KANSAS CITY, Kansas – The New England Revolution saw their nine-game unbeaten streak come to an end on Wednesday night, suffering a 4-2 loss to Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park. The Revs, who had not lost since March 15 before tonight, remain in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 5-3-4 record for 19 points, two points behind D.C. United, who New England will host on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
New England took a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute when Juan Agudelo got on the end of a Kelyn Rowe through ball and broke in behind the Sporting Kansas City defense before cutting past a defender and slotting a shot past Tim Melia to give the Revs a 1-0 lead.
The home side equalized in the 29th minute when Dom Dwyer controlled a cross from Krisztian Nemeth with his chest before turning and firing a left footed volley into the bottom right corner of the goal, leveling the score at 1-1.
Sporting pulled ahead 10 minutes later when Nemeth got free in the penalty area and headed a Benny Feilhaber free kick past Brad Knighton to give the home side a 2-1 lead. Knighton, who was making his first start of the season in place of Bobby Shuttleworth, was forced to pull the ball out of his net once again just four minutes later when Feilhaber converted a penalty kick to give Kansas City a 3-1 lead. Referee Allen Chapman whistled the penalty after Revolution defender Jose Goncalves was adjudged to have pulled back Dwyer inside the area.
Sporting Kansas City extended their lead to three less than a minute into the second half when Nemeth scored his second, taking a a pass from Jacob Peterson and breaking in alone on goal before finishing for his second goal of the game, making the score 4-1 in favor of the home side in the 46th minute.
The Revolution pulled a goal back in the 64th minute when Scott Caldwell placed a right-footed shot past Melia for his second goal of the year. Goncalves started the attack, playing a long ball over the top of the Kansas City defense for Charlie Davies, who cut the ball back for Caldwell to cut the Sporting lead to 4-2. However, that would be as close as the Revs would get as they dropped their first game in more than two months.
Full match highlights and statistics can be found here.
Revolution Santander Man of the Match
SCOTT CALDWELL – The Braintree, Mass. native scored his second goal of the season slotting a right-footed shot after receiving the ball from Charlie Davies in the 64th minute.
Next Game
The Revolution will travel back to New England to play D.C. United on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and will be shown locally on Comcast SportsNet followed on the network by Revolution Postgame Live. That game will also be carried live on the radio on 98.5 The Sports Hub and WMVX 1570 AM Nossa Radio USA in English and Portuguese respectively.
New England Revolution at Sporting Kansas City
May 20, 2015 – Sporting Park (Kansas City, Kansas)
Sporting Kansas City 4, New England Revolution 2
Scoring Summary:
NE – Juan Agudelo 4 (Kelyn Rowe 3) 11’
SKC – Dom Dwyer 4 (Krisztian Nemeth 1, Jalil Anibaba 2) 29’
SKC – Krisztian Nemeth 4 (Benny Feilhaber 6) 39’
SKC – Benny Feilhaber 3 (Penalty Kick) 43’
SKC – Krisztian Nemeth 5 (Jacob Peterson 1) 46’
NE – Scott Caldwell 2 (Charlie Davies 1, Jose Goncalves 1) 64’
Misconduct Summary:
SKC – Benny Feilhaber (Yellow Card) 30’
SKC – Dom Dwyer (Yellow Card) 37’
NE – Andy Dorman (Yellow Card) 41’
SKC – Amadou Dia (Yellow Card) 71’
SKC – Soni Mustivar (Yellow Card) 76’
NE – Jose Goncalves (Yellow Card) 89’
New England Revolution: Brad Knighton; London Woodberry, Jermaine Jones ©, Jose Goncalves, Kevin Alston (Chris Tierney 73’); Andy Dorman, Scott Caldwell; Kelyn Rowe (Teal Bunbury 54’), Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez (Charlie Davies 54’); Juan Agudelo
Substitutes Not Used: Bobby Shuttleworth, Jeremy Hall, Steve Neumann, Sean Okoli.
