Men Down in Loss to Wizards

The Revolution lost, 3-1, to the Kansas City Wizards Saturday, but more importantly lost both Gabriel Badilla and Khano Smith for Thursday’s playoff opener after both received red card ejections.

The Revs fell down a man and a goal 26 minutes in when Badilla fouled Claudio Lopez in the box and then destroyed any realistic hope of a comeback 16 minutes later when Smith committed a reckless foul on Herculez Gomez to earn himself a red card. Kansas City put its advantage to good use, tallying two more goals before Jeff Larentowicz scored a last minute consolation goal. The loss leaves the Revs winless in their last six matches and with only one win in their last 10.

The Revolution started off with a 4-4-2 formation for the second week in a row, keeping the starting line-up unchanged. The team remains winless since April when using a four-man backline.

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Revs Trying to Build Some Momentum

Who: Kansas City Wizard at New England Revolution
What: MLS Regular Season
Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (TV38, Cox 3 [R.I.])

A 5-2 win by the Chicago Fire against the New York Red Bulls on Thursday assured the New England Revolution's final regular season game on Saturday would have no bearing on the team's playoff seeding.

The Revs, who were sitting atop the MLS standings on Aug. 23, before a nine-game string of poor play left the team in third place, will enter the postseason with the third seed. While a win on Saturday would put the Revs tied for second with Chicago, the Fire hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Revs opponents, the Kansas City Wizards, meanwhile, have already secured a wildcard playoff spot, though they could drop down a seed with a loss combined with other unfavorable results throughout the league.

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Revs Lose Game, Ralston

The New England Revolution lost Steve Ralston and Mauricio Castro to injury en route to falling 1-0 to the Kansas City Wizards.

Ralston broke his leg on a rough Herculez Gomez tackle in the 12th minute and Castro left limping late in the second half. Ralston’s loss is the more significant. He suffered a broken right fibula and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks, putting the remainder of his season in jeopardy.

A 61st minute Jimmy Conrad goal was all the Wizards needed to keep their playoff hopes alive and hand the Revolution their ninth loss of the season. The loss drops the Revs into a tie in second place with Chicago with 43 points each.

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Revs Look to Build Momentum

Who: New England Revolution at Kansas City Wizards
What: MLS Regular Season
Where: Community America Ballpark, Kansas City, Kansas
When: Saturday, 8:00 p.m. (TV38, Cox 3 [R.I.])

Despite only managing a draw last weekend at Gillette Stadium against Salt Lake, the New England Revolution secured their seventh straight playoff appearance thanks to other favorable results from around the league.

With just three games left, however, the Revs do not want to head into the postseason in bad form. Those three matches, starting with a trip to Kansas City on Saturday, are all against teams still fighting for a playoff spot, which almost certainly guarantees the Revs won't have it easy in any of them.

"We don't want to crawl into the playoffs," said Revolution captain Steve Ralston. "We want to go in on a high note and play well and get some good results."

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Gambians Come Through for Revs

Nineteen-year-old Gambians Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally each scored in the first half to lead the Revolution to a 3-1 victory on the road in Kansas City on Wednesday night.

The Wizards’ Jack Jewsbury recorded an early own goal and then scored the equalizer on a penalty kick before the Gambians put the Revs back in the lead for good.

New England took the lead in the 12th minute when Tyson Wahl’s attempt to clear a Mauricio Castro free kick was sent back across the box. The ball deflected off Jewsbury and went into the net past KC goalkeeper Kevin Hartman for an own goal and a 1-0 Revs’ lead.

But for the second consecutive game the Revs had a penalty kick called against them when Nyassi tackled Kurt Morsink late at the top of the box in the 27th minute. Referee Terry Vaughn immediately pointed to the spot and Jewsbury took the kick and buried it past Matt Reis to tie the match at 1-1....

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Chance to Rebound in KC

Coming off a very disappointing outing in Chicago where they gave up a goal four minutes in, had Jeff Larentowicz ejected in the 7th minute, and eventually fell 4-0 to the Fire, the New England Revolution will be looking for a better result in Kansas City.

With the Wizards having a perfect 2-0 record to start the season, the task won't be very easy.

Still without Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston due to long term injuries, head coach Steve Nicol will have to further reshape his lineup without Jeff Larentowicz and possibly Chris Albright, who is suffering from a bruised ankle bone. If the Revs are to come out with a result, they will again need to hope for the spark from their young players that was key to their season opening victory against Houston, but lacking in the poor performance in Chicago...

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