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Hello, Noonan
The Revs' Pat Noonan wins Player of the Round
Pat Noonan set up the equalizing goal, and then later scored the extra time game-winner in the New England Revolution’s 2-1 semifinal win over the Carolina RailHawks. Helping the Revs make their first appearance in the Open Cup final since 2001, was enough to earn Noonan the USOpenCup.com Player of the Round award.
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| Pat Noonan assisted on the equalizer and scored the game-winner in the Revs’ semifinal match against the Carolina RailHawks. Photo by Tony Biscaia/RevsNet.com |
Noonan took the time to chat with us about his team’s performance in the Open Cup.
(USOpenCup.com) I wanted to get your thoughts on the semifinal game...what was the approach going into the game, playing a team that you obviously don’t see every day.
(Noonan) We were focusing on ourselves, doing what we need to do to keep winning. We planned on going in to win the game, and doing what we do in the MLS games, which is putting pressure on them so that they can’t get comfortable and get services, and try to get an early goal, which didn’t work out, but we were able to fight back.
(USOpenCup.com) Connally Edozien obviously played with you guys a couple of years ago, and you had even seen him again last year when he played for Rochester...with him getting sent off along with Shalrie Joseph, was that just something in the game, or was that something that carried over from his time with the Revs?
Noonan: You know, I’m not positive if that was carried over. Connally was obviously here, and was friendly with everybody so it was unexpected, but it was just the intensity of the game and the way the game was going. There were some heated guys out there, and it led to that.
(USOpenCup.com) You had the assist on the first goal, can you tell the story of that opening goal?
Noonan: The first goal, I found Jeff L cutting down the middle. He played a quick early ball to Cristman who was posted up at the top of the D, he laid it off nicely to myself then I saw Jeff had made his run and was able to get behind the last defender, and Jeff did a great job of putting it in.
(USOpenCup.com) With the game-winning goal coming early in extra time, was that a bit of a relief getting that out of the way early so that you could focus on defending a little bit more down the stretch?
Noonan: Well, yeah, it definitely changes the game, especially being up a man. It causes them to have to push numbers forward, which they didn’t have, and it allowed us to break on them, which we didn’t do well. We were able to possess the ball for about five minutes after, and then they started to pressure us. I think when you’re up a man and the other team is forced to push forward, you have to do better with your chances, and we didn’t do that.
(USOpenCup.com) As far as the tournament in general, what has been different about this year? You weren’t around for the team’s run in 2001, but it seems like the Revolution historically, haven’t necessarily put out their first team, but it seems like this year, it’s really been a little bit more of a priority. Is there something that’s changed?
Noonan: Well, you always go in to win games. Whether it’s half the starters, or your usual starting lineup for MLS. You’re still going out to win games, and we didn’t have good results in the past, and this year, the coaches seem to have a different outlook on it, but they put out the lineup and we go with it, and so far it’s been good results, and we have one more to go.
(USOpenCup.com) It certainly helped that you guys had plenty of rest heading into the game as well.
Noonan: Well that’s also true, We had a nice weekend off to get our legs back so we could go out there and work hard.
(USOpenCup.com) You’ve got the final coming up on October 3rd at Dallas, what are you thoughts heading into your first [Open Cup] final?
Noonan: Well obviously it’s a famliar team, but we played them a long time ago, they’ve had some new faces, and they’re playing well and winning games, There’s a few games before that before we can really focus on that, but it’ll be in their stadium so we have to find a way to get on top of them early so we can get an early lead and open the game up.
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