Sporting KC falls to New England 3-2

Jermaine Jones’ strike splashed the back of the net, and New England’s prized midseason acquisition ran to the sideline and held his ear to the fans at Sporting Park.

Silence.

For the first time in six years, the Revolution muted a Kansas City soccer crowd.

Jones halted a Sporting KC comeback bid with an 85th-minute tally, lifting New England to a 3-2 win Friday at Sporting Park — the visiting club’s first victory in Kansas City since 2008.

Sporting KC fell to 5-4-6 at home this season with its third straight loss at Sporting Park. The latest one came despite a valiant second-half comeback attempt after Sporting trailed 2-0 at halftime.

“We’re disappointed. There’s no hiding that,” Sporting KC striker Dom Dwyer said. “But the response at halftime was spot on. We crushed them for 45 minutes straight. We were unlucky not to be ahead.

“That’s just how it happens sometimes.”

Sporting KC, 13-11-6 overall, felt it did enough to win — and it outshot New England 15-6, including 9-5 after halftime — but it instead allowed the Revolution to sweep the season series. In the process, New England pulled even with Sporting KC for second place in the Eastern Conference with four games to play.

Jones’ strike from distance, which marked his first goal since joining Major League Soccer last month, countered an overwhelming attack from Sporting KC.

Dwyer supplied the game-tying goal in the 56th minute — his 20th of the season — after Paulo Nagamura put the club on the board 2 minutes earlier with his first score since May 10. Those were the highlights from the club’s most impressive run of play inside its home stadium in more than a month.

The goals told only half the story. After Sporting KC tied the match, a flurry of chances ensued. They all belonged to the home club.

Sporting KC had been outscored 6-1 over its past two MLS matches at Sporting Park, which welcomed 19,522 fans Friday for its 51st consecutive league sellout.

“I think we need to take the positives from it,” Sporting forward Graham Zusi said. “We had such a good second half. I think at this point in the year, we can try to take the best from those moments. We did enough to at least get a point. I thought we created a whole lot of chances. We had a ton of shots on goal.

“But at the end of the day, they finished the three chances they got.”

New England, 14-13-3, enacted a trendy game plan among visiting teams inside Sporting Park — the counterattack — and used it to produce all three of its goals.

New England midfielder Kelyn Rowe broke a scoreless tie in the 22nd minute, but much of the credit belonged to defender Kevin Alston, who flicked a perfect crossing pass that met Rowe’s foot directly in front of the goal. Making his first MLS start since July 6, Sporting KC goalkeeper Eric Kronberg stood little chance of a save.

New England defender Jose Goncalves stretched the lead to 2-0 only 13 minutes later, taking advantage of a soft opening in the Sporting Kansas City defense. Goncalves dribbled the length of the attacking half of the field, then sent a low shot toward the far post, beating a diving Kronberg.

A halftime turnaround helped Sporting KC prevent the rout.

“We don’t like losing. That was a big Eastern Conference game” Sporting Kansas City defender Seth Sinovic said.

“And we feel like we let one slip away there.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Sporting KC falls to New England 3-2."