FRISCO, Texas – One final round of action in the USSF Development Academy saw eight more teams secure passage to 2012 Finals Week in Houston, Texas.

Among those were two MLS Academies that managed to get the required results to move to the next stage.

U16 Academy Playoffs begin | Draws abound on day two | U16s survive the test | Red Bull dynasty

Chicago Fire 2-1 Real Salt Lake-AZ 

Winner takes it all.

Those were the stakes set out for the U16 MLS Academies of Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake on the final day of the Development Academy Playoffs.

A draw would favor RSL, and that ultimately makes Chicago’s 2-1 win all the more impressive, as they scored a goal on each side of halftime to emerge victorious and secure a spot in Finals Week.

“They’re ecstatic,” Fire U16 head coach Larry Sunderland said after the win. “They’ve been looking at this all year.”

From the opening whistle, it looked like RSL might be the victorious side, as the offensive juggernaut led by Benji Lopez, Andrew Brody and Jose Navarro bossed the opening 15 minutes of the game.

Lopez came close to setting up the opener in the 20th minute, but no one was home for RSL at the top of the box to smash home the cut back.

In the 26th minute, the Fire capitalized on a mistake at the back for RSL. Collin Fernandez intercepted a loose pass and played in forward Jeff Farina, who rounded the goal and slotted it in.

“It was huge because they were outplaying us for a little bit, but once we got that first goal we settled down, our nerves calmed down,” Farina said of his goal. “Since we had to win this game, we couldn’t draw it was big for us.”

Knocked back by the goal, RSL remained true to its attacking talent, as Lopez and Navarro looked for openings at the back. Right before the half, Lopez nearly leveled the match when he trapped the ball in the box, turned his defender and slammed a hard shot off goalkeeper Kyle Dal Santo’s post.

After a flurry of half chances for both sides early in the second half, the Fire punished another RSL turnover in the 63rd minute. Christian Henock-Berhanu forced a turnover with RSL high up the field. He outran the chasing defenders and crossed to midfielder Marcus Epps who didn’t miss from close range.

From there, Chicago managed to close out the three points, surviving a late score after an own goal shaved the lead to 2-1. But they held on, much to the delight of Sunderland after a long year of hard work.

“I thought the performance was fantastic,” he said. “These guys have been growing all year, we started this back in August with them.”

D.C. United 4-2 Colorado Rush

All four teams in Group 6 had a mathematical chance at first place heading into the final day of the Playoffs, but the equation for D.C. was the easiest.

Win and clinch a spot at Finals Week. 

For the first 40 minutes against Colorado Rush, it looked like D.C. wouldn’t be able to accomplish that. After an uneven performance, D.C. trailed the Rush 1-0 at the break on a penalty kick by Eduardo Reza.

United head coach Tom Torres tried to fire up his side in hopes of inspiring a comeback.

“At halftime Coach Tom reminded us that we were 1-5-1 at the beginning of the season and fought all our way back to win the division and come here,” D.C. captain Ian Harkes said. “Everyone just got motivated, we brought the intensity and everything clicked.”

It didn’t take long for D.C. to turn things around, and Nigel Robinson got behind the Rush defense in the 49th minute to tie the game. With a back-and-forth battle between LA Galaxy and Concorde Fire occurring simultaneously, D.C. couldn’t rely on any other result.

Substitute Michael Monahan then gave D.C. the lead on a corner kick five minutes later, volleying home from inside the six-yard box, and then Robinson added a third to extend the lead.

But the Rush got within a goal again with 15 minutes left when Amon Frazier lobbed a cleared free kick back into the box that fell to Kirby Brazelton who cut the lead to 3-2.

United managed to not get too deflated after conceding it.

“The [second] one that they got, didn’t really take the heart out of us but we [knew] this is going to be very tough,” Torres said.

However, with Rush pushing forward looking for the equalizer, United struck again to put the game away, as substitute Robert Palmer scored on the counter attack to seal the 4-2 win.

“We’re very proud of these guys,” Torres said. “Where they were in March to turn it around and really put some special things together to be one of the top teams in the country to go into Houston is not something made a mandatory thing, but it’s something that works out and we hope that we played pretty well to get there.”

U16 Academy Results Groups 5-8 (Finals Week team in bold):

Group 5
Crew Soccer Academy Wolves 1, Texans SC Houston 0
Shattuck-Saint Mary's Soccer Academy 1, NJSA 04 1

Group 6
LA Galaxy 4, Concorde Fire 3
D.C. United 4, Colorado Rush 2

Group 7
Arsenal FC 2, Weston FC 1
PA Classics 1, Chicago Magic PSG 0

Group 8
St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri 1, Players Development Academy 0
Solar Chelsea SC 2, San Diego Surf 1