STATS: Shots 11, Shots on target 4, Saves 3, Corner kicks 10, Offsides 4, Fouls 12, Possession 49.6%, Passes 376 (69.9%)
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Amadou Dia, Matt Besler, Kevin Ellis, Jalil Anibaba; Soni Mustivar; Paulo Nagamura (Servando Carrasco 86’), Benny Feilhaber; Krisztian Nemeth (Saad Abdul-Salaam 92+), Jacob Peterson (Connor Hallisey 79’); Dom Dwyer
Substitutes Not Used: Luis Marin, Jimmy Medranda, James Rodgers.
STATS: Shots 15, Shots on target 7, Saves 2, Corner kicks 2, Offsides 4, Fouls 16, Possession 50.4%, Passes 398 (76.1%)
Referee: Allen Chapman
Assistant Referees: Paul Scott and Fabio Tovar
Fourth Official: Tyler Ploeger
Weather: Cloudy and 53 degrees
Attendance: 18,864
Team Records:
New England Revolution: 5-3-4, 19 pts.
Sporting KC: 4-2-5, 16 pts.
Additional Game Notes
- With the loss the Revolution are now 5-3-4 for 19 points on the season. They remain in second place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind D.C. United, who they will face at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening.
- The loss snapped New England’s nine-game unbeaten streak. The Revs went 5-0-4 in that time after dropping their first two games of the season. The nine-game unbeaten streak was the longest unbeaten streak for any club in MLS this season.
- Tonight’s game was the 51st regular season meeting between the two sides; the Revs are now 16-34-11 against Sporting KC. New England and Sporting KC will not meet again in regular-season play, after meeting at least twice in the first 19 Seasons of MLS
- The Revs are now 2-3-1 on the road this season. They will play their next two games at home at Gillette Stadium, hosting D.C. United on May 23 and the LA Galaxy on May 31.
- Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made five changes to the team that drew 1-1 with Toronto FC last Saturday at Gillette Stadium. Brad Knighton, Kevin Alston, Andy Dorman, Diego Fagundez and Kelyn Rowe all getting the start in place of Bobby Shuttleworth, Chris Tierney, Andrew Farrell, Teal Bunbury and Charlie Davies.
- This was the first time this season that neither Shuttleworth or Farrell were in the starting lineup. They had been on the field for every minute of the season this year for New England.
- Juan Agudelo is now the only Revolution player to have started all 12 of the club’s regular season games this season.
- Alston, Dorman Fagundez and Rowe were all returning to the starting lineup while Knighton made his first start of the year.
- Brad Knighton was making his first since in a league game since June 28, 2014 when he started against Philadelphia.
- Andy Dorman made the 150th appearance of his Revolution career on the night, playing the full 90 minutes in central midfield.
- The Revs went up 1-0 in the 11th minute when Juan Agudelo scored after receiving a long through ball from Kelyn Rowe for his fourth goal of the season.
- Juan Agudelo is now tied with Charlie Davies for first on the team with four goals.
- Kelyn Rowe’s assist was his third of the season tying him with Scott Caldwell for first on the team in assists.
- This was the fifth straight game in which the Revs had taken a 1-0 lead.
- Sporting scored three goals between the 29th and 43rd minutes to go into the half down 3-1. This was the first time that they had allowed three goals in a half since July 16, 2014 when they allowed three second half goals in a 5-1 loss to the LA Galaxy.
- Krisztian Nemeth scored twice for Sporting. He joins Clint Dempsey as the only players to multiple goals in a game against the Revs this season.
- Nemeth’s first goal in the 39th minute gave the home side a 2-1 advantage. That was the first time that New England had trailed in a game since April 19 when they fell behind 1-0 to the Philadelphia Union.
- Scott Caldwell scored his second goal of the season in the 64th minute to cut Kansas City’s lead to 4-2. Caldwell now has two goals and three assists on the season, setting career-highs in each.
- Charlie Davies and Jose Gonsalves were each credited with their first assist of the season on that goal.
- Brad Knighton finished the game with three saves as the Revs were outshot 15-11.
- The four goals allowed by New England were the most the club has allowed since July 16, 2014 when the Revs lost to LA Galaxy by a score of 5-1.
- Andy Dorman was shown his 5th yellow card of the season in the 41st minute. Dorman will serve a one-game yellow card accumulation suspension during Saturday’s game against D.C. United.
