NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION vs SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
GILLETTE STADIUM, Foxborough, Mass.
August 29, 2009 (WEEK 24) / MLS Game #168
7:30 p.m. ET (TV38)
The New England Revolution were well known for their late charges up the table, and they will look to keep another going as they play host to the San Jose Earthquakes at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening. The Revolution are coming off two wins in four days, a 1-0 win at Seattle followed by a 3-1 home win vs. Real Salt Lake that left them in a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference after just one loss in their last six games. The Earthquakes are coming off an uplifting victory, getting the game's lone goal in stoppage time at home vs. Kansas City last weekend, their second win in three outings.
REFEREE:
Alex Prus. SAR (bench): Sean Hurd; JAR (opposite): Thomas Supple; 4th: Landis Wiley
MLS Career: 152 games; FC/gm: 28.6; Y/gm: 3.4; R: 34; pens: 43
INJURY REPORT:
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION - OUT: DF Chris Albright (L lateral meniscus tear/bone bruising); DF Kevin Alston (illness); FW Taylor Twellman (concussion); DOUBTFUL: FW Edgaras Jankauskas (L adductor strain); QUESTIONABLE: FW Kheli Dube (L hamstring strain); MF Jeff Larentowicz (R wrist fracture); PROBABLE: DF Jay Heaps (L hamstring strain); FW Kenny Mansally (L soleus strain); GK Bobby Shuttleworth (R hip flexor strain) ... SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES - DOUBTFUL: FW Cornell Glen (R hamstring strain); DF Aaron Pitchkolan (L groin avulsion); PROBABLE: MF Bobby Convey (R ankle sprain)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES:
none
SUSPENDED:
SJ: Jason Hernandez (through Aug. 30); Ian Russell (assistant coach; through Aug. 30)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD:
NE: Jay Heaps, Kenny Mansally ... SJ: Arturo Alvarez, Aaron Pitchkolan
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS:
NE: Darrius Barnes, Jeff Larentowicz, Pat Phelan ... SJ: Quincy Amarikwa, Ramiro Corrales, Darren Huckerby, Ryan Johnson, Shea Salinas, Chris Wondolowski
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (30 meetings): Revolution 10 wins (2 shootout), 40 goals ... Earthquakes 16 wins (0 shootout), 58 goals ... Ties 4
AT NEW ENGLAND (15 meetings): Revolution 5 wins (2 shootout), 18 goals ... Earthquakes 9 wins (0 shootout), 26 goals ... Ties 1
• After going winless in their last 12 encounters from 2001-2005, before the Quakes' two-year hiatus from the league, the Revolution finally defeated San Jose in their first meeting last year. The last previous New England victory against the Earthquakes came July 22, 2000, in San Jose.
• The Quakes won nine of the 12 matches over that period, with three draws.
• Before that victory, the Earthquakes had won the last three meetings between the teams in Foxborough. But San Jose hadn't won at home since 2003, tying their final two meetings against the Revs at Spartan Stadium.
• Coaches record: Steve Nicol vs. SJ: P12 W2 L7 D3 ... Frank Yallop v NE: P12 W7 L4 D1
LAST MEETING (MLS):
3/21: SJ 0, NE 1 (Dube 55)
• The teams opened the 2009 campaign against each other, the Revolution getting a rare victory in the Bay Area with a 1-0 victory March 21 at Buck Shaw Stadium.
• The game's only goal came in the 55th minute. Jeff Larentowicz flighted a ball out of midfield, where it took a deflection off the head of defender Kelly Gray. It fell right to Kheli Dube, who made no mistake in driving the ball home inside Joe Cannon's left-hand post for the Revolution's first win at San Jose since the 2000 season.
• Here's Yallop's team (4-4-2): Joe Cannon - Chris Leitch, Kelly Gray, Nick Garcia, Eric Denton - Arturo Alvarez (Shea Salinas 68), Bobby Convey, Ramiro Corrales, Darren Huckerby - Ryan Johnson (Quincy Amarikwa 57), Cam Weaver (Pablo Campos 83)
• Here's Nicol's team (4-4-2): Matt Reis - Kevin Alston (Amaechi Igwe 89), Darrius Barnes, Jay Heaps, Chris Tierney - Sainey Nyassi, Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Larentowicz, Wells Thompson - Kheli Dube, Kenny Mansally
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
The New England Revolution won for the second time in four days and for the fourth time in six matches, defeating Real Salt Lake 3-1 on Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution have 30 points from 20 matches, having now moved into a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference with Toronto FC, nine points behind the division-leading Columbus Crew.
