{"id":11868,"date":"2012-05-12T01:16:58","date_gmt":"2012-05-12T05:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11868"},"modified":"2012-05-12T01:20:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-12T05:20:54","slug":"a-tale-of-two-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11868","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Revolution will be counting upon Benny Feilhaber to deliver against the red-hot Whitecaps on Saturday. (Photo: Tony Biscaia\/RevsNet)<\/p><\/div>\n

After\u00a0falling short of the\u00a0playoffs two years in a row, the Revolution\u00a0scrapped the old and embraced the new during the offseason. And that new approach has yielded a new coach and a fresher style of play that has made the Revolution competitive in each of their matches so far this season.<\/p>\n

But the Revolution aren\u2019t the only team going through\u00a0a rebuilding process. Just ask the\u00a0Vancouver Whitecaps.<\/p>\n

When the Revolution take on the Whitecaps on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium, almost everything will be a toss-up. The Revolution and Whitecaps are in similar places as far as quality, in terms of the on-field product along with\u00a0the new faces in the technical area. Both teams have added skilled players and freshman head coaches. And both teams sit in the middle of their conferences looking to move up in the standings.<\/p>\n

But despite the seemingly equal strengths of both teams, the Revolution may have a key advantage over the Whitecaps. The Whitecaps have travelled 3,208 miles from Vancouver to Boston, a difficult trip which ought to give the visitors some fatigue come the opening whistle. Travel was certainly was a factor for the Whitecaps last\u00a0year when they dropped a 1-0 decision to the Revolution at Gillette Stadium on May 14.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Whitecaps have confidence on their side. Going into Saturday\u2019s contest with a three-game winning steak means that the Revolution will have to be careful not to take anything for granted. But the real key for the Revolution will be getting their attack, which has fluctuated from powerful to dreadfully inconsistent, clicking. This will be no easy task.<\/p>\n

The Whitecaps defense has been a brick wall so far this season. In nine games, the Whitecaps have allowed just seven goals, the second fewest in the Western Conference. Vancouver\u2019s defense is perhaps the most revamped part of the team.\u00a0For perspective: at\u00a0this time last season, Vancouver had already allowed 14 goals.<\/p>\n

The difference for the Whitecaps this year is a healthy backline, plus a few key additions. The Whitecaps\u00a0step\u00a0into Saturday\u2019s game\u00a0 with only two players on the injury report – neither of which are on the defense. U.S. National Team central defender Jay DeMerit has been a fixture in the backline this season after missing most of last season due to injury. Joining him is Lee Young Pyo, a South Korean left back with previous experience for powerhouses like Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund, and PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n

Cracking Vancouver\u2019s defensive shell won\u2019t be impossible, though the Revolution will have to make the most of their chances. The combination of Saer Sene and\u00a0Blake Brettschneider\u00a0will have to fire on all cylinders if the Revolution want to stay undefeated against Vancouver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Revs will be aiming to improve their home record against their mirror image in the west – the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11876,"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":[14,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Benny22.png?fit=409%2C270&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11868"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11885,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868\/revisions\/11885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}