A brace from Maximilano Urruti and a goal and three assists from Muaro Diaz lead FC Dallas past a depleted New England Revolution.
The 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final featured two teams that had won the tournament in previous years. FC Dallas won the tournament in 1997 as the Dallas Burn and the New England Revolution took the trophy home in 2007 with a win over Dallas, but neither had won anything else. The meeting of these two sides proved to be an exhilarating final.
The game started out favoring the Revolution. In the 6th minute, New England won the ball in Dallas’s half. After some quick passing Gershone Koffie played the ball to Juan Agudelo at the top of the box. With his back to goal, Augdelo spun to his left past Matt Hedges and fired a shot that snuck between keeper Chris Seitz and the near post.
The Revolution’s lead didn’t last long. Just nine minutes later Mauro Diaz sent a ball into the box from the right side. With defender Je-Vaughn Watson coming in, Maximiliano Urruti got a touch to the ball popping it into the air past the rushing Watson. Urruti then took a shot on the volley and blasted it far post to pull Dallas level.
Dallas dominated play for the rest of the half, but were unable to capitalize on numerous chances either missing the mark or seeing their shots blocked by the Revolution defense.
In the 40th minute the game picked back up. After New England failed to clear the danger on a corner the ball ended up at the feet of Diaz who chipped the ball back into the box where an unmarked Matt Hedges beat keeper Brad Knighton with a diving header.
After falling behind, the Revolution were put in a tougher situation when they were forced to use two of their substitutions before half time. Koffie, who was feeling the effects of a collision with Walker Zimmerman, was subbed out for Kei Kamara in the 42nd minute while Watson came off in the third minute of stoppage time for Chris Teirney after suffering a knock of his own.
Just before the halftime whistle Dallas doubled their lead. In the 7th minute of stoppage time Diaz sent a free kick towards the far post of New England’s goal where José Gonçalves was flagged for a foul on Hedges by the assistant referee. Diaz stepped up to take the PK and slipped it below the waist of a diving Knighton to make it 3-1 in Dallas’s favor.
The Revolution saw more of the ball at the start of the second half as they tried to get back into the game, but before they could make any progress they made the task more difficult.
In the 61st minute Scott Caldwell was stripped of the ball in his own half. Diaz split the Revolutions center backs with a through ball that freed Urruti with just the keeper to beat. Knighton came out to challenge, but Urruti put the ball past his feet for his second goal and Diaz’s third assist of the night.
Three minutes later, Urruti looked to have completed his hat-trick when he headed home a free kick from Diaz, but he was deemed to have been in an offside position.
The Revolution made their final substitution in the 69th minute and brought on Teal Bunbury for Kaylen Rowe. Four minutes later Bunbury won the ball on the right side of Dallas’s box and whipped a low cross into the box. Zimmerman managed to get a touch to the ball, but couldn’t prevent the ball from finding Agudelo at the back post for his second goal.
New England continued to press forward through Bunbury, Agudelo, and Kamara, but the Revolution could not come up with anything to prevent Dallas from winning their second U.S. Open Cup trophy and redeeming their 2007 loss.
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