{"id":44909,"date":"2017-04-07T10:24:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44909"},"modified":"2017-04-07T10:25:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:25:48","slug":"the-warm-up-nevhou-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=44909","title":{"rendered":"The Warm Up: #NEvHOU"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: Houston Dynamo<\/p><\/div>\n

Who:<\/strong> Revolution (1-2-1, 4 points) vs. Houston Dynamo (3-1-0, 9 points)
\nWhat:<\/strong> Week 6 of the MLS regular season
\nWhere:<\/strong> Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts
\nWhen:<\/strong> Saturday, April 8 at 2:00pm ET
\nWatch:<\/strong> CSN New England, MLS Live, Direct Kick
\nWhistle:<\/strong> Silviu Petrescu \u2013 Head Referee; Gianni Facchini\/Craig Lowry \u2013 Assistant Referees; Jose Carlos Rivero \u2013 4th Referee.<\/p>\n

Scouting the Opposition:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013The Houston Dynamo ended the 2016 season at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, but find themselves one point behind the Timbers for first place, with a game in hand. Houston is tied for second in the MLS with 11 goals scored, while conceding\u00a0seven times over four games.<\/p>\n

-The Dynamo are coached by former Chivas USA player Wilmer Cabrera, who is in his first season with the squad. Cabrera had been coaching the Dynamo\u2019s USL affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley, and was given the job over interim coach Wade Barrett.<\/p>\n

-The roster had heavy turnover between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, with forward Will Bruin, midfielder Collen Warner, and defender David Horst leaving the team in the offseason. The team re-loaded with forward Romell Quioto, who has scored three goals, and Panaman defender Adolfo Machado, who has played every minute in each of the squad\u2019s four games.<\/p>\n

-Returning for the Dynamo is forward Erick “Cubo”\u00a0Torres, who has scored six goals through the team\u2019s first four games. Torres made a name for himself with Chivas USA, scoring 22 goals in 44 games while on loan from Guadalajara. After being signed to a designated player contract, Torres split his time between being on loan at Guadalajara and the Dynamo. Torres failed to score in MLS competition for the Dynamo in the 2015 and 2016 seasons, but has started strong this year.<\/p>\n

-Anticipate a 4-3-3 from the Dynamo, as this is the only formation they\u2019ve used so far this season. Erick Torres plays up top with Quioto and Albert Elis, another addition for the Dynamo from Monterrey on loan, playing on the sides.<\/p>\n

-The midfield will likely consist of veteran Ricardo Clark, Eric Alexander and Alex. Alex has four assists early in the season, after five goals and two assists in 29 appearances last season.<\/p>\n

-The defensive unit consists of Machado and Brazilian defender Leonardo as the primary centerbacks, former Galaxy player A.J. DeLaGarza at right back, and a split between U.S. International DeMarcus Beasley and Dylan Remick, a new addition joining Houston from Seattle, splitting time at left back. Remick, who went to school at Brown University,\u00a0has started the last two games and will be the likely starter Saturday.<\/p>\n

-Teal Bunbury on Houston: \u201cI think it\u2019s good that we are able to see how other teams play, but ultimately, it might be a clich\u00e9 thing, but it\u2019s really about how we play, how we prepare for the game. We\u2019re going to know their tendencies, we\u2019re going to know their key players, but when we\u2019re at home, we love to attack. We love to possess the ball. I think our last game against Minnesota at home just proved that we could score a lot of goals and we can play. It\u2019s going to be a fun match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent History:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

-This is the first match between these two squads in over a year, as the Revolution and Dynamo played their only match last year on opening weekend. The Revolution pulled out a 3-3 draw on the road on Daigo Kobayshi\u2019s extra time equalizer. Diego Fagundez and Charlie Davies also scored.<\/p>\n

-Prior to\u00a0last year’s match, the Revolution\u00a0boasted a three-game win streak over Houston, including a 2-0 win over the Dynamo the last time the two sides met in Foxboro. That match is memorable for\u00a0two its two\u00a0lengthy lightning delays, which\u00a0forced the game to be completed shortly after midnight.<\/p>\n

-The Revs hold the all-time series lead over the Dynamo with 10 wins, 7 ties, and 5 losses. The Revs have outscored the Dynamo 31-25.<\/p>\n

3 Things to Know:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

1) Along with spring comes decent weather: Saturday\u2019s weather in Foxboro will be cloudy with little chance of rain and a high temperature of 50 degrees. A nice change after the scheduled home opener vs. Orlando was postponed, and the actual home opener vs. Minnesota was met with raw and rainy\u00a0conditions.<\/p>\n

2) In the event Je-Vaughn Watson makes an appearance Saturday, it will be his seventh game against his former squad and first with the Revolution. Watson has logged two goals over\u00a0five starts and one substitute appearance against the team he played for over the 2011-2012 seasons.<\/p>\n

3) The match will be refereed by Silviu Petrescu. The veteran ref was named the 2012 MLS referee of the year and has refereed an MLS Cup. This will be Petrescu\u2019s 124th MLS game refereed and his second this season. The Revs had one point in three games refereed by Petrescu, which included a scoreless draw with DC United (3\/12\/16), a 4-2 loss to FC Dallas (5\/21\/16), and a 3-1 loss to Orlando (7\/31\/16).<\/p>\n

Score prediction:<\/strong> Houston\u2019s offense has been strong so far this season, netting 11 goals in 4 games and scoring at least twice in each of their four games. They also have quality wins over Seattle and the Red Bulls, and pose a strong threat to the Revs back line. However, Houston hasn\u2019t proven they can play as well on the road, with only one away game in 2017 (a 4-2 loss at Portland) and a poor 2-9-6 away record in 2016. With mild weather expected for Saturday, I anticipate the Revolution to come out swinging similar to how they played against Minnesota, and will really test the Dynamo defense. Houston will get on the board, but I like the Revolution to take a 3-2 victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revs and Dynamo will meet for the first time since last year’s wild 3-3 season-opening draw in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44061,"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":true,"_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":[891,1612,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Revs-Dynamo-1.png?fit=600%2C416","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44909"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44913,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44909\/revisions\/44913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}