![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/soares3.jpg?resize=171%2C300\" "\\"REVS")
<\/a>Rookie center back A.J. Soares and the Revolution defense face a tough task in Vancouver. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
Extending that record, as well as\u00a0keeping their current\u00a0unbeaten run in tact\u00a0–\u00a0which, by the way, is only\u00a0the third time in the club\u2019s 16 seasons that\u00a0the team has\u00a0gone undefeated\u00a0in its first three games – will likely be a difficult task for the boys in blue. New England (1-0-2, 5 points), currently sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, will be dealing with several key injuries, not to mention a feisty foe in the Whitecaps (1-1-1, 4 points) on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Revs, who have dealt with the absence of\u00a0the\u00a0injured\u00a0Ousmane Dabo (right quad strain), a projected starter in the midfield, all season, will\u00a0also be without reigning team MVP\/offensive catalyst Marko Perovic (left hamstring strain) and starting center back Franco Coria (left hamstring strain) for the second straight week. To make matters worse, the latest member of the\u00a0walking wounded is veteran goalkeeper Matt Reis (right abductor strain), who didn\u2019t make the trip to Vancouver and will be replaced by third-year \u2018keeper Bobby Shuttleworth.<\/p>\n
While the Revs have remained unbeaten so far despite a depleted squad, the absences\u00a0appeared to\u00a0have caught up with the Revs \u00a0this weekend when\u00a0they drew 1-1 to another expansion side – the Portland Timbers. In that match, the Revs struggled to dictate the tempo and keep possession,\u00a0even after\u00a0taking an early lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is we didn\u2019t pass the ball well so it wouldn\u2019t have mattered who we played [Saturday],\u201d said Steve Nicol after the draw with Portland. \u201cWe didn\u2019t pass the ball at all, all night, and when that happens, you\u2019re going to struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Revs similarly struggle in Vancouver on Wednesday, the result probably won\u2019t be so forgiving. The Whitecaps are third in the league in goals scored with seven after just three games and are unbeaten (1-0-1) in their first two home matches.<\/p>\n
Perhaps even more impressive is the manner in which the Whitecaps have gotten results. In their first-ever MLS match, Vancouver, led by their French designated player Eric Hassli, trounced Canadian rival Toronto FC 4-2 to give the raucous 22,000+ home fans at Empire Field even more to cheer about. That match was followed by a disappointing 1-0 road loss against the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia in which the visitors matched the hosts in a competitive affair until giving up a late goal after Hassli was ejected in the 57th<\/sup> minute.<\/p>\n With Hassli still out of the fold the\u00a0following week, Vancouver fell into a 3-0 hole 62 minutes into their match against\u00a0to a strong Sporting Kansas City side before Brazilian striker Camilo\u00a0spearheaded a shocking comeback by scoring\u00a0two goals in stoppage time and helping steer the home side to a remarkable 3-3 draw. That result gave the home supporters a taste of just what their new team was capable of.<\/p>\n The Empire Field\u00a0crowd will undoubtedly be licking their collective lips at the prospect of Hassli and Camilo, the heroes of the club\u2019s young season, leading the Whitecaps attack together on Wednesday. The two have shown a deadly combination of flair and finishing instinct and could prove to be a nightmare for the young Revs backline to repel.<\/p>\n But adversity is nothing new for\u00a0a youthful Revs side that has already\u00a0encountered their fair share of top-class attackers, while also dealing with a long list of absences due to injuries and international call-ups. Though the team was disappointed with Saturday\u2019s draw, they can take pride in knowing they\u2019ve managed to remain unbeaten despite the injuries and\u00a0admitted room\u00a0for improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a lot of growing to do; we\u2019re a young team,\u201d said captain Shalrie Joseph. \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a lot to work on. We\u2019ll take that point [Saturday], but we\u2019ll be better next game\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Revs haven’t fallen in their first match against an expansion team since 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4299,"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\/04\/soaresfeature3.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\/4283"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4283"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4346,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4283\/revisions\/4346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}