Revs Must Douse Red-hot Fire

Chicago Stands in Way of Trip to Finals

November 8, 2007

By Sean Donahue

The New England Revolution are looking for their third trip in as many years to the MLS Cup Final, but will have to go through the hottest team in MLS to get there.

The Chicago Fire head into Foxboro on a 10 match unbeaten run, having knocked out D.C. United, the best team in the regular season, in the first round of the playoffs. It's the Revs sixth straight postseason appearance, and five of them have featured a match-up with the Fire. The Revs have won three of those series against the Fire and hold a 5-0-0 postseason record in Foxboro against them.

(Photo credit: Joyce Furia)

Thursday night will be a new challenge, however, as this Fire side has been rejuvenated by the additions of coach Juan Carlos Osorio and midfield/playmaker Cuauhtémoc Blanco. Under Osorio, the Fire have only suffered three defeats in 17 matches despite being without two key players in Justin Mapp, and Ivan Guerrero, both of whom missed time to injury.

Both will likely play little if any role on Thursday, but their absence hasn't stopped the Fire from going 10 games without a loss. Osorio has proved a master at shaping his line-up based on his opponents, moving Chris Rolfe into the midfield for the second leg in D.C., and inserting Calen Carr into the line-up. Carr went on to assist on both goals in the Fire's 2-2 draw.

While Revolution coach Steve Nicol may have trouble predicting his opponent's line-up, his own side has kept pretty steady throughout the year. The Revs have been fortunate to avoid any major injuries throughout the season and will likely put out the same line-up on Thursday that they used throughout the Eastern Conference Semifinal series with the New York Red Bulls.

The defense seems to have recovered from its late season struggles, posting shutouts in both legs against New York. On the flip side, the offense doesn't seem to be on the same page as they were in the regular season when they scored the second most goals in MLS. Taylor Twellman hasn't had many chances, while Pat Noonan's passing has been off so far this postseason.

The key match-up in this game will likely be the Revolution's defensive midfield pairing of Shalrie Joseph and Jeff Larentowicz against Blanco and Rolfe. Those two players have been a huge part of the Fire's offense this season and if the Revs can keep them quiet, they should be able to shut out the Fire.

The coverage of the match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2 Thursday night.

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: Blink Del.icio.us Digg
Furl Google Simpy Spurl Technorati Y! MyWeb