![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/shuttleworthfeature.jpg?resize=240%2C300\" "\\"Bobby")
<\/a>Bobby Shuttleworth will get the start tonight against Vancouver. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
As fate would have it, a Cinderella story\u00a0would not unfold.\u00a0Rather, a nightmare unraveled. The Sounders, in front of a\u00a0sonically-imposing\u00a036,344 supporters, took the Revolution to the woodshed.\u00a0\u00a0Before the\u00a0halftime whistle screeched,\u00a0the hosts hoarded\u00a0three goals as\u00a0a shell-shocked Shuttleworth\u00a0could only watch Seattle’s strikers slice through the defending third.<\/p>\n
Tonight, the Revs return to the\u00a0region for the first time since that\u00a0devastating 3-0 defeat\u00a0to face the expansion Vancouver Whitecaps at Empire Field. And, with starting keeper Matt Reis back in Boston healing\u00a0his strained\u00a0adductor, Shuttleworth, who’s been tabbed as tonight’s starting keeper by manager\u00a0Steve Nicol, is ready for another go between the sticks.<\/p>\n
“I always try to stay ready to play,” Shuttleworth told the media after practice yesterday. “That’s the life of a number two (keeper). You always have to be ready to play. So, I’m excited for the opportunity for any chance I can get to play.”<\/p>\n
And just as it was last June, Shuttleworth will likely have his mitts full against another dangerous and potent opponent tonight. Through its first three matches, the Whitecaps have\u00a0already\u00a0scored seven goals, including a four-spot in its season opener.<\/p>\n
But, this time around, the keeper will have an improved defending corps in front of him. So, while he may yet face fewer threats this time around,\u00a0the keeper also hopes\u00a0to see his teammates put the onus on the hosts with another early lead.<\/p>\n
“I think the past few games, we’ve gotten off to really fast starts,” said Shuttleworth. “That’s kind of\u00a0helped us throughout the games (we’ve played so far).”<\/p>\n
In fact, Shuttleworth believes that beating Vancouver, who feature a\u00a0lethal strikeforce of\u00a0Camilo, Atiba Harris, and Eric Hassli,\u00a0to the scoreboard will be crucial to the Revolution’s success tonight.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s a big key for (tonight),” said Shuttleworth. “To start off strong and carry that through.”<\/p>\n
If the Revs don’t find that opening goal, Shuttleworth knows that the boisterous Empire Field crowd could quickly swallow up any hopes of the guests getting on the same page. After all, it’s not easy to communicate when 20,000 or so supporters make it their mission to\u00a0rupture their opponents’ eardrums.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s probably going to be pretty loud in here,” said Shuttleworth. “They had a lot of people here at their first game. I think communication is key and whatever we can do to\u00a0avoid getting ourselves in bad situations – \u00a0that’s what we want to do.”<\/p>\n
Shuttleworth speaks from experience.\u00a0After last season’s dreadful defeat\u00a0at Qwest Field, the third-year keeper\u00a0has already\u00a0knows how much\u00a0trouble zealous\u00a0home crowd – not to mention a goalthirsty attack – can\u00a0create for a visiting keeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bobby Shuttleworth hopes to hold the torch while Matt Reis recovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1327,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/shuttleworthfeature1.jpg?fit=490%2C225","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4280"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4340,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280\/revisions\/4340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}