KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Kei Kamara scored two goals, both set up by Soony Saad on similar plays, as Sporting Kansas City earned a 3-0 victory over the New England Revolution on Saturday night at Sporting Park. Benny Feilhaber tallied Sporting KC’s final goal in stoppage time.
The win extended Sporting KC’s (11-7-6, 39 pts.) undefeated streak against New England (8-9-6, 30 pts.) to six games – going 3-0-3 – dating back to July 2011. The Revs suffered their second loss in as many games, both by shutout.
Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made two changes to the lineup tonight from the Revs’ last match, inserting Kelyn Rowe into central midfield for Juan Toja, who missed the trip with lower back pain. Also introduced tonight was Kevin Alston, who slotted in at left back. Chris Tierney moved up to left midfield, supplanting Diego Fagundez, who was available on the bench.
It took 20 minutes for either team to record a shot, and it came through Sporting’s Argentine playmaker, Claudio Bieler. Chance Myers broke down the right wing and got deep before he whipped in a cross back to the top of the box. Bieler connected with a first-time side volley inches inside the edge of the box, but his shot was narrowly high of Bobby Shuttleworth’s goal.
After a 23rd minute chance by Oriol Rosell that was deflected wide from distance, SKC broke through in the 27th minute and ended the early stalemate. Kamara out-jumped Alston to Saad’s cross nine yards out from goal and his looping header beat a leaping Shuttleworth to the far, upper corner. Seth Sinovic played a short pass to Saad along the far byline to start the play, and Saad’s high cross found Kamara midway between the penalty spot and the six-yard box where he headed it home.
Down 1-0, the Revs had their first real chance of the night in the 40th minute. Lee Nguyen sent a pass downfield from the midfield line and connected with Dimitry Imbongo, who stayed onside at the top of the penalty area. He took the ball down and dribbled toward Jimmy Nielsen, but the SKC goalkeeper stopped Imbongo’s shot with his hip to prevent the equalizer.
Sporting KC repeated what worked in the first half and extended the lead to 2-0 in the 50th minute. Sinovic and Saad played down the left side, and – near the corner of the penalty box – Saad swung an angled cross into the box. Kamara flashed in front of Alston as both came across the face of goal and converted a diving header to beat Shuttleworth and put Sporting ahead by two.
The Revs had a further set-back in the 64th minute when referee Baldomero Toledo showed Imbongo his second yellow of the game for shielding the ball with his arm raised against Rosell as he turned toward goal. Having already seen yellow in the first half, Imbongo was shown red and ejected from the match, leaving the Revs with 10 men for the final 26 minutes of the game.
The Revs had a go in the 80th minute to break Sporting’s shutout bid when Chad Barrett broke around reigning defender of the year Matt Besler and earned a one-on-one with Nielsen. However, his left-footed shot was saved by the goalkeeper and the bouncing rebound was just out of the reach of Diego Fagundez, who was charging toward the back post.
The Revs’ come-back was further hampered in the 86th minute when second-half substitute Andy Dorman was shown a straight red for a challenge to Kamara at midfield, sending the Revs into the final four minutes of the game and stoppage time with only nine men. Kamara was assisted off the field, and with SKC already making their full allotment of subs, left Sporting down a man, as well.
Feilhaber added the final dagger against his former club when he drew a free kick just outside the box and then converted a curling free kick inside the near post to give Sporting KC the final 3-0 win.
The Revolution returns to action on Saturday, Aug. 17, when they host the Chicago Fire at Gillette Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET, and the match will be broadcast live on TV by Comcast SportsNet and on the radio by 98.5 The Sports Hub.
For up-to-the-minute information on the Revolution, visit the team’s official web site at revolutionsoccer.net, or join the conversation and interact with fans on any of the team’s social platforms: Twitter (@NERevolution, #NERevs), Facebook (NERevolution), Google+ (+NERevolution), Instagram (NERevolution), Pinterest (NERevolution), Vine (NERevolution), YouTube (NERevolutionSoccer) and Flickr (NERevolution).
For more information about 2014 ticketing options, including multi-game plans and individual game tickets, please visit revolutionsoccer.net/tickets.
New England Revolution at Sporting Kansas City
August 10, 2013 – Sporting Park (Kansas City, Kan.)
Sporting Kansas City 3, New England Revolution 0
Scoring Summary:
SKC – Kei Kamara (Soony Saad) 27
SKC – Kei Kamara (Soony Saad) 50
SKC – Benny Feilhaber (unassisted) 92+
New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth, Kevin Alston (Diego Fagundez 57), Jose Goncalves ©, Stephen McCarthy, Andrew Farrell, Chris Tierney, Kelyn Rowe, Scott Caldwell, Lee Nguyen (Andy Dorman 71), Saer Sene (Chad Barrett 63), Dimitry Imbongo
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Reis, A.J. Soares, Ryan Guy, Darrius Barnes
STATS: Shots 8, Shots on Target 4, Corner Kicks 1, Saves 0, Fouls 15, Offsides 7, Passes 321 (76.6%), Possession 39.6%
Sporting KC: Jimmy Nielsen ©, Seth Sinovic, Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, Chance Myers, Benny Feilhaber, Oriol Rosell, Peterson Joseph (Lawrence Olum 57), Kei Kamara, Soony Saad (C.J. Sapong 77), Claudio Bieler (Dom Dwyer 83)
Substitutes Not Used: Eric Kronberg, Ike Opara, Mechack Jerome, Jacob Peterson
STATS: Shots 11, Shots on Target 3, Corner Kicks 3, Saves 4, Fouls 16, Offsides 1, Passes 495 (81.2%), Possession 60.4%
* Note that all statistics are unofficial as supplied by Opta
Misconduct Summary:
SKC – Benny Feilhaber (caution) 34
NE – Dimitry Imbongo (caution) 53
NE – Dimitry Imbongo (caution) 65
NE – Dimitry Imbongo (ejection/second yellow) 65
SKC – Claudio Bieler (caution) 81
NE – Andy Dorman (ejection) 86
NE – Stephen McCarthy (caution) 90
Referee: Baldomero Toledo
Assistant Referees: Fabio Tovar (AR1), Mike Rottersman (AR2)
Fourth Official: Daniel Radford
Weather: Sunny, 82 degrees
Attendance: 19,988
Team Records
New England Revolution – 8-9-6 (30 pts.)
Sporting Kansas City – 11-7-6 (39 pts.)
GAME NOTES
- With the loss, the Revs fell to 8-9-6 on the season
- The loss dropped the Revolution’s all-time, regular-season record against Sporting KC to 13-23-11 … New England is 6-12-5 in away matches in Kansas City and 0-2-2 at Sporting Park
- This was the Revs’ second loss in as many games … this is just the second time this season in which the Revs have lost back-to-back games
- Sporting KC extended their shutout streak against New England to 502 minutes with the clean sheet …the Revs last scored against SKC on July 30, 2011 – a 38th minute goal by Rajko Lekic at Sporting Park
- This is just the sixth time this season – in 23 games – that the Revs allowed two or more goals in a game
- Tonight marked Kevin Alston’s first start since March 30 … he was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in early April and made his initial return to the field on July 27 at D.C. as a late second-half substitute
- Tonight marked Chris Tierney’s first start at left midfield since the final game of the 2012 season – a 1-0 win at Montreal on Oct. 27, 2012
- Andy Dorman made his first appearance since May 25 when he came on as a substitute against Toronto FC at Gillette Stadium
- Dimitry Imbongo was shown his third red card of the season … that set a new team record for ejections in a season, surpassing four players who each received two reds in one season
