Last modified: Monday, November 2, 2009 2:18 AM EST Jay Heaps of the New England Revolution heads the ball in front of Brian McBride of Chicago during Game 1 of the MLS playoffs. Fire stoppers BY PETER GOBIS SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - The New England Revolution took a step toward returning to the MLS Cup with a surprising, shocking, scintillating 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire in the first match of the two-match, total-goal Eastern Conference semifinal round series. "There were a lot of chances for both sides, both teams played hard," related New England veteran defender Jay Heaps of the all-out skirmish from the opening whistle to the final two minutes of stoppage time, ending the second half. All told, New England - which had not won in eight straight matches (0-5-3) against Chicago - rallied from a one-goal deficit, tying the match on rookie defender Emmanuel Osei's first MLS career goal in stoppage time ending the first half, then producing the match-winner on a most opportunistic finish by Shalrie Joseph in the 75th minute. "It always comes back to finishing your chances," sighed Chicago coach Dennis Hamlett, whose Fire took the lead in the 17th minute on a tally by Chris Rolfe, then watched 36-year-old (or is it 56?) Cuauhtemoc Blanco create bid after bid, only to be denied, sending the series back to Chicago Saturday. New England is now unbeaten in its last 15 (10-0-5) home MLS playoff matches, playing with poise and purposefulness before the cozy crowd of 7,416 assembled at Gillette Stadium Sunday. "From two minutes into the match, we knew that it would be nasty, it's a bitter rivalry," said New England midfielder Pat Phelan, who was instrumental in the Revolution scoring its second goal. "Winning that first one is important, we knew that we needed at least a tie." New England did even better, much to the dismay of Hamlett, who viewed Joseph's goal from a different perspective. "If you go back and watch, our guy (striker) Kevin McBride gets the crap beat out of him. Shalrie goes up from and throws his weight around and gets away with it - the referee looks the other way." That is, Joseph muscled his way between a pair of Fire defenders to stick his foot into traffic. Mauricio Castro took a corner kick from the right side which Phelan headed onto the hands of Chicago goalie and MLS MVP netminder Jon Busch. Out of the loose ball scramble, it ended up on the foot of Revolution midfielder Jeff Larentowicz in the right corner, who sent the ball back in front of the goal. "I hit the ball straight at him (Busch)," said Phelan. "I was wide open, but we kept the ball alive." And New England kept its playoff chances alive, heading to Chicago, where the Fire need to win by two goals - or else the series goes to overtime, then a possible shootout. "In a match like this, you have to go in and get as much as you can," said Heaps of New England claiming space, chances and the two points. "We absorbed some pressure, but we also could have been up a couple of goals too." Heaps, unfortunately, didn't shield Chicago's Marco Pappa enough in the right corner, who slipped the ball, forcing New England goalie Matt Reis to make a save. Unfortunately for the Revolution, the ball went right onto the foot of an unmarked Rolfe (who had six regular season goals), who one-touched it into an open net. "We had poor balance when they scored," said Heaps. "Other than that, it was pretty even most of the day." New England unleashed eight first-half shots and took three corner kicks, not going stoically into the fall afternoon. Finally, off of a Kenny Mansally indirect kick on the right flank, Osei, the 27-year-old Ghana native, flew in front of the Chicago net and flicked a header over Busch's hands and just under the crossbar. "They did what they were supposed to do, they were the home team," added Hamlett, the Fire now being winless in its last seven (0-3-4) matches. In a tremendously entertaining match, Chicago's McBride had two superb chances within the first eight minutes of play, then sent a right-footed blast off the left post in the 20th minute. And in the 72nd minute, the Fire's Baggio Husidic put another drive off the goal post. But, New England supplied offensive muster too, Sainey Nyassi having good chances at 12 and 23, Larentowicz having another at 31, Osei hitting the outside of the left post at 40, Kheli Dube having a point-blank chance at 60. - New England and Chicago played to a pair of ties (1-1 and 0-0) during the regular season ... In nine playoff series with Chicago, the home team hasn't lost (13-0-1) ... New England set a club record for fewest goals (33) in a season, the second lowest mark in MLS this season ... The Revolution entered the postseason on a 1-2-2 stretch with only two goals scored ... New England lost 121 man-matches due to injury during the season ... The Revolution's last victory over Chicago came Nov. 8, 2007 on Taylor Twellman's bicycle kick that gave New England its third straight Eastern Conference title ... New England hadn't scored more than one goal in a game since earning a 2-1 win over Seattle Sounders FC on Sept. 26 ... Four Revs made their MLS Cup Playoffs debuts: Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes, Emmanuel Osei and Edgaras Jankauskas. Osei had started 23 matches for New England.