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Close to the vest Crew, Revolution play to 0-0 draw in semifinal openerPosted: Sunday October 06, 2002 7:20 PMUpdated: Sunday October 06, 2002 9:15 PM
FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) -- Neither team won and neither team scored, but both were satisfied. The Columbus Crew and New England Revolution tied 0-0 in the opener of their MLS semifinal series Sunday, guaranteeing that two more games will be played. The Revolution played the last 21 minutes a man short after Daouda Kante was ejected for receiving his second yellow card of the game, forcing him to miss the next game. "When you go a man down, your whole priority changes," New England's Taylor Twellman said. "If you get that tie, you're guaranteed to come back home." Game 2 is Wednesday night in Columbus and Game 3 on Saturday in Foxboro. Each team earned one point for the tie in the first-to-five-points series. Since a win is worth three points, two more games must be played. "If you can get a point on the road, you take it," Columbus coach Greg Andrulis said. "Obviously, we felt we had a chance to win, being one man up." The winner of the series faces Los Angeles or Colorado in the championship game Oct. 20 in Foxboro. Los Angeles won the opener 4-0 Saturday night. New England goalkeeper Adin Brown recorded his sixth shutout in the last eight games even though the speedier Crew outshot the Revolution 8-4. The last scoring opportunity came with seconds left in the second five-minute overtime, but a free kick by Columbus' Jeff Cunningham from 30 yards dribbled wide of the goal. Brown also made a diving save on Cunningham just before halftime. New England's best chance came in the 72nd minute. Jay Heaps' shot from 10 yards out to the left of goalkeeper Jon Busch hit the right post. The ball went back to Heaps, whose shot was headed out by Brian Dunseth, standing on the goal line. "That was quite frustrating," Heaps said. "It's not as if I took a bad touch. I did exactly what I wanted to do." He said he was screened on the second shot and didn't see Dunseth. "It was my fault on the first shot. Jay went around me," Dunseth said. "Then I just wanted to get behind Bushie." Columbus and New England also played a scoreless tie in their last regular-season meeting Aug. 31. The Revolution are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. Twellman, the league's leading scorer in the regular season, left the game briefly after falling on his shoulder, which went numb, in the 72nd minute. "I don't really need my shoulder so I went back in," said Twellman, who expects to play Wednesday. New England reached the semifinals for the first time in its seven seasons by beating Chicago, six points to three in the quarterfinals. Columbus, in its fourth semifinal, eliminated San Jose 6-0.
The crowd of 11,387 was the largest of New England's three
playoff games this year but smaller than its regular-season average
of 16,927.
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