Welcome to the New England Revolution vs. Chicago Fire live game thread! Tonight will be the Revs' third match in seven days and their second straight at home before a cross-country trip to Qwest Field next weekend. The Revolution targeted six points from this home stand but will need a win here to salvage four over that two-game span. Chicago, meanwhile, is coming off an emotional 1-0 win over Columbus and there is a level of optimism in Bridgeview after the appointment of Frank Klopas to be their new head coach following the firing of Carlos De Los Cobos.
The key for the Revolution tonight is similar to what I highlighted last week against Toronto. Like the Reds, the Fire are both threatening and weak at the same time almost all over the field. If the Revs jump out of the gate, maintain pressure, and use good decision-making to get an early lead they should be able to ride out a victory. Any glaring mistakes, however, could result in a disastrous home loss.
Here are some game notes:
- Saturday's match is the first of two scheduled meetings this season between the Revs and Fire and will be the 39th time the two teams have met in MLS regular season play
- Chicago owns the edge in the all-time, all-competitions series between the two teams, 27-21-9 ... the Fire has the advantage in regular-season (17-13-8) and U.S. Open Cup (2-0-0), but the teams are tied in SuperLiga (1-1-0) meetings, and in postseason series (7-7-1)
- The Revs are winless against the Fire in regular-season matches in their last eight meetings, with New England's last in-season win coming May 6, 2007 at Gillette Stadium (3-1)
- The Revs are a combined 2-8-3 in all competitions against the Fire since the start of the 2008 season ... that record includes seven regular-season games, four playoff matches and two SuperLiga games ... the Revs' 1-0 win on July 17, 2010, in the SuperLiga group stage was their most recent victory in the series
- The Revs' win in Chicago in SuperLiga 2010 was New England's first at Toyota Park since the stadium's inaugural year in 2006 ... prior to the win, the Revs were 0-6-1 in their seven previous appearances at Toyota Park (2007-present), and had been outscored 14-2 in those matches
- New England and Chicago have met at least five times overall (regular-season, playoffs, U.S. Open Cup, SuperLiga) in six seasons since 2002 ... in 2007 and 2004, the clubs only played each other four times each ... the high came in 2006 when the teams met seven times - four times in the regular season, twice in the playoffs and once in the USOC.
- The Revs and Fire have met in seven of the last nine postseasons (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) ... in total, the teams have met in the playoffs in eight seasons, all since 2000
The injury report remains the same as yesterday: neither Boggs nor Feilhaber made the 18 today.
Lineups and your thoughts after the jump.
Lineups
Revolution: Matt Reis; Kevin Alston, Franco Coria, A.J. Soares, Darrius Barnes; Sainey Nyassi, Shalrie Joseph, Pat Phelan, Chris Tierney; Kenny Mansally, Rajko Lekic
Bench: Bobby Shuttleworth, Ryan Guy, Ryan Kinne, Otto Loewy, Stephen McCarthy, Zack Schilawski, Andrew Sousa
Fire: Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba, Yamith Cuesta, Gonzalo Segares, Cory Gibbs; Dominic Oduro, Baggio Husidic, Logan Pause, Patrick Nyarko; Cristian Nazarit, Diego Chaves
Bench: Jon Conway, Orr Barouch, Corben Bone, Gabriel Ferrari, Daniel Paladini, Bratislav Ristic, Dasan Robinson