Preview: #DCvNE

Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com

The New England Revolution (1-2-1, 4 points) will look to make it two wins in a row when they travel to the nation’s capital to face D.C. United (0-2-1, 1 point) at RFK Stadium on Saturday. Kick-off is set for 7 pm.

The match will be broadcast locally on MyTV38 (WSBK, Boston), due to scheduling conflicts with Comcast Sports Net’s telecast of the Boston Celtics game on Saturday night. CSN will air a replay of the match at 11pm.

The Revs secured their first win of the season last week on the road against the San Jose Earthquakes thanks to a last-gasp strike by midfielder Lee Nguyen to defeat the Quakes 2-1. New England’s first goal of the season came through a comically-bad own goal from Victor Bernardez before Nguyen netted the clincher.

D.C. United is coming off a 2-2 home draw against the Chicago Fire last weekend. With the draw, D.C. recorded its first point of the season following a pair of losses to the Columbus Crew and the Toronto FC. Ben Olsen’s squad currently sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference table, despite a slew of offseason moves that were made to bolster last year’s cellar-dwelling side.

In an attempt to bolster the front line, D.C. United acquired this week striker Chris Rolfe from Eastern Conference rival the Chicago Fire on Wednesday. The veteran forward has scored 48 goals in 178 league appearances, and has long been a thorn in the side of the Revolution. He will join an offensive unit which features Fabian Espindola, Eddie Johnson, Nick DeLeon, with fullback Sean Franklin always looking to join the attacking fray.

Charlie Davies may be in line for more minutes this week, and against his former team, no less. After a strong showing off the bench against the Quakes last week, Davies looked like a player who coach Jay Heaps can count on to create havoc for opposing backlines. Andy Dorman looks to make his third consecutive start of the season, and his performances at the six spot have been one reason why the Revolution have bounced back from losses in Houston and Philadelphia.

While the injury bugs have forced Heaps to start four different line-ups in four matches, core players such as Teal Bunbury, Diego Fagundez, Lee Nguyen, Jose Goncalves, AJ Soares, Chris Tierney and Andrew Farrell are all ready and available to help the Revolution in its efforts to extend its unbeaten streak to three.

Last year, the Revolution went undefeated (2-0-1)  in three league matches vs. D.C., but had to dig their way out of early deficits in a pair of 2-1 wins. In light of that, the Revolution must come out of the gate hungry and focused to avoid falling into another early ditch this time around.