{"id":24739,"date":"2014-03-28T08:40:19","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T12:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24739"},"modified":"2014-03-29T00:59:57","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T04:59:57","slug":"preview-sjvne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=24739","title":{"rendered":"Preview: #SJvNE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz<\/p><\/div>\n

Two teams in search of their first win of 2014\u00a0face off at Buck Shaw Stadium\u00a0on Saturday, where the\u00a0New England Revolution (0-2-1, 1 point)\u00a0and San Jose Earthquakes (0-1-1, 1 point) will meet for an intra-conference clash. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 pm EST.<\/p>\n

The match will mark the only meeting between the MLS originals this season. Their last\u00a0clash came\u00a0in Jul. 2013, when\u00a0Saer Sene and Dimitry Imbongo combined to give the Revs a convincing 2-0 victory in Foxboro and put an end to their three-game\u00a0winless run.<\/p>\n

No doubt that New England will be in need of similar magic when they renew acquaintances with the Quakes.\u00a0In a scoreless draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps at Gillette Stadium last week, the Revs\u00a0managed to pick up their first\u00a0point of the young\u00a0season, but their inability to score has dropped them to the depths\u00a0of the Eastern Conference table.<\/p>\n

The Earthquakes, meanwhile, have managed to garner only a point as well, even after a thrilling\u00a03-3 comeback draw to Real Salt Lake in their home opener seemed to signal that the never-say-die Goonies were back.<\/p>\n

But the excitement from that captivating draw has since cooled.\u00a0Not long after, the Quakes suffered a\u00a0gut-wrenching defeat in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals 5-4 in penalties against Mexico’s Toluca.\u00a0Three days later, they\u00a0were dealt another blow in league play\u00a0by Sporting Kansas City, who\u00a0snatched a 1-0 victory thanks to a second half penalty from Dom Dwyer.<\/p>\n

Outside of the potential absence of Kelyn Rowe, who picked up an injury in the dying minutes last week, Jay Heaps is likely to\u00a0rely on the\u00a0same personnel\u00a0that held Vancouver scoreless.\u00a0That means\u00a0Saer Sene will likely get his second start of the season following his strong showing at home last week against the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n

With the contract controversies in the rearview, team captain Jose Goncalves is in line to\u00a0anchor the backline\u00a0again, with Andrew Farrell, A.J. Soares and Chris Tierney all looking to help the Revs pick up a second clean sheet.<\/p>\n

In the midfield, veteran\u00a0Andy Dorman is likely to start again over the 23-year-old Scott Caldwell, who started last week’s game on the bench before coming on late for Rowe. With Rowe listed as out on the injury report, Daigo Kobayashi is expected to fill his spot in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n

Up top, Jay Heaps is expected to keep his trusts in Teal Bunbury, while\u00a0 Jerry Bengston and Dimitry Imbongo will be his top choices off the bench to bolster attack.<\/p>\n

As for the hosts, the opening draw to Salt Lake\u00a0and subsequent defeat against Sporting KC will only mean that they’ll be anxious to pounce on the offensively-challenged Revs.\u00a0San Jose will be counting on goal artist\u00a0Chris Wondolowski and his partner in crime, Steven Lenhart, to put their guests on their backheels. Newcomer Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi, who played a pivotal role in the 3-3 draw,\u00a0will be counted upon to secure the midfield for San Jose.<\/p>\n

The Revs will\u00a0remain on the\u00a0road the following weekend to face Eastern Conference rival D.C. United before returning home to host the Houston Dynamo,\u00a0where they’ll get\u00a0a chance to avenge their jarring 4-0 opening week defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revs and Quakes will both be searching for their first wins of the season in Saturday’s clash at Buck Shaw Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,1274,76],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/JG-3.png?fit=475%2C260","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24747,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24739\/revisions\/24747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}