Revs Trying to Build Some Momentum

Club Looks to Get on Track Before Postseason

October 25, 2008

By Sean Donahue

Who: Kansas City Wizard at New England Revolution
What: MLS Regular Season
Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass.
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. (TV38, Cox 3 [R.I.])

A 5-2 win by the Chicago Fire against the New York Red Bulls on Thursday assured the New England Revolution's final regular season game on Saturday would have no bearing on the team's playoff seeding.

Steve Ralston

Steve Ralston and the Revs play Kansas City on Saturday. (CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com)

The Revs, who were sitting atop the MLS standings on Aug. 23, before a nine-game string of poor play left the team in third place, will enter the postseason with the third seed. While a win on Saturday would put the Revs tied for second with Chicago, the Fire hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Revs opponents, the Kansas City Wizards, meanwhile, have already secured a wildcard playoff spot, though they could drop down a seed with a loss combined with other unfavorable results throughout the league.

Though the match may mean little in regards to the standings, the Revs will want to put an end to their run of poor form and get some momentum heading into the playoffs. Without captain Steve Ralston, the team's top scorer and assister this year, the Revs need to prove they can still generate good scoring opportunities.

All-time leading scorer Taylor Twellman, who will look to score his 100th goal on Saturday, needs to continue to get good service from the midfield and whoever partners him up top, whether it is Kenny Mansally or Kheli Dube, needs to start finding the back of the net. Other than Twellman, the rest of the Revolution's forwards have scored only once in the past 12 games.

The Revs defense also has some questions to answer. The team still has not won since April when using a 4-4-2 formation. Though the extra man should help to stabilize the defense, it has seemed to do the opposite in recent games. Michael Parkhust and Gabriel Badilla, paired in the center of the four man defense, still seem to lack the needed chemistry and the team has not looked as comfortable in the back as they have playing a 3-5-2.

With the team seemingly suffering on both sides of the ball in the 4-4-2, it seems worth considering going back to the 3-5-2 even without Ralston available to man the center of the midfield. The team has done it before without Ralston, including a 3-1 win at Kansas City on April 9, when Ralston was out with another injury. That game, in which the Revs were missing three other starters including Twellman, saw coach Steve Nicol play Mauricio Castro in Ralston's role in the center.

Regardless of which formation Nicol decides to use, the Revs need to find some consistency and put an end to their five-game winless streak before the playoffs kick off on Thursday.

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