A late penalty kick was the difference as D.C. United fell to the New England Revolution 3-2 Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
Yamil Asad recorded his second brace in as many games and tied for the team lead in goals with seven for United, while Cristian Penilla scored twice for New England.
New England struck first when a free kick from Asad fell into the hands of Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner, who quickly distributed the ball forward into the path of Krisztián Németh who then connected it to Diego Fagundez. In the ensuing scramble, the ball found its way to Penilla who slid it home to make it 1-0 for the home side at the 18th minute.
United was able to answer on another free kick, this time from Zoltán Stieber, which deflected off Asad’s head and into the Revolution net to tie things at one at the 43rd minute.
New England was able to regain the lead right before the end of the first half in stoppage time to take a 2-1 lead heading into half time.
United battled back in the second half, constantly threatening in the New England portion of the field until Darren Mattocks was hauled down in the penalty area which resulted in a penalty kick at the 73rd minute.
Asad stepped up to the spot and calmly fired it in to tie the match at two.
At the 78th minute, the Revolution were awarded their own penalty kick which Penilla converted on to put New England up 3-2.
The Black-and-Red will next take one more trip out west to face the Los Angeles Galaxy on July 4 at 10:30 PM ET before finally arriving back home in the District on July 14 to open Audi Field against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
