{"id":20619,"date":"2013-07-17T17:19:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T21:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=20619"},"modified":"2013-07-22T15:46:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T19:46:45","slug":"five-questions-revolution-at-rapids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=20619","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions: Revolution at Rapids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Will<\/a>

Will Jerry Bengtson return to action after not playing in two straight games? (Photo: Kari Heistad\/capturedimages.biz)<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s funny how much difference a year can make.
\nIn this case, it\u2019s about 14 months, but when the Revolution meet the Rapids tonight for their lone match of the regular season, it\u2019s going to be a lot different than the last time they saw each other.<\/p>\n

With the way the MLS schedule works now, Eastern and Western conference teams meet just once a year with the home team rotating each time, which means each time you see play a non-conference game, it\u2019s like there will be changes from the last season.<\/p>\n

In last year\u2019s 2-1 win at Gillette Stadium, the Revs broke an eight-game winless streak against the Rapids. Four starters from the game for New England \u2013 Benny Feilhaber, Shalrie Joseph, Fernando Cardenas, and Jose Moreno \u2013 are no longer with the club. And remember the last time you saw Bjorn Runstrom play for New England? That was the last time New England played Colorado. For the Rapids, they\u2019ve seen the likes of Omar Cummings and Jeff Larentowicz leave.<\/p>\n

Now, the Revolution will try to break an even longer streak, going for their first win over Colorado on the road since 2002 \u2013 over a decade ago. Both teams sit in sixth place in their respective conferences and will be looking to gain ground in the playoff race.<\/p>\n

1. What changes will be made to New England\u2019s 18?<\/strong>
\nAfter fielding the same 18 players for the past two games, a change is going to have to be made due to Dimitry Imbongo\u2019s suspension he received after seeing a red card against Houston. Pair that with a quick turn around from this past Saturday and another quick one with a game in Columbus this coming Saturday, its likely we\u2019ll see some different faces. The big question is who replaces Imbongo\u2019s striker spot? The easy answer is Designated Player Jerry Bengtson. Bengtson failed to dress for the past two games after going 83 minutes in a 1-1 draw against Chivas. It\u2019s likely that the 18 players you see tonight aren\u2019t the same as Saturday, and don\u2019t be surprised if names like Andy Dorman or Kalifa Cisse pop up.<\/p>\n

2. Will Kevin Alston make his return?<\/strong>
\nThe best news of the week came when the Revolution activated defender Kevin Alston off the disabled list after the defender underwent treatment for leukemia. Before he went on the DL for his treatment, Alston had started the first four games of the season at left back for New England. Now, with two games in the next four days \u2013 and with the Revolution having just played Saturday \u2013 it\u2019s not a stretch to think Alston could get a start either tonight or Saturday. He began training again earlier this month and adds another piece to an already strong New England defense.<\/p>\n

3. How will New England respond after their loss against Houston?<\/strong>
\nFor those who like to look at stats and records, here\u2019s a good one from Revs fans: New England s 1-0-4 after losses so far this season. How is that good? The big 0 in the loss category is huge, especially when you\u2019re going on the road in search of points. The Revolution have yet to lose twice in a row this season and have taken a point from all five games so far. Though they haven\u2019t won as many as they\u2019d like \u2013 the only time coming in a 2-0 win over Philly after a 4-1 loss to New York \u2013 their defense has been solid coming off each loss. In five games after losing, the Revs defense has conceded just two goals while netting four. Though the goal is always three points, if history repeats itself tonight, the Revs will surely take one.<\/p>\n

4. Will either team\u2019s goal leader find the back of the net?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s hard to believe that the last time Diego Fagundez scored was back on June 2nd.\u00a0He\u2019s picked up two assists since \u2013 which should be three, but he wasn\u2019t credited for one on Sene\u2019s goal against Houston \u2013 but hasn\u2019t found the back of the net in five straight games with just three shots on goal. Are defenses keying in on him more? Maybe. But Fagundez has continued to adapt to defensive pressure and tonight could be the night he breaks back through. For Colorado, Atiba Harris and rookie Deshorn Brown are tied for the Rapids with five goals apiece. It was Harris in late May and early June that was key for Colorado up top but more recently its been the quick rookie Brown, who has three goals in his last five games \u2013 two of them coming in appearances off the bench.<\/p>\n

5. Will goals be harder or easier to come by for New England tonight?<\/strong>
\nNot because of the altitude either, but because of the goalkeeper battle set to start in Colorado? This isn\u2019t to say that Clint Irwin is going to try any harder now, but with original starter Matt Pickens back in the fold, things could get interesting. We could see Irwin \u2013 who trained with the Revolution back in the 2011 preseason \u2013 play incredible because of the pressure of having Pickens back, and maybe an extra chip on his shoulder playing a team who didn\u2019t take him. Or could there be nerves for the 24-year-old \u2013 who could see his starting spot taken away from him \u2013 allowing rebounds or second guessing himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s funny how much difference a year can make. In this case, it\u2019s about 14 months, but when the Revolution meet the Rapids tonight for their lone match of the regular season, it\u2019s going to be a lot different than the last time they saw each other. With the way the MLS schedule works now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20620,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[488,66,121,49,1274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jerryb2.jpg?fit=485%2C269&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20619"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20619"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20624,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20619\/revisions\/20624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}