Crystal Palace USA 2

Marshall 18, Brooks 75

New York Red Bulls 0

Crystal Palace USA produced the shock of the tournament when they beat the New York Red Bulls 2-0 in the Third round of the US Open Cup last night - despite playing for over an hour with ten men.

All expectation was on the Major League Soccer visitors who even surprised their own visiting fans with the team they put out featuring predominately reserve players.

However, with the USA Eagles only being able to play against the team in front of them, it was Palace who took the lead first.

Andrew Marshall converted the chance when he found some space between two defenders and headed past goalkeeper Zach Thornton courtesy of Bryan Harkin's corner on the 18^th minute.

Twelve minutes later Eagles midfielder Ibrahim Kante received his first booking and four minutes later he was sent from the field for a reckless tackle and reduced Palace to 10 men.

Even with the extra man the New York Red Bulls could not muster up any worthwhile attempts to change the goal deficit.

After the restart the Bulls switched to three up front in an attempt to try and put some pressure on the Palace back-line.

Palace's Matthew Mbuta came close to doubling his side's lead when his nifty footwork allowed him to find some space to hit a shot from 18 yards which Thornton managed to get down and save on the 58^th minute.

The Bulls Mike Magee hit a free kick from 37 yards on the 63^rd minute which saw Matt Nelson acrobatically push away from his goal.

With the visiting side pushing for an equaliser Gary Brooks managed to end any chance of a comeback on the 75^th minute when he volleyed in Paul Robson's cross and booked Palace a quarter final tie against the New England Revolution next Tuesday in New Britain.

After guiding his team to victory Palace Co-Manager Jim Cherneski said:

"To be honest, without sounding too confident, it [the win] doesn't surprise me. We have a very good team. We hit the post twice. We missed two wide-open opportunities in front of the net.

"To be honest, it should have been 4-nil, and we were playing a man short."

A disappointed Bulls boss Juan Carlos Osorio defended his decision to play a weakened team and admitted he expected more from his players.

"We always knew they would be fired up to a play an MLS team. I thought we were good enough to play with some of the young players, unfortunately it didn't payoff tonight.

"The starting line-up was basically all of the guys that have not been playing. I personally thought this was the right time to rest a few of our key players and unfortunately we paid the price for it."

Att 1,654

Crystal Palace Baltimore -- Matt Nelson, Shintaro Harada, Ibrahim Kante, Paul Robson, Andrew Marshall, Pat Healey, Bryan Harkin (Mike Lookingland 60), Dan Lader, Larry Mark (Sergio Flores 88), Gary Brooks (Val Teixeira 79), Matthew Mbuta.