New England Revolution vs. D.C. United | MLS Match Preview

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION vs D.C. UNITED
GILLETTE STADIUM, Foxborough, Mass.
June 8, 2013 (WEEK 15, MLS Game #133)
7:30 p.m. ET (UDN; CSN-NE; CSN-DC)

The New England Revolution will be looking to maintain their rolling run while D.C. United are aiming to put an end to their club-record winless streak when the old Eastern Conference foes meet on Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution are coming off a stunning 5-0 home win against the LA Galaxy last weekend, their third victory in a row. United saw their winless skein extended to 11 games in a 2-0 loss at Chicago, the longest stretch without a victory in the club’s 18-year history.

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REFEREE: Ted Unkel. AR1 (bench): Corey Rockwell; AR2 (opposite): Craig Lowry; 4th: Ismail Elfath
MLS Career: First game.

DISABLED LIST: NE: Kevin Alston
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: DC: Perry Kitchen
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: NE: Jerry Bengtson (Honduras)

HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (59 meetings): Revolution 23 wins (3 shootout), 76 goals … United 28 wins (4 shootout), 87 goals … Ties 8
AT NEW ENGLAND (29 meetings): Revolution 15 wins (2 shootout), 35 goals … United 10 wins (2 shootout), 31 goals … Ties 4
RETURN MATCHES: 7/27: D.C. United vs. New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m. ET; 9/21: New England Revolution vs. D.C. United, 7:30 p.m. ET

LAST YEAR (MLS):
4/14: NE 1, DC 2 (Moreno 6 – Maicon Santos 19; Pontius 82)
5/26: DC 3, NE 2 (McDonald 15; Jakovic 46+; Maicon Santos 61 –  Sene 48; Soares 50)
9/15: DC 2, NE 1 (Pontius 32; Neal 63 – Rowe 29)

• United won all three meetings a season ago, all by one goal, victorious in the two games at RFK Stadium. Those three wins snapped a five-game losing streak vs. the Revolution in the all-time league series, D.C’s first wins against New England since 2008.
• United’s win last April 14 at Gillette Stadium was their first victory in Foxborough since 2007, and snapped a five-game winless streak there.
• Coaches record: Jay Heaps vs. DC: P3 W0 L3 D0 … Ben Olsen v NE: P6 W3 L3 D0

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
The New England Revolution won their third game on the trot in impressive fashion, rolling to a 5-0 victory against the LA Galaxy on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution are in a tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 19 points from 13 matches.

LAST MATCH
WATCH: Revolution rout Galaxy at Gillette Stadium

• The Revolution took the lead in 33rd minute. From a Revolution counter, Saer Sene cut inside and played a neat one-two with Diego Fagundez on the edge of the penalty area, capping the move by slotting home the return pass off the far post.
• The lead was doubled in the 71st minute. After referee Fotis Bazakos overruled a call from his assistant referee, Fagundez played a quick free kick to catch out the visitors, finding Lee Nguyen. He entered the penalty area and tucked his effort through defender Tommy Meyer's legs and inside the near post.
• Fagundez then grabbed a deserved goal of his own three minutes from time after an enterprising run from the right side followed by a give-and-go with Kelyn Rowe.
• The hosts then piled on a pair in second-half stoppage time, with an unmarked Chad Barrett nicking a goal against his former team from the top of the box before Rowe offered the perfect ending with a sumptuous curling strike from well outside the area mere seconds before the final whistle.
• Revolution head coach Jay Heaps made one change to the team that defeated Toronto FC 2-0 at Gillette Stadium. Saer Sene came into the side in place of Jerry Bengtson.
• NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (4-1-4-1): Bobby Shuttleworth - Andrew Farrell, Stephen McCarthy, Jose Goncalves, Chris Tierney - Scott Caldwell - Diego Fagundez (Chad Barrett 88), Juan Toja (Kelyn Rowe 57), Lee Nguyen, Saer Sene (Jerry Bengtson 65) - Juan Agudelo.

TEAM NEWS

• The Revolution’s five-goal victory was the club’s largest since a 6-1 defeat of the Colorado Rapids on Sept. 19. 2009 at Gillette Stadium.
• “We just got to .500. We have five wins now. It’s important to use this as a learning experience,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “Like I said there’s really good stuff we did but there’s things we have to get better at and we can’t let a game get so wide open when we have a two-goal lead. But, right now we are trying to focus at the game at hand.”
• The Revs also kept a clean sheet for a third consecutive match, now 305 minutes without allowing a goal. It’s the fifth-longest shutout streak in club history, and the third-longest in MLS this season.
• “We were leaking a couple of goals early on that was hurting us, and falling behind in games (earlier this year).  It is tough to play from behind in this league, the first goal is so important if you look at statistics and how many wins come out of a team that scores first,” defender Chris Tierney said. “We are always trying to score first.  But at the end of the day we are always trying to keep teams off the board, which we have done. … Our defensive record is something that we are prioritizing, especially us four in the back and the guys that are in front of us.”
• “It’s just repetition. I’ve gotten a bunch of starts in a row now so I feel sharper. With every start, I’m getting more experience and learning and picking up different things,” said goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth.
• Diego Fagundez has now scored goals in four consecutive games, with the Revs recording three wins and a draw in that time. He was also credited with his first two assists of the season in the Galaxy match.
• “He has excellent body control; we see it all the time in training. But it’s tough to find that all the time on the field but today he really had it,” said Heaps. “You can see he was putting the ball exactly where he wanted it and sliding off defenders. He created the first two goals.”
• Making his first start of the season, Saer Sene scored his first goal of 2013 to send the Revs on their way. It was Sene’s first goal since last Aug. 29, when he also suffered a season-ending knee injury. Sene had made seven appearances as a substitute.
• “I thought Saer (Sene) does what he does. We wanted to get him a start. It was a conversation we had early in the year and he was coming back from injury. We circled a date to have a start and if it seemed rushed, it’s because we wanted to get him on field,” said Heaps. “I thought he did a nice job in the first half and obviously scored the goal.”
• Kelyn Rowe came off the bench for the final half-hour and recorded two assists while also adding his first goal of the season. Rowe is now tied for the MLS lead with five assists, with Kansas City’s Graham Zusi.
• Chad Barrett made his first appearance since March 23, and scored his first goal since coming to the Revolution over the offseason.
• “The guys on this team, we have so many good attacking players on this squad now,” Tierney said. “Bringing guys into the game late, that can change a game, like Chad did and Kelyn Rowe, as well. The depth of this squad is such a bonus this year. There are so many players that can hurt you, especially coming on fresh like that. I am not surprised that we scored five. It is always possible with the squad we have this year.”

