The Revs have been playing in foreign territory of late not unlike the team’s newest edition Lithuanian forward Edgaras Jankauskas.

A year ago, the Revs had twice as many wins at this point in the season. This season, with a 4-5-5 MLS record (6-7-6 overall) and playmakers Taylor Twellman and Shalrie Joseph sidelined with injuries, the Revs are certainly scraping the barrel for goals and wins.

Jankauskas scored the Revs only strike of the game Wednesday night against the Chicago Fire in the semifinal match of SuperLiga 2009, but the 2008 defending SuperLiga champion Revolution could not put out the Fire as Chicago pulled ahead 2-1 in the 63rd minute after Darrius Barnes fouled the Fire’s Brian McBride setting up Cuauhtemoc Blanco for the go-ahead.

The Fire advance to the SuperLiga finals Aug. 5 in Chicago.

Jankauskas played for the full 90 minutes for the first time with the Revs, and first time in eight months. The forward took a cross from Chris Tierney, who was returning to game action after being sidelined with a sore left MCL, and shot it into the net before it deflected off a Chicago defender and knotted the game at one.

“I took the ball on the chest and I think the ball hit some defender’s back or leg and went into the net,” Jankauskas said. “So at that moment I had the luck that we lacked in the second half.”

Against Chicago, the Revs took a season-high 23 shots — 17 in the second half alone — keeping the heat on the Chicago defense. But they were unable to capitalize on any of the chances, many of which bounced off the post and cross bar or sailed high of the net.

Jankaukas came to the team on July 1 filling an international roster slot to help plug some of the holes that have left head coach Steve Nicol with an incomplete bench for eight of 18 games this season. The 34-year-old has more than 18 seasons of experience in European professional soccer and has been on the Lithuanian national team 54 times, scoring 10 goals along the way.

The Revs need that experience on the field. Nicol has continuously credited his team’s lackluster preformance this season to the numerous injuries and the young players who have been forced to prematurely fill those roles.

“I guess you could say we didn’t get what we deserved,” Nicol said of his team’s play on Wednesday. “We had chances and their goalie made a couple of great saves, but overall, we haven’t got what we deserved.”

The team will finally return to regular season MLS play this weekend against Chivas USA at Gillette. (New England has played in a league-low 14 games, with every other team having at least 16 games to their record.)

While Chivas will prove to be a tough opponent sitting at third in the Western standings with eight wins and 27 points, the Revs will try to regain their winning ways at home.

“Sometimes you’re just unlucky,” said New England’s Jeff Larentowicz. “I don’t know how many times we hit the frame but we created chances. We had Edgaras on the ball, we had everybody running off him, our wide guys played really well. Sometimes, it just doesn’t go your way.”

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