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Revs invade Livestrong to meet Sporting

Jul 20, 2012 - 8:25 PM Kansas City, KS (Sports Network) - The New England Revolution will try to bring an end to its two-game losing streak when the club hits the road to take on Sporting Kansas City at Livestrong Sporting Park on Saturday.

The Revs have sustained back-to-back one-goal defeats and sit only three points from the bottom of the Eastern Conference, while Sporting will try to remain on top of the East with its second win in three games.

New England's last outing saw the club go down a goal midway through the first half against Montreal, but battle back to level the contest before halftime.

But Sanna Nyassi scored the winner for the Impact in the 67th minute, leaving Revs head coach Jay Heaps with a feeling of disappointment.

"Overall, it wasn't a good performance," Heaps said. "Unfortunately, we didn't have enough guys who had a good enough game. We lost the ball in areas where it cost us. It was good to get back in the game after the first goal. But in the second half, I thought we would could have come out little bit sharper, we were a little bit flat."

Despite the loss, New England's Darrius Barnes came away with a positive feeling about how his team responded.

"We've shown all year that we have some fight in us, whether we're up a goal or down a goal. We showed that again tonight," Barnes said.

However, there hasn't been enough fight in the team to notch more than six wins in 19 contests this season, meaning Heaps will need more from his side if they are going to creep back into playoff contention.

Sporting also suffered a loss in its last match, losing 2-1 against Houston after midfielder Peterson Joseph was sent off in the 45th minute.

Calen Carr netted the winning goal in the 79th minute for the Dynamo, but Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen felt as though his team did well despite playing down a man.

"I think we were extremely well organized, and didn't give much away even when we were a man down," said Nielsen. "We didn't give much away and held a lot of the possession. It didn't really get dangerous. We created some small stuff but never got really dangerous."

Kansas City needs to find that cutting edge, but it might be difficult with Joseph out through suspension and Roger Espinoza playing with Honduras at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Graham Zusi continues to battle a quad strain, and head coach Peter Vermes has said he has no idea whether or not his midfield ace will be able to return in time to feature against the Revs.