9/23/04
| New England Revolution @ Chicago Fire Game Preview |
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Suddenly the team on everyone’s radar around MLS, the New England Revolution head into what may be their most important match of the season, a six-pointer showdown with the Chicago Fire at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 25 at Soldier Field. The Revolution will travel to Chicago with their playoff fate still in their own hands – with a win they will move into a place for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With a loss, the Revs would be five points out of the final playoff spot with only three games left in the regular season.
Suddenly the team on everyone’s radar around MLS, the New England Revolution head into what may be their most important match of the season, a six-pointer showdown with the Chicago Fire at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 25 at Soldier Field. The Revolution will travel to Chicago with their playoff fate still in their own hands – with a win they will move into a place for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With a loss, the Revs would be five points out of the final playoff spot with only three games left in the regular season.
The Revs currently sit in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, with the top four teams making it to the post season. Chicago, who the Revs are 1-0-1 against this season, is two points ahead of New England in fourth place.
The Revs helped their own cause in their last game, pounding the MLS-leading Colorado Rapids 6-1 in Foxborough last Saturday night. In their two previous games against Colorado, the Revs had been unable to beat Rapids goalkeeper Joe Cannon, but New England’s attack clicked on all cylinders Saturday night, getting two goals a piece from Pat Noonan, Taylor Twellman, and Steve Ralston. In the game, the Revs broke a team record of goals scored in an MLS game, which had previously been five, most recently achieved on October 25, 2004 (5-2 vs. the MetroStars).
Noonan’s goals were his tenth and eleventh of the season, putting him in a tie for the league-lead in both goals (11) and points (29).
Ralston got the scoring going in the 27th minute, connecting on a Richie Baker pass from 10 yards out that beat Cannon. That goal tied the game at one goal apiece, and was Ralston’s forth tally of the season.
Forty seconds later, New England went ahead on a goal scored by Twellman, his seventh goal of the season. Twellman entered the top corner of the area from the left flank. He then dribbled the ball, parallel with the goal line, beating three Colorado defenders along the way before blasting a right-footed shot to the near post past Cannon.
In the 36th minute, the Revs added to their lead when Ralston scored his second of the game on a penalty kick awarded after Rapids defender Pablo Mastroeni blocked a Noonan cross with his arm.
New England capped off their first half scoring frenzy when Ralston dribbled the ball in from the left flank, beating Colorado defender Antonio de la Torre to the byline before cutting a pass back out toward the penalty spot. Noonan ran onto Ralston’s clever ball and chipped the ball past Cannon to the back post to give New England a 4-1 lead going into halftime.
The four first-half goals tied a team record for most goals scored in a half. The previous, and only other time, that a Revolution team had scored four goals in a half, was on July 18, 1997, against the Tampa Bay Mutiny.
Both Noonan and Twellman would add tallies in the second half, making the score a 6-1 final. It has only happened only one other time in MLS history that a team has had three different players each score two goals in the same game: by the 1998 LA Galaxy. All three Revs players (Twellman, Noonan, and Ralston) hail from the same hometown of St. Louis, Missouri; the fourth member of the Revolution from St. Louis, midfielder Brian Kamler, assisted on Noonan’s second goal of the night.
The Revs hope to continue their scoring ways against Chicago, whom they have scored four goals against this season, in a 1-1 tie on July 11 at Soldier Field, and a 3-1 win three days later at Gillette Stadium. Chicago hopes to turn its luck around, after a disappointing 3-1 loss to D.C. in their last MLS game and a 1-0 overtime loss to the Kansas City Wizards in Wednesday night’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final.
In the match against United, the Fire never led in the game, and only managed to get on the scoreboard in added time of the second half, when Fire forward Andy Williams beat D.C. goalkeeper Nick Rimando after Chicago was awarded a penalty kick for United defenseman Mike Petke’s handball in the box.
New England is still missing goalkeepers Adin Brown and Kyle Singer, defender Carlos Llamosa and forward Joe-Max Moore, who have been out with long-term injuries. The Revs will probably also be missing newly signed defender Steve Howey and captain Joe Franchino because of quad and hip injuries, respectively.Chicago will also be playing without some of the top players who featured for the Fire earlier in the season series. Forward DaMarcus Beasley was transferred to the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven on Thursday, July 22, which was a week after the Fire and Revs last met. When the Revs last played in Chicago, Beasley played in both the U.S. National Team game and the Revs-Fire match. The Illinois club will also be missing Justin Mapp (knee sprain) and Ante Razov (ankle bone spur) because of injuries.Captain Chris Armas, however, has returned from arthroscopic surgery more quickly than was expected and played in substitute duty in Wednesday’s Open Cup final. Armas could well feature alongside Jesse Marsch in central midfield for Chicago on Saturday night. If there is a winner in Saturday’s game, that team will certainly gain momentum going into the final three matches of the regular season. As is always the case in a six-pointer like this, gaining the full share of the points means keeping your opponent from claiming any of points at stake as well. The Revs have made late-season playoff runs in each of the past two seasons, going a combined 7-0-1 in their final four matches the past two seasons.Saturday night’s match can be seen live on Fox Sports Net New England and will be broadcast on radio live on WRKO 680 AM as well as streaming live here on revolutionsoccer.net.
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