The #8 seed in the Eastern Conference entering the playoffs continued their amazing ride in the Major League Soccer postseason on Sunday. The New England Revolution knocked off the Orlando City Lions Soccer Club 3-1 at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida in the semifinal round reaching the conference final for the first time since 2014.
The Revs started the scoring when Carles Gil was tackled in the box at the 16th minute setting up a penalty kick. Gil converted to make it 1-0. Less than 10 minutes later on a New England counter a shot ricocheted off the post, and Gustavo Bou cleaned up the rebound to extend the lead to a pair of goals. The Lions took back the momentum however in the 33rd minute when Chris Mueller bodied his way into the box and chipped a pass back to midfielder Junior Urso. Urso hammered it into the net to cut the deficit in half. Rookie Daryl Dike had the best chance to equalize when he was fouled in the box, but the penalty kick by captain Nani was saved to maintain the one goal lead for the Revs. The final shift of momentum came in the 60th minute when Orlando City midfielder Mauricio Pererya was called for a late tackle and given a red card, forcing the Lions to play short for the remainder of the match. Bou scored his second goal of the game in the final five minutes of action to put the game away.
New England (10-7-8) had knocked off Montreal in the play in round, and then top seed Philadelphia in the quarterfinals a team they had lost to four times in five contests in the regular season (0-4-1). The Revolution will now head to Columbus to face the host Columbus Crew for a spot in the MLS Final next Sunday with a time to be announced. Head Coach Bruce Arena is now the winningest coach in MLS Playoff history picking up his 35th postseason victory. The New England orginazation has played in the Finals five times previously (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014) but have never won the Cup. Orlando City finishes up their season as the #4 seed at 12-5-8.
