FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It was a game in which the Revolution sure could have used Shalrie Joseph.

Three days after they traded away their physically imposing captain, the Revolution were pushed and shoved into a 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.

“That was (Kansas City’s) game plan, for sure,” Revolution left back Chris Tierney said. “That’s a road tactic, and a tactic that teams have used against us all year.”

Although their guests’ game plan was nothing new for the Revolution, the way they reacted to it certainly seemed that way.

But before K.C. was able to impose its presence on the match, the Revolution nearly found a chance to get on the scoresheet. In the eighth minute, Ryan Guy went forward and centered a pass through before left back Seth Sinovic guided it toward goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, who snuffed out the opportunity on his doorstep.

From there, though, Kansas City wouldn’t allow many more opportunities. Employing the hard-nosed approach that the likes of Columbus and Toronto used at Gillette Stadium, Peter Vermes’ squad succeeded in suffocating the Revolution.

“I felt like every time we got around the ball, there was a foul,” Revolution coach Jay Heaps said. “It was just a disruptive game all around.”

Kansas City would have taken a scoreless draw for the road point. But in near the midway point of the first half, they used their rough-and-tumble approach to squeeze out a goal.

Off an awkward Flo Lechner throw-in, Paulo Nagamura punched it downfield, where Revolution midfielder Clyde Simms raced over to control the ball. But Teal Bunbury outmuscled him for position, tapped it over Stephen McCarthy and chased it down into the area, where he slipped it past a helpless Matt Reis in the 20th minute.

“It was a poor throw-in to a poor touch to a poor pass to a poor defensive play to nothing Matt can do,” Heaps said. “Unfortunately, we’ve been punished all year for our mistakes.”

Despite the early gaffe, the Revolution tried to regroup. They tried to keep the ball on the carpet and make K.C. run themselves into a mistake.

But K.C. wasn’t about to let that happen. Not when it became so easy to simply throw their weight into Lee Nguyen -- whom Heaps said was fouled “every time he touched the ball” -- or Dimitry Imbongo, who was cut down on multiple occasions inside the attacking third.

“They have to foul in certain spots because they have so many guys forward,” Simms said. “They're susceptible to the counter. That’s the way they play. They recruit big guys -- big physical guys -- and that’s the way they play.”

Amid the elbows and brazen tackles, the Revolution found another chance to level it just minutes into the second frame. Taking the ball into the teeth of the K.C defense, substitute Fernando Cardenas played it wide to Tierney, with space to operate. The left back took a touch and launched a cross into the box, where Imbongo nodded opportunity inches over the bar in the 49th minute.

“(Cardenas) came in, had a boost, (and) got the rhythm going,” Heaps said. “We had a couple of breaks, here and there, a couple of opportunities in the second half that I thought we should have capitalized on.”

Another opportunity came in the 86th minute, when Guy switched it to the left, where Tierney took a hold of it. But Tierney’s left-footed shot skipped right to Nielsen, who fell to the turf to corral it.

In the end, the foul stat told the story: 21 fouls created by K.C., only 12 caused by the Revolution. It was a sign that K.C. set out to punish its opponent. And it worked.

“They were clearly trying to slow our play through the midfield and break things up,” Tierney said. “And they did a good job of that.”

And while it was clear the Revolution lacked the kind of presence that Joseph regularly brought to the table, Tierney refused to give in to the idea that they were still reeling from the stunning trade of their captain.

“We’re over that,” Tierney said. “We’re moving on. We all had jobs to do. It has been an emotional week but … we all know what we have to do and we move on game to game.”