Generation adidas fell 2-1 to the reserve side of Santos, a team from South Africa's first division. Rodney Wallace started and played 58 minutes, while Chris Pontius came on as a 54th minute sub.
Here's the full match report from MLS, with lineups after the jump:
Major League Soccer's Generation adidas team suffered through a frustrating afternoon Wednesday, falling 2-1 to Santos in Cape Town in the second game of their three-game tour against reserve sides from the Premier Soccer League, South Africa's first division.
The game began with several clear opportunities from close range by the Generation adidas team, as a header by Danny Cruz (Houston Dynamo) in the ninth minute failed to hit the target, as did a second from Alex Nimo (Real Salt Lake) just three minutes later.
It set the tone for what would be a frustrating afternoon of many opportunities as Generation adidas outshot Santos 20-7 for the match.
With the MLS team controlling the action and creating some good chances, Santos scored the first goal. A free kick in the 33rd minute was cleared to the top of the penalty area and Mohamed, who was Santos' best player on the afternoon, latched onto the loose ball. His shot deflected off the head of Bruno Guarda past FC Dallas teammate Josh Lambo for the opening goal.
The second half saw more of the same type of pressure from the MLS team, only to see a penalty called against Lambo for taking down Santos striker Paulse in the 72nd minute. Paulse converted his own penalty kick to make the score 2-0.
The Generation adidas team continued to push in the final minutes of the game as one scoring opportunity after another ended either in the hands of Santos goalkeeper Roberts or just missed the frame. It was in the third minute of added time that a pass from Baggio Husidic sprung his Chicago Fire teammate, Patrick Nyarko, to finally beat the Santos 'keeper to make the score 2-1.
In the four minutes that followed of the seven total minutes that were added, there were several other opportunities for Generation adidas to tie the game, including an apparent handball by a Santos defender that was not called by the referee in the final minute.
The match was highly competitive and hard-fought with 33 fouls called. Santos used 18 players, while for Generation adidas, the only players not seeing action were goalkeeper Stefan Frei (Toronto FC) and defender Kevin Alston (New England).
The game was played at the Santos training facility, following a day that will be remembered by all members of the Generation adidas party. The group on Tuesday visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and participated in a clinic for young children on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The team then took the 2-hour flight on Wednesday to Cape Town, before facing Santos in the afternoon.
The last game of the South Africa trip will pit the MLS team against Ajax Cape Town on Sunday at the Ajax training facility.
Santos: Dicks (Roberts 46), Mdonga (Vogues 58), Davids (Omaticus 68), Sadan, Mohamed, Roelf (Van Roogen 53), Oakes (Mashike 53), Paulse, Bacela, Petersen (Gamildien 29), Jampies (Willards 46)
SHOTS: 7; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; FOULS: 20; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 7
Generation adidas: Josh Lambo; Tony Beltran, Chance Myers, Rob Valentino, Rodney Wallace (Jeremy Hall 58), Danny Cruz, Baggio Husidic, Bruno Guarda, Roger Espinoza (Eric Avila 58), Alex Nimo (Chris Pontius 54), Peri Marosevic (Patrick Nyarko 54)
SHOTS: 20; SHOTS ON GOAL: 8; FOULS: 13; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 5
