The New England Revolution traveled to the Heartland to take on Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night and came away with a hard-fought point. Chances were created on both sides, though in truth it was a fairly poor game from a finishing standpoint. Matt Reis made several saves to preserve the shutout.
The match opened up with some controversy as Revolution head coach Jay Heaps elected to bench leading goalscorer Saer Sene. It may have been a move to give the Frenchman some rest, but after several subpar performances, many fans felt that it may have been a way of sending a message.
The first-half summary is available earlier in the stream. The second half started off with a spectacular save from Matt Reis, who had to dive down to his right to parry away an excellent flick header from Jacob Peterson in the 52nd minute.
Saer Sene came on in the 58th minute and nearly made an instant impact in the 59th, but he couldn't get his foot around a Chris Tierney low cross, despite it being on his preferred left. Kei Kamara then had a great chance for Kansas City in the 60th minute, heading down a Michael Harrington cross, but Matt Reis was able to save it at the near post and hold on.
Bobby Convey had a daisy-cutter saved in the 67th minute by Reis, before Sene played in fellow substitute Fernando Cardenas in the 80th minute, but the little Colombian's curling effort was right at Jimmy Nielsen. Sene once again had a great chance to put his team ahead when he connected with a Tierney free kick at the far post, but his shot ended up flashing across the face of goal instead of landing on frame.
An injury to Reis in stoppage time extended the game more than ten minutes beyond the 90th, and there was a flurry of chances in that time. Most notably, Kei Kamara had a powerful header stopped by Reis and Ryan Guy a shot blocked that would have been a certain goal. In the end, though, both teams had to settle for honors even.
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