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Kheli Dube and the Revs will face a much-improved Toronto side on Saturday. (Photo credit: Joyce Furia). |
That will likely be in the back of both coaches’ minds in Saturday night's match as a Revolution win would guarantee Steve Nicol will coach the MLS All-Stars on July 24 against West Ham. A Toronto win, combined with a loss by Columbus, would give the role to Carver.
Toronto this year has gone unbeaten at home and holds a 6-4-3 record overall. The Revs have been a better road team this season, but will be happy to be playing at home for this match as Toronto has only one road win all season.
"They are organized," said Nicol. "They are strong, they don't make a lot of mistakes, and they don't leave many holes. Going forward, obviously [Jeff Cunningham] has got pace to burn, which is always a problem for any defense. If you get him on the wrong day, then he'll put the ball in the net. Whether it is going forward or defending we have to make sure that we are solid throughout."
The Revs' and Nicol's hopes will be boosted by the return of several key players who missed out on last weekend's 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake. Shalrie Joseph and Khano Smith have returned from national team duty and Kenny Mansally is also expected to be back in time for Saturday's game. Mauricio Castro looks back to full fitness after missing the match against RSL with a right oblique strain. All-time leading scorer Taylor Twellman is also close to a return and has been participating fully in training since Wednesday. He may even see some minutes this weekend.
"Obviously [Twellman] hasn't been training properly for three months," said Nicol. "I think we can maybe get something out of him on Saturday, whether it's 10, 15, or 20 minutes. We might be lucky. Again, we'll see how he reacts. He's had two days training and hopefully he'll come in tomorrow with no reaction. We'll keep along the same lines day in and day out and see how it goes."
While the attack will be bolstered by those returns, the Revolution defense will surely be tested against a much improved Toronto offense. The speedy and creative Cunningham is back to full fitness after being slowed last year by injuries and has tallied three goals this season. The bigger threat this year, however, has been physical forward Danny Dichio, who leads the team with five goals after tallying six all of last year. The 6-foot-3 Englishman has also contributed three assists for his team.
"The key is to challenge him in the air, but also not make it easy for him," said defender Jay Heaps of defending Dichio. "I think he's going to win his fair share of headers, the key is that we also react and get the second ball."
Some of the biggest changes from last year for Toronto, however, have been in the midfield. Toronto added creative midfield Rohan Ricketts, who had spent his entire career in England, as well as playmaker and former MLS MVP Amado Guevara. Those two joined an already strong midfield that features 2007 MLS Rookie of the Year Maurice Edu, who has seen some time with the US National Team recently, among others.
"They are a strong team now," added Heaps. "Last year you could kind of understand what they were going to do. This year they've added the key players that change the game, so it's important for us to take that away from them and clog their middle there and shut them down."
A big factor for the Revs will be getting off to a fast start. In draws with New York and DC at home, the Revs fell behind early and had to make a comeback to salvage a point.
"If we win games at home it's because we start fast," said Heaps. "We need to really get motivated; take last week's loss for what it is and use it for motivation."
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