Kristian Nemeth scored his team-leading fifth and sixth goals of the season and Sporting Kansas City pulled out a wild 4-4 draw after twice trailing the nine-man New England Revolution by two goals on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park.
Felipe Gutierrez also scored twice for Sporting, who were behind 3-1 before Brandon Bye was sent off in the 55th minute, and 4-2 after DeJuan Jones scored in the aftermath of Tim Melia's denial of a Carles Gil penalty.
Gutierrez cut the deficit in half again four minutes later, Nemeth leveled in the 83rd minute on his deflected header of Johnny Russell's corner kick, all before the Revs' Jalil Anibaba received his marching orders for a second bookable offense in the 89th.
Somewhere in there, New England 'keeper Cody Cropper also made a belief-defying recovery that denied Gerso another potential SKC goal. Gerso was hurt on the play and departed clutching his left arm.
Before the true craziness began, New England's Juan Fernando Caicedo opened his MLS account with a first-half brace, and Juan Agudelo added a goal to make it a 3-1 halftime lead.
Goals
- 18' - NE - Juan Fernando Caicedo | WATCH
- 33' - SKC - Krisztian Nemeth | WATCH
- 35' - NE - Juan Fernando Caicedo | WATCH
- 42' - NE - Juan Agudelo | WATCH
- 60' - SKC - Felipe Gutierrez (PK) | WATCH
- 66' - NE - DeJuan Jones | WATCH
- 70' - SKC - Felipe Gutierrez | WATCH
- 83' - SKC - Krisztian Nemeth | WATCH
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: As entertainingly bizarre as this contest was, in the end a point really does neither side any favors. Sporting remain below the playoff line in the Western Conference because they only have two victories to Real Salt Lake's three. The Revs still sit at the bottom of a more compact Eastern Conference table, when a victory would've seen them move all the way up to eighth.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: Even though it was already a high scoring encounter, it wasn't until Bye's foul on Gerso — which left referee Baldomero Toledo little choice but to produce a second yellow card — that order began descending into chaos.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Krisztian Nemeth. After a year in Qatar and two more seemingly in the MLS wilderness, Krisztian Nemeth just might've recovered the form that saw him score 10 league goals for Peter Vermes four seasons ago. He was also in the mix in the sequence that led to Cropper's goal-line denial and Gerso's exit, and his work in the box set up Gutierrez's second, even if he wasn't credited with an official assist.
Up Next
- SKC: Sunday, May 5 vs. Atlanta United (9 pm ET | FS1, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada)
- NE: Saturday, May 4 at Philadelphia Union (7:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in the US, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada)
