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Washington, D.C. -- A week ago, the New York Red Bulls outplayed the best team in MLS, securing a well-earned scoreless tie with D.C. United.

Reality caught up with the Bulls, who couldn't keep up with United in the second half in the Lamar Hunt/U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals Wednesday night. Little-used Jamil Walker, who had scored once in 197 minutes entering the match, connected twice within a 23-minute span in the second half to break a 1-1 tie to hand the Bulls a 3-1 loss.

United, which will place Chicago in the semifinals Sept. 6, spoiled Bruce Arena's return as an opposing club coach to RFK Stadium. Arena guided United to a pair of MLS titles and an Open Cup crown a decade ago.

"Tonight's game you'd like to win, but to us it's not as critical as trying to win a couple of league games," Arena said.

The Bulls' recent stretch of games -- five in 15 days -- finally caught up with the team.

"I think we played a good first half. The performance in the second half was not good," Arena said. "We got worn down. We had a lot of games and a lot of travel and it showed."

Goalkeeper Tony Meola agreed and put his take on the loss, which was played in front of a crowd of 8,637.

"It was disappointing for sure," he said. "I'm one of the guys who takes the Open Cup seriously. Always have. I enjoyed winning it. I think everyone went out there tonight took it seriously. For a long stretch we played good soccer. We just ran out of gas a little bit."

The Red Bulls have a 1-3-2 record in their last six games at RFK.

"It's a tough place to play always," Meola said. "We said at halftime, we want to find a way to win here. We have to get used to winning here. We have to win here sooner or later if we want to win anything."

The teams traded first-half goals, United's Josh Gros scoring from three yards in the 37th minute and the Bulls' Amado Guevara equalizing, putting in Marvell Wynne's rebound that goalkeeper Nick Rimando batted away four minutes later.

But the Red Bulls squandered a number of first-half opportunities that could have led to a second goal.

"Right now we're not going to create a whole lot of chances and when we do, we have to put them away," Arena said.

But Walker, who scored his lone MLS goal in the 4-1 rout of the Bulls in April, put in an Alecko Eskandarian free kick from 30 yards in the 61st minute and again in the 84th minute.

Arena said from his vantage point the ball was Meola's all the way.

"From my angle, Tony has to get the ball," he said. "I have to look at the tape again."

Meola felt both goals were tainted, claiming Walker had a hand ball on the first score and that Ben Olsen, who set up the second, told the referee the goal was offside.

"I came for the cross and he flicked it by me," Meola said. "Walker stuck his hand out, got it and I think he headed it in. I kind of got spun around after that."

"Ben Olsen said he was offside. He actually told the referee offside. He said that was no goal."

Josmer Altidore, the promising 16-year-old forward, made his pro debut, replacing Youri Djorkaeff in the 74th minute.

"That kid Altidore did all right," Arena said. "Hopefully, he has a good future."

Arena originally has planned to give several players, including the 38-year-old Djorkaeff the night off. But injuries to five midfielders, a suspension to midfielder Dema Kovalenko and the fact that newly acquired forward John Wolyniec was cup-tied forced the veteran coach to change his strategy.

"There are several issues that are not going to be resolved this year," he said. "You can't worry about it. It is what it is.

"The challenge for them is mentally and physically whether they can sustain over 90 minutes. You saw what they can do in the first half. It was pretty good. They're right now a team that's shown they can't sustain that kind of performance over 90 minutes. That's what we need to do."

[Cassa Boubou]

Can anyone tell me what the scores were for this past week end matches in the Haitian Digicel closing tournament? Haitiwebs usually posted them but they have not done so this week ?

I thank you in advance..