SKC falls 2-1 to New England in first preseason loss

Sporting Kansas City and the New England Revolution played their next to last match of the 2018 Mobile Mini Sun Cup with SKC falling 2-1.

Sporting KC went with a young, second team lineup to start, giving most of them the better part of 60 minutes before what would be expected to be the first team came in for the last 30 minutes.

New England took advantage of the one of the youngster’s mistakes when Gianluca Busio slipped and hung a bad pass back to the keeper out for the Revolution. Teal Bunbury slipped it to Diego Fagundez, his shot was almost saved off the line by Emiliano Amor but the clearance bounced off Eric Dick and back into the goal.

A few minutes later Amor played a quick long ball to Gerso who blew past the Revolution defenders. Gerso went in on Cody Cropper but as he touched it past the New England keeper, Cropper’s hand appeared to make contact with Gerso, taking him down.

Diego Rubio stepped up to take the resulting penalty. After VAR confirmed the call, Cropper dove right and Rubio slotted it inside the opposite post to level it at one all in the 21^st minute.

Around the 30 minute, Jimmy Medranda came on for Seth Sinovic, Graham Smith replaced Amer Didic and Adrian Zendejas came in for Dick.

In the 36^th minute the Revolution struck again. Fagundez dribbled across the middle and SKC’s left side were all drawn in to the middle, allowing him to easily find a wide open Kelyn Rowe. The resulting shot easily went in off the far post to make it 2-1.

When what would be expected to be the starting lineup came on in the 60^th the tempo picked up and a number of chances created but were unable to tie it up a second time. The Revolution almost made it a two goal advantage in the 69^th when former Sporting KC winger Krisztián Németh headed one past Zendejas off of a set piece.

VAR called it back as Nemeth was clearly offside when the ball was played.

As New England switched out their starters, SKC kept the pressure turned up but could not seriously challenge the Revolution keeper, finishing the game down 1-2 to the Revolution.

On the positive side, Graham Zusi and Jimmy Medranda saw their first action since early in the season and newcomer Johnny Russell got a chance to get to know his teammates. The pk was Rubio’s first goal of the year and hopefully gives him some confidence to find the net in the run of play.

If you missed the game, you can watch it for yourself below.