The title sums up this sour moment in the 2012 Revs season. Despite increasing our attacking options and developing a style with some pretty footwork our New England Revolution, once again, are far outside the playoff conversation as the end of the season hurtles towards us. The Montreal Impact, in their first season in the top division, are in that conversation. While Montreal has played more games than everyone else in the conference, they are only five points behind Chciago for the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. As the number of games dwindle so do the opportunities to close the gap on the playoff positions. Both Montreal and New England want the three points that a win on Sunday would earn them.
For Montreal, Nelson Rivas will miss this match due to his headbutt of Philadelphia’s Antoine Hoppenot last week. Even though Alessandro Nesta is listed as questionable on the latest injury report expect him to start along with Jeb Brovosky on defense. Rookie Andrew Wenger has shown well, however, he will likely cede his starting forward spot to the returning Marco Di Viao. Di Viao was acquitted in an Italian investigation of match fixing. Another change in the line up will be at goal keeper where Troy Perkins will start after being exchanged for Donovan Ricketts. Perkins will be pleased to be in a playoff hunt after leaving the struggling Portland Timbers.
That same match against Philadelphia saw midfielder Felipe Martins score a goal that would earn him Goal of the Week. Felipe and Di Viao are joined in attack by Davy Arnaud and Justin Mapp. New England will have to defend well to keep Montreal from scoring. Despite being listed as questionable I expect both Kevin Alston and AJ Soares to return to our backline. After we visited Montreal, and lost, we next traveled to Kansas City where we executed what may have been this season’s only defend-first game plan and earned a 0-0 draw. After last week’s 1-0 defeat to that Kansas City team, perhaps our Revs will respond with a result against the Impact.
If we hope for more than a 0-0 draw then, obviously, we’ll need to score at least one goal. I expect to see Saer Sene and Dimitry Imbongo start as forwards for the Revs. Both strikers will look to show improved accuracy this week. I hope to also see Jerry Bengston get into this game. It wouldn’t bother me at all if he earned a start in his first game back from the Honduran Team’s trip to the London Olympics. Scoring at all, regardless of the result, would be an improvement for our Revs right now, but a result that stopped our recent plunge down the standings would be even more welcome. Shots on goal, and more than that, shots into the goal would signal a huge improvement.
I’m still not sure if Shalrie Joseph’s departure or our inability to score played a bigger role in last week’s performance against Kansas City. If Montreal continues the pressure that SKC successfully employed last week then Lee Nguyen, Benny Feilhaber, and Clyde Simms should be ready to find outlet passes and to face some crunching tackles. Our midfield has been our stregnth all season and that will continue. Whether it comes from scoring or passing our way out of trouble New England will have to improve on the field. Our Revs are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, though, the emphasis now more than ever has to be on one game at a time. We can beat this Montreal team.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
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