes later the home side doubled its lead as Teal Bunbury served an excellent cross into the box where Charlie Davies was able to get his head to it, nodding it into the bottom corner for his team-leading sixth goal of the campaign.
"You know again these are Eastern Conference matches, so the points are important, and that was the key tonight was that we went out and even though the game didn't go our way early, we felt that there was a goal in this game for us and we pushed hard for it," said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. I thought our reaction after halftime was really good."
"I think that we were hitting service at times and we were looking for early service in a couple games and then teams were dropping off. Now the early service doesn't work because the team is dropped off and its balls for the center back to head out so we wanted to make sure we went east-west. The patience is when the cross isn't on, get it back around, find little pockets and make sure we try to get it going east-west and when we do that and we extend our possessions in the other team's half, that's when players like Lee (Nguyen) and Diego can really play."
- NEW ENGLAND: 1
D.C. UNITED: 2
Final
Jun 21 7:00 PM - NEW ENGLAND: 1
D.C. UNITED: 0
Halftime
Jun 21 5:57 PM - NEW ENGLAND: 0
D.C. UNITED: 0
1st Half - 10'
Jun 21 5:10 PM
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