Revs keep hopes alive

FOXBORO — The Revolution used two goals in the final 15 minutes to post a gutsy 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City last night in front of a Gillette Stadium crowd of 25,280, the largest home attendance of the season.

While the victory sent the partisans home happy, they left knowing the Revs’ flickering playoff hopes still remain dicey with two games left in the regular season.

The Revs (10-13-9) appeared headed for a deadlock when Kei Kamara’s cross from the right went across to midfielder Lee Nguyen in the left side of the penalty area. He blistered a half-volley that rifled off the left post behind KC keeper Tim Melia, but the carom blasted off the leg of KC defender Kevin Ellis and into the open net in the 75th minute.

The Revs solidified matters eight minutes later when Kamara outmuscled two KC defenders for the ball on the left wing, and delivered a perfect cross for Juan Agudelo to roof his sixth goal of the season over the beleaguered Melia.

“We believed that we were creating chances and that maybe one chance was going to go in,” Agudelo said. “We finished it off. We didn’t want to tie this game.”

Revs coach Jay Heaps never doubted his players.

“From 52 minutes on, I felt it was coming. I felt the goal was inches away. The energy came back,” Heaps said. “We knew coming back here that this was a game we had to get. We felt we had to win our home game and then win at Chicago (on Oct. 16).

“We have to bring a playoff mentality. It’s been that way for a while.”

But even with the win, the Revs still are outside the playoffs. They entered the night in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, and still are there — but instead of four points behind sixth place D.C. United, they are now two points behind Montreal for the sixth and final East playoff spot.

The desperate Revs played with fervor and grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute. Agudelo flicked a pass to spring a wide open Kamara — who strode in alone and beat Melia low inside the near right post for his sixth goal in 19 games with the Revs.

The Revs were employing their now familiar 4-4-2 formation, which they started playing back on Aug. 24 and are now 5-2-1 since then, with 14 goals scored and just even allowed.

“We knew we had to pick it up a notch and we did that. It was really, really good the way we came back,” Kamara said. “This time of year, it’s not a time to let home points slip away.”

The visitors brought on U.S. national team midfielder Graham Zusi to start the second half, and the switch almost paid immediate dividends but Zusi’s bid on the doorstep was blocked by Darius Barnes.

But on the subsequent corner kick by KC’s Benny Feilhaber, the ball was flicked into the goal mouth, where it glanced off the left knee of forward Dom Dwyer past Revs keeper Brad Knighton to tie the game in the 49th minute. It was Dwyer’s 16th goal of the campaign.

“We laid an egg for the first three or four minutes (of the second half), but the response we had after that was really, really good,” Heaps said.