MLS Cup Playoffs: New England beats New York in Eastern Conference final first leg
Thanks to a spectacular 17th-minute opener from Teal Bunbury and an 85th-minute game-winner from Jermaine Jones, the Revs beat the New York Red Bulls, 2-1, in the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals at a packed-to-the-ceiling Red Bull Arena.
HARRISON, N.J. - At some point this year, you might have heard of the New England Revolution.
Maybe you've seen them at PPL Park, or at other venues around Major League Soccer. Maybe you've heard about the dynamic creativity of Lee Nguyen, Kelyn Rowe, Teal Bunbury and Diego Fagundez, the revival of Charlie Davies and the steel-toed leadership of Jermaine Jones.
But I'd be willing to lay a bet on decent odds that you haven't really watched them much this season. They weren't on national TV much before the playoffs, and if you made the effort to check out their home games online, you had to put up with the artificial turf-laden, soulless, hour-outside-of-Boston NFL cavern that is Gillette Stadium.
These playoffs have been New England's national coming-out party. If you didn't know about the Revs until this month, you found out in a big way when they steamrolled Columbus by a 7-3 aggregate score in the conference semifinals.
On Sunday, that party took to the postseason stage once again, this time in the shadow of Broadway. And just as happened in the last round, New England danced its way to an impressive victory.
MLS needs the teams in Chicago, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and New York to pull the weight you would expect from their market sizes. In the league's 19 years, each of the aforementioned clubs has had its days in the spotlight, but they have rarely stood tall together. On Sunday, we got a glimpse of what can happen when they do.