{"id":41146,"date":"2016-03-05T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T20:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41146"},"modified":"2016-03-05T16:06:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T21:06:57","slug":"the-warm-up-houvne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=41146","title":{"rendered":"The Warm Up: #HOUvNE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

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

Don’t look now, but season 21 of New England Revolution soccer is upon us, and with it, a chance for\u00a0redemption tolls.<\/p>\n

The recent past (see: 2015’s fifth-place finish) is dead and buried. The future? Well, the locals will have plenty of opportunities to resurrect the notion\u00a0that they’re a bonafide power in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The first of those opportunities, of course, is right in front of them. Fresh off a Desert Diamond Cup title victory over Columbus Crew SC, spirits are flying high in New England.<\/p>\n

To kick off their the new\u00a0season, the Revolution travel to Texas to take on a familiar foe in the Houston Dynamo.<\/p>\n

The last time they met:<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s only been a few weeks since these two clubs met in the preseason Desert Diamond Cup semi-final, where the Revolution captured a 2-1 win\u00a0thanks to Teal Bunbury and Steve Neumann\u2019s goals. The locals left the Copper State feeling optimistic and excited to have Bunbury find his form\u00a0over the club\u2019s time in Arizona, with the Dynamo victory serving as the best\u00a0showcase of the Revolution’s attacking ambitions this year.<\/p>\n

What to expect:<\/strong>
\nSay what you will about losing Jermaine Jones, but on paper, New England didn\u2019t see a major dip in talent this offseason. Returning Bobby Shuttleworth, Lee Nguyen, Juan Agudelo, Chris Tierney and Diego Fagundez, the Revolution have to like their chances\u00a0in the opening match. On the flip side, Houston is still in the process of finding its identity\u00a0in coach Owen Coyle’s second season, especially with Brad Davis gone, and a slew of new attacking players. In light of this, the Revolution might have\u00a0a steady advantage going into Sunday\u2019s opening day clash, if only because they have better sense of themselves.<\/p>\n

Who to watch:<\/strong>
\nAs mentioned earlier, Bunbury found the back of the net several times during preseason action. After gathering some momentum over the winter, the winger\/forward will be asked to shoulder some\u00a0of the load in Sunday’s match. Since\u00a0landing in New England\u00a0two years ago, Bunbury has tallied eight goals while appearing in 66 games, and with his rediscovered\u00a0form up top, he might be primed to add to that scoring haul on Sunday.<\/p>\n

For Houston, newly-appointed captain Giles Barnes is the man to watch. Now that\u00a0Davis is in Kansas City, Barnes will be asked to provide leadership in addition to his playmaking abilities. The speedy forward found the back of the net seven times last season, one in which Coyle was constantly tinkering with his attacking corps. With Barnes taking on a larger role, it’ll be interesting to see how his wily personality reflects on the way the rest of the squad performs.<\/p>\n

The Revs will get a result if…<\/strong>
\nBottom line, New England can steal a point (or three)\u00a0if the midfield exploits the Dynamo’s propensity to push too far forward, sometimes at their own peril. Watch Tierney move up the field on a lot of attacks, and have his signature left footed curling ball into the box, where Charlie Davies will be ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.<\/p>\n

The Revs will lose if…<\/strong>
\nThe trio of Barnes, Will Bruin, and Erick Torres found some good\u00a0chemistry during the preseason, and if that continues on Sunday, Shuttleworth could find himself a busy man. Two years ago, Bruin propelled the Dynamo to a 4-0 First Kick beatdown of the Revolution, a memory the locals can’t afford to dwell on when they step onto the pitch in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revs officially kick off the new season on Sunday against a very different Dynamo side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":41149,"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":[1256,891,683,595,888,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Lee-1.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41146"}],"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\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41146"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41158,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41146\/revisions\/41158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}