The New England Revolution rallied from a late two-goal deficit to claim a 3-2 shootout victory over the Dallas Burn in an exhibition played in Pensacola, Fla. on March 7.
New England, inspired by the preseason debut of U.S. national team stars Alexi Lalas and Mike Burns, as well as Canadian international Iain Fraser, controlled much of the first half, keeping Dallas pinned in its own end of the field.
However, Dallas scored first, via a counterattack in the 37th minute. Speedy Gerell Elliott blew down the right sideline and crossed the ball into the box, where Dan Stebbins tapped it home from ten yards out.
Dallas appeared to have the match won when Dante Washington scored in the 69th minute after a fine deep run by Mark Santel., but New England struck back just five minutes later. Patrick Olalere took a pass from Darren Sawatzky and beat two defenders before connecting on a 15-yard strike.
Three minutes later, New England’s guest player, Argentine Alejandro Farias, made a tremendous 50-yard pass through the Dallas defense to an unmarked Peter Woodring in the penalty area. Woodring the slotted the ball past Jeff Cassar to tie the match.
Francis Okaroh scored the only goal of the shootout in the fifth round. The shootout featured the debut of t the new on-field five second shot clock for shootout attempts.
“Playing as well as we did and coming back to get the result was exactly the positive note we wanted to end on after all our hard work here in Pensacola,” said New England coach Thomas Rongen, whose club now moves to Orlando for another week of training before returning to Boston March 16. “Our performance in the match shows we are making progress in developing how we want to play, but we still have a long way to go.”
Dallas, meanwhile, will head to Mexico March 10. The Burn will train in Guadalajara for four days and will play friendlies against Chivas and Tecos of the Mexican First Division.
On March 14, the Burn will move on to El Paso, where it will face Monterrey of the Mexican First Division as part of a doubleheader that also includes an A-League match between the El Paso Patriots and the Albuquerque Geckos.
“These games will help us gauge how far we’ve come since we started training camp,” said Dallas coach Dave Dir. “It will also give us another opportunity to scout more Mexican players.”
March 7 in Pensacola, Fla.
New England 3 Dallas 2 (New England wins shootout 1-0). Goals: Olalere (Sawatzky) 74, Woodring (Farias) 77; Stebbins (Elliott) 37, Washington (Santel) 69.
New England — Heaney, A. Lalas (Wylie, 46), Fraser (Chronopoulos, 46), Debrito (G. Lalas, 46), Okaroh, Naveda (Keegan, 46), Burns (Woodring, 46), Farias, Klein, Welton (Olalere, 46), Kerr (Sawatzky, 46).
Dallas — Dodd (Cassar, 46), Dade, Sonora (Jones, 46), Flores, Soehn (Branigan, 63), Santel (Stempinski, 70), Kreis (Eck, 56), Hattrup (Sanchez, 46), Elliott (Sastoque, 46, Suarez, 62), Farrer, Stebbins (Washington, 46).
Att.: 2,819.