MLS Game Summary - New York at New England
Foxborough, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - Charlie Davies netted a pair of goals, including the series-winner on Saturday, as the New England Revolution battled the New York Red Bulls to a 2-2 draw in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Championship at Gillette Stadium and advanced to MLS Cup final via a thrilling 4-3 aggregate victory.
The Revolution entered Saturday's second leg in decent shape, having taken the first leg at Red Bull Arena, 2-1 a week ago. But the momentum from the opening leg was quickly erased as the Red Bulls drew first blood.
Thierry Henry, playing on an artificial surface for the first time in his MLS career, sent and excellent ball over the top to Tim Cahill in the 26th minute and the Australian international did well to outmuscle Revs defender Jose Goncalves and poke it past goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth.
But New England pulled it level on the day at 1-1 and a 3-2 aggregate lead in the 41st minute when the home side elected to play a short corner kick to Chris Tierney and his cross was knocked off Davies and in behind Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles.
New York battled back to make it 3-3 on aggregate in the 52nd minute when Lloyd Sam sent a speculative ball into the box that fell kindly to the feet of Peguy Luyindula and the Frenchman fired it home to make it 3-3.
With the match at 3-3 on aggregate, the tie would have gone to extra time if the result held, but Davies came to the rescue with 20 minutes to play.
The goal came to cap a spell of relentless offensive pressure from New England as Tierney again got free on the left wing and served a great ball into the box where Davies was there to nod it home and give the hosts a 4-3 aggregate lead.
As the clock crept toward 90 minutes New York surged forward knowing another goal would send them through via the away goals tiebreaker, but the Revs back line held firm to secure the club's first trip to the MLS title game for the first time since 2007.
Jay Heaps' club has won eight straight matches on home soil and will face wither the Los Angeles Galaxy or Seattle Sounders FC on Dec. 7.