New England Soccer Today

A Night to Forget

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Juan Agudelo scored early, but Sporting Kansas City responded with a series of strikes to overpower the Revolution, who fell 4-2 at Sporting Park on Wednesday.

Agudelo, who started up top in place of Charlie Davies, tallied in the 11th minute to grab the opening goal. Sporting responded in kind with goals from Dom Dwyer (29th minute), Krisztian Nemeth (39th and 46th minutes) and Benny Feilhaber (43rd minute). Scott Caldwell brought one back in the 63rd minute, but by then, it was too little, too late.

“We got on the wrong side of a couple of things in the first half, and we didn’t deal with it real well,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps told the media after the match. “I thought we came in at halftime and had a really good talk, and unfortunately, that fourth goal was a punch to the gut.”

The loss snapped the Revolution’s lengthy unbeaten streak – which stretched back to Mar. 21 – at nine (5-0-4), while Sporting extended their modest run to four straight (2-0-2).

After a couple of early half-chances showcased their attacking intentions, the Revolution found the back of the net inside of 11 minutes when Agudelo grabbed a pass from Kelyn Rowe, took a few touches and coolly sent it through.

As good as the guests looked early, Agudelo’s strike didn’t hold up for long. Right before the half hour mark, Dwyer brought down a pass from Nemeth, turned and pushed it past Brad Knighton to level it.

The hosts went ahead ten minutes later when Nemeth etched his name on the scoresheet by spearing through the Revolution defense and depositing his shot into the back of the net in the 39th minute.

Andy Dorman was cautioned in the 41st minute, and as a result, will be suspended for Saturday’s match due to caution accumulation.

Adding more insult to insult, former Revolution midfielder Benny Feilhaber converted a penalty try after Jose Goncalves was judged to have fouled Dwyer inside the area in the 38th minute.

Any hopes of mounting a comeback after the halftime speech were immediately vanquished when Nemeth raced into the Revolution area untouched and buried it less than 30 seconds into the second stanza.

The Revolution closed the gap in the 64th minute when Caldwell collected a pass from Davies and, with space to shoot, took advantage by measuring his shot, which fell into the back of the net.

“In the end, we’ll learn from it,” Heaps said. “It’s one of those where there’s a lot of moments where we can get better and we do. You want to blame it on the referees, but we can’t. We gave up four goals, and we can do better than that.”

A quick turnaround awaits the Revolution, who’ll return to action on Saturday when they host DC United at Gillette Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30pm.

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