{"id":15052,"date":"2012-08-29T09:41:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T13:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=15052"},"modified":"2012-08-29T11:43:25","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T15:43:25","slug":"five-questions-revolution-vs-chivas-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=15052","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions: Revolution vs. Chivas USA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Shalrie Joseph will be back in Foxboro on Wednesday – but as a member of Chivas USA. (Photo: Kari Heistad\/CapturedImages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

Get ready for all sorts of\u00a0weird on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Less than\u00a0a month after he was\u00a0traded to Chivas USA, former club captain Shalrie Joseph makes his return to Gillette Stadium as a member of the Rojiblancos. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>Of course, many of us have already seen him, whether\u00a0in replay or photographic form,\u00a0in a Chivas kit, looking very Chivas and all. It’s the stripes, of course. And, yes, it still does seem kind of strange.<\/p>\n

But Wednesday’s an entirely different game. Literally.<\/p>\n

In what will likely become a certifiable first, an opposing player will draw the loudest cheers from the Revolution supporters. Yes, yay,\u00a0Kevin Alston\u00a0at right back. Cue the standard applause. But wait until the words “At midfield, number 18, Shalrie Joseph…” echo off the walls and\u00a0empty seats. It’s going to be epic.<\/p>\n

Following that scene, of course, comes the customary pre-game handshakes. Obviously, Shalrie, being a popular presence here for nearly a decade, is going to get a warm welcome from his former mates. Daps, first bumps, hurried man-hugs. Not as epic, but still interesting.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, comes the game. The game in which Shalrie himself probably circled moments after he was traded. Think he hasn’t forgotten the feeling of riding the bench, his role reduced to second-half sub? Expect Ball-Winning and Tackle-Shedding Shalrie\u00a0to make himself visible on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Lastly, regardless of the final score, expect a scene\u00a0all too\u00a0familiar to Patriots fans: the post-game handshake. Over the years, the handshake cam has haunted Bill Belichick whenever he\u00a0strolls over to\u00a0reacquaint\u00a0himself with a friendly\u00a0face\u00a0(Romeo Crennel), a former mentor (Bill Parcells) or even a disloyal assistant (Eric Mangini) at midfield. Yeah, you know where this is going.<\/p>\n

Will Shalrie embrace Jay Heaps the way Belichick opened his arms to Parcells? Or will he simply look his way, give a quick nod, and\u00a0jog back\u00a0to the visitor’s locker room?<\/p>\n

It won’t be long before we find out about. But before it all unfolds, we ponder five more questions\u00a0going\u00a0into\u00a0the most interesting Revolution-Chivas USA game ever.<\/p>\n

1. Will\u00a0Jay Heaps\u00a0unleash the hounds\u00a0and\u00a0have his side adopt\u00a0a high line?<\/strong> Last week, the Revolution lived dangerously when they kept the line high in Columbus. And why not? Clearly, not much else was working as the attack had slowed to a trickle going into the game. So with everyone up (except, of course, Matt Reis…that just would’ve been foolish), the Revolution created chances galore and went up 2-0 midway through the half. It worked. But every rose has its thorns. And the thorns\u00a0were particularly sharp\u00a0when the\u00a0defense\u00a0fell victim to\u00a0clumsy fouls (Federico Higuain sends his regards) and poor marking (Jairo Arrieta says “thank you”). That said, there are\u00a0nine games left in the season. The playoffs are a mourned fantasy. It wouldn’t be the worst idea for Heaps to have his guys push up again – especially without a set piece artist to worry about.<\/p>\n

2. Is the attack ready to resume where it left off in Columbus?<\/strong> The answer to that, in a sense, is contingent upon the above. But let’s say Heaps errs on the side of caution this week. Let’s say he doesn’t want to give his defense another\u00a0reason to allow four goals to fall through. So, Heaps tells the guys to stay back a little deeper. Will the attack lose its juice? Possibly. On the flip side, the Revolution are home.\u00a0OK, so maybe\u00a0it’s been\u00a0nearly two months\u00a0since they’ve scored\u00a0at home. But, you have to think they’ll come into this game confident. Sure, the\u00a0scoreline in Columbus was a mouthful of Sour Patch Kids.\u00a0And yes, they\u00a0may have squandered some\u00a0of their chances.\u00a0Even so, the Crew game may have been\u00a0the\u00a0cure to what has ailed the attack\u00a0since July.\u00a0So look for the\u00a0hosts to come out hungry.<\/p>\n

3. Can the defense be trusted?<\/strong> That’s the million dollar question. For the better part of the eight-game slide, the back four actually hasn’t been all\u00a0that bad (eight goals allowed\u00a0in the\u00a0seven games prior to last week). They haven’t been great. But they’ve been decent, save for last week’s goal giveaway promotion.\u00a0With the Goats in town, this could be the perfect opportunity for the defense to reassert itself. An opportunity to reclaim the\u00a0“Gillette Stadium is a fortress” tag. To say, “Back Four Clan ain’t nothin’ to mess with.” This is a statement game – not just for the team as a whole. For the backline, this is the opportunity to exercise the demons that haunted them in Columbus help the club do something it hasn’t done in nearly two months: win.<\/p>\n

4. Will we see Benny Feilhaber pushed out wide again?<\/strong> Given how he looked on Saturday, it would seem to make sense. All the things posted on his resume came to fruition at Crew Stadium. He found teammates, his form out wide sharpened the attack and, yep, he played with a little bit of edge. Good edge, of course, not the customary\u00a0“please give me a yellow” edge. At the same time, let’s not forget: Feilhaber started the first chuck of the season out wide, and was, to put it mildly, a shell of his former self. OK, National Team self.\u00a0So Heaps stationed him in the center, where he almost instantly thrived in a\u00a02-0 win over Chicago.\u00a0But as his responsibility became more defensive in nature, it was clear he needed\u00a0a change – a change that worked well last week, and should help the attack on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Who has to step up?<\/strong> Given the flurry of emotions surrounding the mid-week affair, it has to be Clyde Simms. No doubt. Paired up against his former midfield partner, the veteran center half has to be at his strongest. He has to be resilient, stubborn and stingy. But he\u00a0has to be careful to stay within himself. After all, he’s not Joseph, nor should he try to be. But with Joseph ready to drive a stake into the heart of his former club (figuratively, of course), the call to arms falls on Simms. He has to be the one to set the tempo. To get his teammates on the same page. To stand tall against a Chivas 11 that’s just as thirsty for points as the Revolution. It’ll be a challenge –\u00a0a challenge\u00a0that\u00a0\u00a0Simms\u00a0must ante up his game to meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He’s baaaaack. With Shalrie Joseph set to make his return to Gillette, we’ve got five questions going into Wednesday’s clash with Chivas USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15061,"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":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Shalrie21.png?fit=480%2C255&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15052"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15068,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions\/15068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}