The New England Revolution travel to Montreal for the final game of the season. Last week our Revs beat Chicago in New England. That win means we won our season series against Chicago. We have lost our two previous matches to Montreal by a combined score of 3-1.
For the last game of the season, and two teams who aren’t advancing into the playoffs, there are players whose season have already ended. Out injured are Nelson Rivas, a powerful defender, Felipe, a wily playmaker, and Bernardo Corradi, a forward, for Montreal. We know that Flo Lechner, Lee Nguyen, and Saer Sene are all out for the Revs after season ending injuries or surgeries. Also listed as doubtful are Stephen McCarthy and Juan Toja, while Clyde Simms quad strain has been upgraded from Tuesday to only be listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report. Montreal’s Sana Nyassi will also miss this game due to yellow card accumulation. I suspect Clyde Simms could see time, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if Jay Heaps asked Clyde to sit and gave clear directives to other players all week in practice.
As for who will play, well, our Revs will have to get around the Italian Nesta and I am looking forward to seeing Kelyn Rowe match up against Andrew Wenger. Nesta didn’t play in New England, probably to avoid our turf. Kelyn Rowe was the third overall pick while Wenger the first overall pick. Most agreed that Kelyn needed more time to develop but I still want to see how they measure up. Chris Tierney’s return to health might mean that Kevin Alston moves back over to right back. I think Bobby Shuttlesworth has proven to be at least adequate, especially for his salary, that Matt Reis will not get the start. There have been reports that with one more game Reis, and his considerably larger salary, would be guaranteed for next season. While on the topic of departures, Benny Feilhaber is likely to team with Blair Gavin. The debate might be whether or not Benny is playing for a spot on our roster next season or if he is playing to increase his trade value in MLS.
I will wait until after this game to predict Benny’s future, but let’s talk about this game. I would love to see a 3-0 Revs win to erase their aggregate lead in goals, even if we would still end up with one win to their two. Listen to #TRAP, The Rebel Alliance Podcast. I’ll stick with my prediction from the podcast. Our Revs will win a shoot out with late game heroics, 4-3. We’ll see goals from strikers an midfielders, but set pieces will continue to frustrate New England.
This will be my last preview, contact totalmls@gmail.com if you are interested in writing about the Revs in 2013. Next week I will, though, offer a thorough review of the Revs organization and their performance in 2012.
C’mon you Revs!
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
