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Sounders ready to battle SKC at CenturyLink

May 22, 2015 - 8:23 PM Seattle, WA (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of teams in good form will clash on Saturday as Seattle Sounders FC welcome Sporting Kansas City to CenturyLink Field in a Western Conference battle.

Seattle enters the tilt in third place in the West with 19 points having won four of their last five matches. The only blemish a wild 3-2 loss to Columbus on May 9.

Last time out Sounders FC bested their Cascadia rivals, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 2-0, at BC Place.

Reserve forward Chad Barrett turned in an MLS Player of the Week-worthy performance, collecting both goals against the 'Caps to help his team collect an important three points.

Barrett struck the opener inside five minutes and he added a second goal in the 38th minute.

Clint Dempsey got things rolling for Seattle when he took control of the ball in midfield and played a well-weighted through ball in behind the defense. Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted came off his line to cut out the pass, but Barrett beat him to the ball and poked it past the netminder.

Marco Pappa played provider on the second goal when he curled a ball down the left wing that Barrett tracked down and drove inside the far post with a nice left-footed effort.

"Its good for me -- those were my first goals in six months," Barrett said. "It gives me a boost of confidence and takes a little pressure off the team because Vancouver came out firing in the first 15 minutes. It's a massive win. Everything about this just rings awesome in the ears."

Sporting Kansas City, meanwhile, is in excellent form despite a rash of injuries and will aim to extend its unbeaten streak to five matches following a comprehensive 4-2 win over the New England Revolution at home on Wednesday.

Krisztian Nemeth netted a pair of goals to go with tallies from Dominic Dwyer and Benny Feilhaber to collect all three points with ease.

Juan Agudelo opened the scoring for the Revs after 11 minutes, but Dwyer pulled the hosts level on the half-hour mark with a spectacular individual effort.

Nemeth got on end of a free kick from Feilhaber to nod the hosts in front and Feilhaber doubled with lead with a penalty kick on the stroke of halftime.

Sporting KC would extend the lead to 4-1 when Jacob Peterson sent a pass to Nemeth who beat keeper Knighton for his second goal of the game in the 46th minute.

The Revs answered with a goal through Charlie Davies in the 64th minute, but couldn't come any closer.

"You can see that this side is a hungry team," Dwyer said. "You can see that from the top to the bottom. Everyone wants it, and every guy can contribute. We were down to bare bones tonight, had to call a guy back from on loan to make 18, so that shows the character of the team. Seventeen. I'm not counting. We'll deal with what we get and fight for it. We're all working through injuries and nagging hurt bodies, and we just keep pushing and keep going."

"I really think the reason why we were able to get a result tonight was because of this one thing, and one thing only: We take every game that's coming up as our most important, and we're focused on that game, and we're not thinking about the next," manager Peter Vermes said.