LAST MATCH
• The Revolution were returning home after a 1-0 victory at Seattle Sounders FC just three days earlier that ended a two-game winless run. Real were coming off back-to-back shutouts, though the second was a scoreless home draw with the Houston Dynamo.
• The Revolution led 2-0 before the half-hour mark. In the ninth minute, Jay Heaps hit a hopeful ball down the left flank for Mauricio Castro to run onto, and he drove a low cross across the top of the six that Kheli Dube knocked home. Then in the 29th minute, Michael Videira cut into the area on the left and hit a shot that RSL 'keeper Nick Rimando could only palm aside, and Dube crashed in to bundle home the rebound.
• New England and Dube made it three in the 66th minute. Dube swung the ball out to Shalrie Joseph on the right flank and the Grenadian swung in a low cross to the near post that Dube turned home with a neat volley, completing his hat trick with his sixth goal on the campaign. It was the first hat trick for New England since Taylor Twellman did it in September 2005.
• RSL pulled a goal back five minutes from the end when Pablo Campos tried to drive a ball back into the goalmouth, instead bouncing off rookie Darrius Barnes' shin into the goal.
• Revolution head coach Steve Nicol made four changes to the team that defeated Seattle Sounders FC 1-0 on the road just three days before. Wells Thompson and Mauricio Castro came in at the wide midfield roles and Michael Videira and Kheli Dube comprised the strike pair, with Sainey Nyassi, Kenny Mansally and Steve Ralston all going to the substitutes' bench and Edgaras Jankauskas injured.
• Here's Nicol's team (4-4-1-1): Matt Reis - Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes, Emmanuel Osei, Jay Heaps - Wells Thompson, Jeff Larentowicz (Steve Ralston 76), Shalrie Joseph, Mauricio Castro (Kenny Mansally 81) - Michael Videira (Pat Phelan 62) - Kheli Dube. Substitutes Not Used: Nico Colaluca, Brad Knighton, Sainey Nyassi, Chris Tierney
TEAM NEWS
• Dube's hat trick was the first by a Revolution player since Taylor Twellman scored three against Columbus on Sept. 10, 2005. But it's also the continuation of a rich vein of form that started with SuperLiga. Dube scored in the season opener (against San Jose) - then did not score for nearly three months, until the SuperLiga opener on June 21. Since then, he's scored seven goals in 13 games in all competitions (adding two assists).
• "What can you say," Steve Nicol said. "It'd be a lot easier to tell you what he did wrong than what he did right. He's playing against two giants at the back and he's won headers. He's scored three goals. He's run in behind with some pace. He's held it up pretty well. Everything you want, he absolutely put it on the field today."
• Said Dube: "It's not like I did all the work. It starts with 11 players on the team, and it's all about teamwork. This has been a great weekend for us, getting two wins, and I think we played really well, which is great."
• Coming off a game three days earlier and a cross-country trip in between, Nicol chose to make four changes to his team, including giving Mauricio Castro his first start of the year (in just his second appearance) and Wells Thompson his first start in any game since May 23.
• "I think the (four) changes we made all worked tonight," Nicol said. "Wells (Thompson) I thought did a great job of going forward and defensively, Mauricio (Castro) did the same thing, put some great balls in and did a good job defensively, and (Michael) Videira, again, did the same, he held the ball up, won his fair share of headers, he had a couple of chances, had an assist, so all in all it worked. The fresh legs gave us that energy and it kind of spread through the rest of the team."
• Through their first 18 league games, the Revolution had led just one game at halftime - the 4-0 win against the New York Red Bulls on June 7. But they've now led after 45 minutes in each of the last two.
• "It's huge. I mean you see us, the last 25 minutes we're running out of steam. And saying (Matt Reis) made some saves, but that's not anything other than balls in the box and scrambling. When your legs are drained, it's harder to jump, it's harder to chase, all these things, so to stick at it the way we did was fantastic," Nicol said.