D.C. UNITED
D.C. United had their winless streak stretched to a club record 11 games, after a 2-0 defeat by the Chicago Fire on Sunday afternoon at Toyota Park. United are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference with 5 points from 13 matches.

LAST MATCH
WATCH: United blanked by Fire

• The Fire were handed the lead in the ninth minute. A free kick by Joel Lindpere was swung in from the left, bounded through the box and deflected off the head of United's Nick DeLeon into his own goal.
• The home side doubled their lead in the 85th minute when Patrick Nyarko played a through ball into the box for Mike Magee, and he slotted a shot into the lower corner for his first goal with his hometown club.
• United head coach Ben Olsen made four changes to the team that lost 2-0 to the Portland Timbers at RFK Stadium. Joe Willis came back in between the posts for Bill Hamid, Conor Shanosky and Daniel Woolard started in the back four for Ethan White and Brandon McDonald, and Dwayne De Rosario returned to the lineup in place of the departed Marcos Sanchez.
• D.C. UNITED (4-2-3-1): Joe Willis - Chris Korb, Conor Shanosky (Sainey Nyassi 64), Daniel Woolard, James Riley - Perry Kitchen, Nick DeLeon - Chris Pontius, Dwayne De Rosario (John Thorrington 57), Kyle Porter (Rafael Teixeira 79) - Carlos Ruiz.

TEAM NEWS

• United saw their winless streak extended to 11 games, the longest skid without a victory in the club’s 18-year history. Earlier this season, United set a club record with a seven-game losing slide.
• “It was a lot of possession on our end, and again, we just can’t finish. They get a break on a set piece, an own goal – that’s how things are going for us right now,” said United head coach Ben Olsen. “We have to stay together and dig in, and try to get out of this situation. Not a lot is going our way but we still need to go about this in the right way. The goals hopefully will start to come and maybe some of the luck will start to change our way.”
• United were also shut out for a second consecutive game, the third time this season they’ve been blanked in back-to-back games. United have failed to score a goal in nine of 14 games in all competitions this season.
• “The goals, hopefully, will start to come and maybe some of the luck will start to go our way,” Olsen said. “We had a lot of the ball, we had a lot of the passes. Connected, we talked about going in to our forwards, back and wide and exploiting some of their weaknesses. I thought at times we did it, but we’re still not consistently threatening enough. That part has to be fixed.”
• Recalled from a loan to the USL PRO Richmond Kickers, Conor Shanosky made his full MLS league debut, starting in central defense. Shanosky started for United in their U.S. Open Cup match vs. Richmond at midweek.
• “I was extremely happy that he got into a game,” Olsen said to SoccerByIves.com. “It’s a dream come true for him to finally get a first-team game for the team that he loves and grew up watching, and I thought he did fine.”
• Said Shanosky: “I still see myself as a holding midfielder, but right now especially it’s been more center back. Personally, I’m enjoying it at the moment and want to build on that and stay at center back. But obviously, I’ll play anywhere.”
• Dwayne De Rosario returned to the starting lineup after a one-match absence, playing behind Carlos Ruiz in the attacking midfield. Ruiz was making his second consecutive start for United.
• “I think if you look at the first half, Carlos and DeRo worked well together. I thought we were getting some guys healthy where we can get a little bit of rhythm and that’s what it takes in this league. A rhythm with guys that you know, that you can play with and try to put results together,” said defender James Riley. “But now we just have to start trying to put total games together and I think right now we have to take baby steps.”
• John Thorrington came off the bench for the final 33 minutes, his first appearance since starting the first two games of the season before suffering a knee injury. “He gives us a rhythm,” Olsen said. “He’s a guy that gets it. When he comes in the game, the way we play can be altered in a positive way. So we’re looking forward to getting him back in the mix.”
• Sainey Nyassi also made his United league debut, coming on in the 64th minute.“He’s explosive. He hasn’t gotten a lot of time, but you see some of his qualities going forward and putting guys on their heels. That’s a positive. I think he’s still a little rusty from not getting a lot of games, so that’s challenge,” Olsen said.