Saturday night\u2019s Eastern Conference clash between the New England Revolution and Columbus Crew is a critical game for both teams, as just two points \u2014\u00a0currently the difference between making the playoffs and missing out on the postseason \u2014\u00a0separates them in the standings.<\/p>\n
That the Revolution (5-7-1, 16 points) and Crew (5-4-3, 18 points) are so close in the standings and both mid-table in the East one third of the way through the season shows how inconsistent both teams have been. Both teams are hovering around the .500 mark and have allowed just as many goals as they\u2019ve scored.<\/p>\n
And because of those statistics, neither the Revolution nor Crew are undisputed favorites to come out on top on Saturday night. The only glaring statistical advantage is that the Revolution have been difficult to beat at Gillette Stadium this season. With a 4-1-1 record in Foxborough, the Revs may be slight favorites over the Crew, who have been a mediocre 2-2-2 on the road.<\/p>\n
But the Revolution know that playing at home won\u2019t guarantee a victory. The Revolution need to both score and limit errors. When the Revolution have remained minimized mistakes, they\u2019ve been competitive in every match and shown flashes of brilliance. In contrast, games that contain loose passes and bad marking \u2014\u00a0particularly on set pieces \u2014\u00a0have made the Revolution look poor.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the latter that New England will want to avoid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seem like a team that really waits for the opponent to make a mistake,\u201d said Revolution midfielder\u00a0<\/strong>Benny Feilhaber <\/strong>about the Crew to RevolutionSoccer.net<\/em>. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a decent team, but they don\u2019t have any really flashy players. I think they lull some teams to sleep a little bit and then they pounce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be on top of our game for 90 minutes, especially from the get-go. [We need] to get on top of them early and put in our chances, because that\u2019s what they\u2019ve been able to do in their games.\u201d<\/p>\n The Revolution, who are coming off a bye week, will need to make sure that their lack of competitive play in the last few days won\u2019t keep them from being sharp. The Revolution were rusty coming off of a bye week in April and paid for it, losing two consecutive games.<\/p>\n But in April, the Revolution entered their bye week after a tough, last minute loss to Dallas. This time, the Revolution return to play after a critical 2-0 victory over the Chicago Fire. So Feilhaber thinks the Revolution will be able to maintain their positive momentum, despite the brief break.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had those two weeks off but they\u2019ve been a good two weeks because of the win,\u201d said Feilhaber to RevolutionSoccer.net<\/em>. \u201cWe haven\u2019t been sulking about any loss or draw that should\u2019ve been three points, so we\u2019re all happy about what we\u2019ve done in the last two weeks. We\u2019ve come in to work hard the last two weeks and we\u2019ve been preparing. I think the momentum will be there in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n Once game time comes, the Revolution\u2019s key to winning will be in controlling the midfield. Clyde Simms, who has been a crucial presence for the Revolution in defensive midfield, is still rehabilitating an injury after missing the past three games. Unavailable as well is Ryan Guy, Simms\u2019 makeshift replacement.<\/p>\n \u201c(He\u2019s) moving along,\u201d Heaps said of Simms to RevolutionSoccer.net<\/em>. \u201cWe have to make sure we monitor his reps in training, but again, he\u2019s someone we want to see available very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite missing Simms and Guy, the Revolution should still have enough to find a victory. The Crew are coming into the game without many of their starters as they have one of the league\u2019s longest injury lists. What is more, Feilhaber, who scored and assisted in the Chicago game two weeks ago, has been returned to his preferred central midfield position alongside Shalrie Joseph in the wake of injuries.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s possible that we won\u2019t create too many chances in the game, but we have to stick with it,\u201d said Feilhaber to\u00a0RevolutionSoccer.net<\/em>. \u201cKeep grinding it out. Maybe it\u2019ll come early, it might not. If it doesn\u2019t, we have to keep patient and believe that the way we play soccer is going to eventually pay dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Revs face Crew in Foxboro after bye week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6468,"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\/2011\/10\/feilhaberfeature4.jpg?fit=490%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12877"}],"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=12877"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12881,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12877\/revisions\/12881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}