KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Momentum was a friend to the New England Revolution in recent months. They rode a wave of positive energy and picked up result after result through a nine-game unbeaten run.
But the Revs fell victim to an emotional swing – albeit on a smaller scale – on Wednesday night at Sporting Park, where their lengthy unbeaten streak ended with a 4-2 loss to Sporting Kansas City.
Juan Agudelo’s fourth goal of the season, tying him with Charlie Davies for the team lead, had the Revs up early, but the home side responded with three goals in a 14-minute span just before halftime, wresting momentum away from New England at a critical juncture.
“It was wild and we didn’t handle it well,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “They came with a lot of energy after we scored and I thought their reaction to the game was good.
“I think we could’ve put the game away, really, in the first 15 minutes if we were better. Instead we got caught up in the emotion, stopped playing and next thing you know we’re down 3-1.”
The halftime break at least temporarily halted Sporting KC’s momentum and the Revs came out of the interval believing they could claw themselves back into the game. After all, they’d seen a few gilt-edged chances go by the wayside in the opening 45 minutes and knew more opportunities would come.
But Krisztian Nemeth scored his second goal of the night just 20 seconds after the restart, effectively killing off any chance of a Revolution comeback.
“I thought we came in at halftime and had a really good talk,” Heaps said. “Unfortunately that fourth goal was really just kind of a punch to the gut.”
A trio of substitutes helped spark New England in the late stages – Teal Bunbury, Davies and Chris Tierney all came off the bench as Heaps rotated his squad in the midst of a three-games-in-eight-days stretch – and Davies was the provider on Scott Caldwell’s second career goal in the 64th minute.
There were more chances for the Revs to cut further into the deficit, but Heaps said the Revs lacked the composure which had seen them through to nine straight results from mid-March through mid-May.
There will now be limited time for the Revolution to correct the issues which popped up on Wednesday night as D.C. United visits Gillette Stadium this weekend with first place in the Eastern Conference on the line. But correcting those issues will be New England’s goal after a frustrating night at Sporting Park.
“We’ve got to correct things here because I think there were moments we want to look at,” Heaps said. “But at the same time, we have eyes on Saturday.”
