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Whitecaps roll into Kansas City

Jul 2, 2013 - 6:36 PM Kansas City, KS (Sports Network) - Vancouver Whitecaps FC brings a three-match winning streak into its contest at Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday, and head coach Martin Rennie is hopeful his team can continue to build on its strong form.

The Whitecaps weren't overly impressive in their last outing, a narrow 1-0 win against last-place D.C. United over the weekend, but the win lifted Vancouver into fourth place in the Western Conference.

Camilo scored the lone goal from the penalty spot in the second half following a debatable penalty decision, but Rennie was still upbeat after the match.

"I thought after about 20 minutes we became stronger in the first half and I thought we put really good pressure on the opposition," Rennie said. "I thought we pressed really hard. Overall, I thought it was a really hard working performance, a well-deserved win. It's our second away win in the last three games, in the last seven games we're 5-1-1 so we're on a really good run at the moment. We've got confidence and it showed well today."

Getting wins away from home in MLS is always important, no matter how you get them, but the 'Caps will have to improve on Saturday's performance if they are going to take anything from Wednesday's game in Kansas City.

Sporting snapped a four-game winless run over the weekend with a 3-2 win over Columbus, but head coach Peter Vermes knows there is still plenty of room for improvement.

"The two goals we gave up were absolutely horrendous," Vermes said. "I think after we scored two goals, we lost ourselves for five minutes or so. We were trying to figure out what happened. We weren't connecting."

Ultimately, Sporting was able to find the winning goal 10 minutes from time through Kei Kamara, who opened the scoring in the first half with an assist from Soony Saad.

It may not have been a pretty win, but it was still three points at home, which is something that hasn't happened enough for Sporting this season.

Prior to Saturday's win over the Crew, Sporting had won just one of its last five matches on home soil, so the result was a positive for the fans no matter the club got there.

"A lot of credit to the players for the character to come back," Vermes said of Saturday's win. "Obviously, I'm sure it was great for the fans. They definitely got their money's worth. At the end of the day, we gave up two soft goals, but it was great for us to score three goals at home."