Santa Clara, CA (My Sportsbook) - The San Jose Earthquakes host the Kansas City Wizards in Major league Soccer action on Saturday night at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Both teams are in serious need of points, with the Wizards currently second- from-the-bottom in the Eastern Conference table, and the 'Quakes the bottom feeders in the West.

Kansas City ((5-8-6) is coming off its second straight shutout loss - 2-0 vs. Chicago this past Sunday - and is winless since June 13. The loss was the first in the Peter Vermes era after the team fired Curt Onalfo earlier this month.

"We didn't have the right intensity right off the bat. That's something that we stressed and we need to do better," Wizards defender Aaron Hohlbein said. "They're a good attacking team, but at the same time, we need to stick to our principles and make sure we're solid."

The team hopes to do better is game two under Vermes on Saturday.

"I never expected to come in here in the interim and be a magician and fix everything all at one time," Vermes said. "I really believe that it is a process to build something. And anybody who thinks it's going to be like that, a fast little thing, I'm definitely not the right guy for it. But we have something here we can build from."

The Earthquakes (4-11-5) are coming off a 3-0 loss to Columbus on Aug. 8 in the first ever game at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.

"Obviously it was a very disappointing result after seeing how well we played last week," S.J. coach Frank Yallop said. "We were doing okay in our game and the goal basically killed us; it took the wind out of our sails. Then the second one was a real poor one for us to give up and after going down two the game is over."

The Quakes will be without defender Aaron Pitchkolan on Saturday because of injury, while the Wizards will be without Zoltan Hercegfalfi because of suspension, and defender Chance Myers and midfielder Kevin Souter because of injury.