The Warmup: #NEvRSL
- Updated: April 24, 2015
The New England Revolution (3-2-2, 11 points) return to Gillette Stadium where they hope to maintain their unbeaten record at home against Real Salt Lake (2-1-3, 9 points).
Location: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.
Scheduled kick-off: 7:30 pm
TV/Radio: Comcast SportsNet; 98.5 Sports Hub
All-time/Season series:
• These teams haven’t met since Jul. 4, 014 when Real Salt Lake won 2-1 behind a pair of penalty kicks.
• Since they hail from different conferences, this also will be the only match between these squads of the 2015 season.
• Overall, this will be the 18th regular-season meeting between the two teams, with Real Salt Lake leading the series with 8-4-4 record against the Revolution.
• Home field doesn’t provide much of an advantage over Real Salt Lake either, as the Revs are 2-4-2 at home in the all-time series.
• The Revolution also haven’t had much success against Real Salt Lake in recent years, losing their last two matches against Real Salt Lake, and seven of the last nine. The Revolution’s last win over Real Salt Lake was a 3-1 victory on Aug. 23, 2009.
Revolution update:
• Currently in tied for 1st place in the Eastern Conference Standings with New York Red Bulls and D.C. United, though the Red Bulls have only played five games and DC United have played six.
• The Revolution are 1-0-2 at home so far in 2015, with two goals scored and one goal conceded. The only home game that has seen goals scored was a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes. The other two matches were 0-0 draws against the Montreal Impact and Columbus Crew.
• Super sub Teal Bunbury earned MLS team of the week honors last week, making him the fourth Revolution player to be named to the team of the week. Bunbury had a hand in both Revolution goals last week, notching an assist and scoring the game-winning goal in the Revolution’s 2-1 victory over the Union.
• Jose Goncalves and Daigo Kobayashi, both of whom all missed last week’s match against the Union, participated in training for the Revolution this week.
Real Salt Lake Update:
• Currently tied for fifth place with the four other teams in the Western Conference, though all of the other four teams have played one more game than Real Salt Lake. Real Salt Lake is seven points behind conference-leading Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
• Currently 1-0-2 on the road 2015, winning a 1-0 match against San Jose and drawing 0-0 against Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers.
• Salt Lake is coming off their first loss of the 2015 season, a 1-0 loss to conference-leading Vancouver. Real Salt Lake conceded in the 80th minute, shortly after losing a man to a red card in the 76th minute.
• Darren Mattocks’ 80th minute header broke a 262-minute shutout streak by Real Salt Lake.
• Offensive production has been limited for Salt Lake as well, as they have not scored in the last 226 minutes.
• Salt Lake will be missing Sebastian Saucedo and Jamison Olave, who were both given red cards in last week’s match against Vancouver. Defender Chris Schuler will also be missing the match after undergoing knee surgery earlier this week.
• The injury to Schuler and suspension to Olave means reserve and New England native Aaron Maund is projected to start against the Revolution. A former first round SuperDraft pick by Toronto FC, Maund is entering his third season with Real Salt Lake. The Dorchester native played high school soccer at the Roxbury Latin School in Boston and won a national championship with the FC Greater Boston U-15’s in 2005.
• Real Salt Lake’s leading goal scorer is midfielder Javier Morales, who has two goals and three assists on the season, which leads the team in both. Forwards Olmes Garcia and Alvaro Saborio lead the attack, with 11 and 10 shots on the season, respectively, although only Saborio has a goal registered so far in 2015.
• The lack of offense previously mentioned can (partially) be attributed to the injury of Joao Plata, a 22-year-old striker who has registered 17 goals and 14 assists in his first two seasons with Real Salt Lake. After leading the team with 13 goals in 2014, Plata broke his foot in preseason and is expected to return to the team around late May.
• Similar to the Revolution, Real Salt Lake brings international experience to their lineup with U.S. nationals Nick Rimando and midfielder Kyle Beckerman both in the team’s starting lineup.
Next for the Revolution: Saturday, May 2, at 7:30 PM at home against the New York Red Bulls.
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