By IAN HOLLIDAY
For the better part of 93 minutes, it looked as though the lowly New England Revolution were going to end FC Dallas' 15-game unbeaten streak Wednesday night. Instead, a Jeff Cunningham goal on the second-to-last-kick of the match saved a point for the Hoops and kept the streak alive.
The Revolution had taken a 2-0 lead in the 66th minute before FC Dallas began their rally. Serbian forwards Marko Perovic and Ilija Stolica worked a perfect breakaway, with Perovic centering for his countryman who had gotten one step behind the defense.
But Dallas was not to be denied. David Ferreira had drawn a penalty in the first half and missed it. In the 79th minute he drew another one and made no mistake with the finish. Off a Revolution corner, a long clearance found Ferreira near midfield. Only Kevin Alston and Darrius Barnes were back for the Revs. The former fell down on a nice move from the Columbian, who was taken down by Barnes as he entered the box. Ferreira made amends for his first-half miss by drilling home the spot kick.
Cunningham finished the comeback in the last minute of stoppage time, but Ferreira was the catalyst again. The Colombian laid the ball off to Eric Avila at the top of the box and got it back just outside the six. He volleyed a shot across the face of goal for Cunningham to tap home.
Some Revolution players and coaches appealed that Cunningham was offside when Ferreira took his last touch. The linesman's flag stayed down, however, and the match ended 2-2.
Shalrie Joseph had opened the scoring in the 5th minute on a play that also could have been ruled offside. An attempted clearance fell to Chris Tierney, who floated the ball back into the box for the waiting Joseph, who settled and finished calmly for his first goal of the 2010 season.
Both sides return to action on Saturday. The Revolution will host the Columbus Crew while FC Dallas travel to Kansas City to face the Wizards.
Here are the highlights from the match:
What did you think of the game? Did you think the Revs were going to snap the streak? Did FCD deserve the result? Was the match a microcosm of the teams' respective seasons?
130 goals. 2 more to tie Jamie Moreno.
The second penalty was clear, even the homers announcing say so. And if the last goal was offsides, at all… it was so close that a no call is fine. To me, he looks onside. You have to take in to account the angle of the camera.
You are quite wrong Dan. Both PKs looked to be deserved and the last goal was clearly onside as JC9 was level with the ball at the time it was passed to him.
Agreed. I saw that too.
Make the play first / Play until the whistle
Hartman has made more than a few great saves on plays that were eventually whistled offsides this year.
Not sure what this means, but it isn’t suprising Dallas got a PK call in their favor they lead the league in attempted PK’s.
NE fans have a real beef here, Joseph’s goal was clean and deserving of Dallas’s poor defensive effort. Dallas on the other hand should count there lucky stars, the first PK was a joke because the defender cleared the ball before making contact with the player and the tying goal was a clear offsides. But hey, the officials cant be perfect all the time.
Agree that Pearce was at fault. Under ideal circumstances he would have marked his man and the keep wouldn’t have had a choice to make.
However, when you see that the ball is clearly going to make it to its man, unmarked, you close down space. You don’t throw your hand up and look toward the line judge.
Would Hartman have saved it? Not sure. Would he have thrown his hand up like a big whiner and begged for the line judge to save him? No. He would have closed down space.
BenH that goal is on Pearce not Sala. Notice Pearce was jogging slowly back and kept Joseph onside. Hartman would not have saved that one.
I thought Cunningham was well offside on first viewing, but after many replays it looks fine.
It’s funny that professional PBP guys don’t realize that a mid-field cam presents a deceptive angle. Jay Heaps had to call him back from the edge. Probably with a floor slap.
Just what I was afraid of. On New England’s first goal, Hartman would have closed down space immediately upon that ball being chipped. Worthless backup, however, throws his hand up for an offside call. Pathetic. Has been this way his entire time at FCD.
Houston has hit rock bottom after the KC game. Can’t wait for DC united to come from behind and beat Houston this weekend.
Both games last night looked over when I tuned in with 30 mins left (I couldn’t switch the channel as I was taping something on the DVR until then). Then bam, bam, bam. Two incredible comebacks. KC-Hou was even better then FCD-NE
looked like both the first and last goals were good no calls by the linesmen as both players appeared to be barely onside.