Last modified: Thursday, June 25, 2009 2:20 AM EDT Kheli Dube of the New England Revolution (11) heads the ball in front of Kansas City’s Rauwshan McKenzie during a SuperLiga Group B match at Gillette. Revs have themselves to blame for tie BY PETER GOBIS SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - It was bad enough, playing their second match in four days. It was bad enough that their best three players, Steve Ralston (hamstring), Taylor Twellman (neck) and Shalrie Joseph (knee) were not even in uniform. It was bad enough when seldom-used-reserve-turned-starter Michael Vadeira was issued a red card in the 34th minute of the match, forcing them to play short-handed. It was even worse when Herculez Gomez looped a shot off the right wing that defender Darrius Barnes inadvertently mis-directed into the net for an "own goal" - with five minutes left! Instead of stealing three points and taking control of Group B, the New England Revolution had to settle for a 1-1 stalemate with the Kansas City Wizards Wednesday in the second leg of the SuperLiga series. "In the second half we played real smart, we gave it everything we had," said New England coach Steve Nicol. But, for one small step, the defending SuperLiga champions had a sure ticket to the semifinal round of competition go astray. The Revolution (1-0-1) took the lead in the first minute of stoppage time to end the first half when Kheli Dube scored his second goal in as many matches. However, Kansas City (0-0-2) took advantage of the manpower situation, created seven second half shots (five on goalie Matt Reis) and totaled three of its five corner kicks. "We switched to a 4-3-3 to get the ball wide and to get service into the box," said Wizard coach Curt Onalfo, bringing on Claudio Lopez at the outset of the second half for his playmaking skills and moving Gomez to the flank. "We started causing some issues." The most acute issue for New England was Vadeira being banished by referee Jorge Gonzalez for a flagrant foul, an arm-elbow, mid-air obstruction to Kansas City's Aaron Hohlbein. "He was going for the ball," maintained Nicol. "Did he catch him?" The objective by Vadeira was to win the air-ball, the intent was not to injure. "It's tough to swallow, some of those decisions," sighed Nicol. "There has to be a difference." Kansas City's equalizing goal came off of a Gomez shot from the right side which went through the legs of New England defender Emmanuel Osei, then off of Barnes, the Revolution's rookie defender with Reis leaning the other way. "We finished playing two games away from home and have two points, destiny is in our own hands," said Onalfo of the Wizards going back to Kansas City. "At the end of the day, the game is 90 minutes. "We started the game slowly, we didn't win enough first and second balls - we were lucky to be down only 1-0." New England could have had three first half goals. Dube sent Kenny Mansally in on the left wing in the 10th minute, only to have the shot denied by Wizard goalie Kevin Hartman. In the 14th minute, Videira made a superb individual move, twisting the Kansas City defense inside out, but then hammered a shot off the right goal post. The Revolution gained the lead in the 46th minute with Barnes launching a throw-in from the left sideline. The ball glanced off of Kansas City defender Rauwshan McKenzie onto the foot of Mansally, who slipped the ball to Dube. "I have no complaints, we defended from the front to the back, we were smart," added Nicol. CORNER KICKS - The Revolution has been authorized to broadcast the Confederations Cup championship match featuring the USA Sunday, the gates to be open early for the 2:30 kick, with New England facing Atlas in the third leg of the SuperLiga series ... New England then travels to New Britain, Conn. Tuesday for a US Open Cup match against Harrisburg ... Dube has scored just one goal in eight MLS matches this season for the Revolution ... New England has not had much success against the Wizards at Gillette, being 6-1-5 against Kansas City since 2002 ... The semifinals for the SuperLiga series will be July 15 and the finals on Aug. 5, both at the site of a MLS franchise ... Former Rev Adam Cristman, now with Kansas City, had surgery in mid-March for a broken fifth metatarsal bone ... Videira's red card makes him ineligible for Sunday's match, New England's bench being reduced to Wells Thompson, Stephane Assengue, Chris Tierney and Nico Colaluca ... Nicol is no fan of the three-leg series, forcing his team to play three matches in eight days. "Professional football players shouldn't be playing two games in three days."