TORONTO — Brendan Rodgers suffered his first defeat as Liverpool manager, with the Reds going down 2-1 to Serie A outfit Roma at Boston’s Fenway Park on Wednesday evening.
Charlie Adam’s late strike was not enough for Rodgers’ men, who fell behind on the hour mark courtesy of a Michael Bradley goal. Alessandro Florenzi doubled his side’s advantage six minutes later, while the youthful Liverpool side toiled without reward for much of the contest.
Liverpool were without a number of their stars, including Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, with Raheem Sterling and Nathan Eccleston leading the attack. A lack of experience up front hampered the Reds, as Roma made the better of the opening exchanges.
Striker Pablo Osvaldo made life uncomfortable for the Liverpool defence, who did well to head into the half-time break with a clean sheet. Joe Cole had the Reds’ two best chances in the opening 45, but moments after the break Roma made their dominance count.
Erik Lamela constructed the opening goal with a well-weighted ball through to Bradley, who drilled past Brad Jones to give the Italian side the lead.
Moments later, Lamela was in the thick of the action again as his shot was parried by Jones into the path of Florenzi, who made it 2-0.
Adam then pulled a goal back in the 80th minute with a superb strike from 20 yards after a layoff from Daniel Pacheco. However, Liverpool were unable to find another goal and slumped to a 2-1 defeat.
• John Terry and Frank Lampard scored as Chelsea suffered a 3-2 defeat to the MLS All Stars at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, US. Terry and Lampard’s goals had put the Champions League winners 2-1 ahead in the second half, but the MLS All Stars hit back to draw level before snatching a late winner.
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Chris Wondolowski, Chris Pontius and Eddie Johnson scored for an All Stars side which featured David Beckham and Thierry Henry. San Jose Earthquakes forward Wondolowski opened the scoring with a shot after 21 minutes, but Terry levelled things up with a header from Lampard’s corner just after the half hour mark.
Chelsea, who played summer signings Eden Hazard and Marko Marin, went ahead when Lampard shot home from close range after 58 minutes.
DC United’s Pontius equalised with 17 minutes to go and Johnson, of Seattle Sounders, won the game with a goal in injury time.