• Forward Edgarus Jankauskas missed out on the RSL match through injury, and was listed as doubtful to start the week. Midfielder Jeff Larentowicz suffered a wrist fracture and came off with a quarter-hour to go vs. Real; he is listed as questionable.
• "We were treading water for a little bit, trying to get everybody back healthy," Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis said. "We're starting to get (our full) complement of players. It's going to be a good problem for (Revolution coach Steve Nicol) to have once everybody is fit to pick the best team."
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
The San Jose Earthquakes won for the second time in three weeks, getting a goal in stoppage time for a 1-0 victory against the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday evening at Buck Shaw Stadium. The Earthquakes have 20 points from 21 matches on the year, still in eighth place in the Western Conference, now 20 points behind the first-place Houston Dynamo.
LAST MATCH
• The Earthquakes were back in action following a week off, after a 3-0 loss to the Columbus Crew. The Wizards were in their second match under interim head coach Peter Vermes, going down to a 2-0 home defeat by the Chicago Fire the week before.
• A wild first half somehow provided no goals. Cornell Glen hit the post and did put the ball in the net a second time, only for to be ruled out for a foul. San Jose goalkeeper Joe Cannon made three separate stops on breakaways at the other end.
• It took until stoppage time for the winner to come. Ramiro Corrales took a pass on the left flank and hooked in a cross where Chris Wondolowski flashed in to skip a glancing header past K.C. goalkeeper Kevin Hartman inside the far post for his second goal on the campaign.
• Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop made two changes to the team that lost 3-0 to the Columbus Crew two weeks earlier. Ramiro Corrales came into the center of midfield in place of Ramon Sanchez and Arturo Alvarez played up top in place of Ryan Johnson.
• Here's Yallop's team (4-4-2): Joe Cannon - Chris Leitch (Chris Wondolowski 83), Jason Hernandez, Brandon McDonald, Bobby Convey - Shea Salinas, Ramiro Corrales, Andre Luiz, Darren Huckerby (Ryan Johnson 64) - Arturo Alvarez, Cornell Glen (Quincy Amarikwa 39). Substitutes Not Used: Simon Elliott, Ramon Sanchez, Andrew Weber, Michael Zaher
• "I thought we showed real good heart tonight, we tried hard," said Yallop. "In this league, you [have to] put every ounce of effort into every play. I thought we did that tonight. We wanted to win the game, and it showed."
TEAM NEWS
• Joe Cannon was called upon to make a season-high eight saves against Kansas City (matching his total from the 3-3 draw vs. Chicago on April 11), with all three one-on-one stops coming in the opening 45 minutes.
• "I think making that [fifth-minute] save [on Claudio Lopez], rather than it going in, it helped the momentum and as a goalie it helps your confidence," said Cannon. "If he finishes that in the top corner, it's the same thing as the last couple of games. That always helps, starting off on the right foot."
• Wondolowski has now scored goals in two of the last three games, both after coming off the substitutes' bench. After starting his first game on June 13 following his acquisition from Houston, he made a sub appearance and then didn't figure for two games, starting the next (July 18 vs. Chicago) before coming off the bench for the last four.
• "[Wondolowski] is always ready to play," said Yallop. "No matter what, you need that in your squad. Wondo is a very good pro. He just works hard, and he doesn't worry about this minute, that minute, starting the game. He just does his job, and he won the game for us tonight."
• With Ramon Sanchez missing most of the week's training as he awaited approval of his visa, Ramiro Corrales was handed the start in midfield. There was then a further change in the second half when Bobby Convey was moved forward into the midfield and Corrales to left back - and the two combined on that flank to create the game-winning goal.
• The Earthquakes were finally able to turn around a game in the final minutes; they have conceded nine goals in the final quarter-hour (tied for third-most in MLS), and they've lost points on four occasions with a goal allowed in the final 15 minutes (one loss, three draws). They were 1-6-1 in games where they were tied at halftime.
• "We did this against Seattle, and then we went and lost 3-0 against Columbus," Yallop said. "At this point we need to win a lot of games. What we're obviously trying to do is build some good momentum. Hopefully we can get a good result next weekend. It's going to be tough, but the group must be confident now."
