Shalrie Joseph and the Revolution do battle with the Houston Dynamo in the SuperLiga final on tuesday night. Photo: Aaron Watson

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The New England Revolution will vie for international recognition and the title of North American champion on Tuesday, Aug. 5, when it hosts bitter MLS rival Houston Dynamo in the SuperLiga 2008 Final at 8 p.m. at Gillette Stadium.

The match pits New England and Houston against one another in a championship game for the third time in the past two-and-a-half seasons. The Revolution and the Dynamo have met twice before in the MLS Cup Final – in 2006 and 2007 - with Houston emerging victorious on both occasions.

The game will be televised nationally in Spanish on Telefutura, while streaming video of the match will be available in both English and Spanish on mlsnet.com and superliga2008.com. ESPN Deportes Radio will carry the game nationally in Spanish, while local listeners can tune in to the WEEI Radio Network for English audio.

After amassing the highest point total in SuperLiga group play – defeating Mexican sides Santos Laguna and Pachuca and drawing with MLS foe Chivas USA – the Revs were one of four teams to advance to the SuperLiga semifinal round.

New England hosted defending Apertura 2007 champion Atlante in the tournament semifinal on Wednesday, July 30, at Gillette Stadium, earning a 1-0 victory to advance to the SuperLiga Final. Atlante – which advanced to the semifinal based on its head-to-head result with CD Guadalajara after a three-way tie in Group A – came out looking to defeat the Revs for a second time in 2008, after beating the Revolution, 1-0, on New England’s preseason tour of Mexico. Following back and forth chances by each team, Shalrie Joseph put New England on the board in the 30th minute, sending a diving header off the bottom of the crossbar and into the back of the net. Matt Reis made four saves en route to his tournament-leading third shutout. Having only allowed one goal in SuperLiga play, Reis owns a tournament-best 0.25 goals against average.

Houston advanced to the semifinal after defeating Atlante and D.C. United and falling to CD Guadalajara in group play. The Dynamo’s six points placed it atop the Group A table with Atlante and CD Guadalajara, and the club advanced to the SuperLiga semifinal as the group winner on goal difference.

Houston hosted defending SuperLiga champion Pachuca in the tournament semifinal on Tuesday, July 29, at Robertson Stadium, earning a 2-0 victory. The two clubs traded scoring chances before Bobby Boswell capitalized for the Dynamo in the 77th minute, finishing a feed from teammates Dwayne DeRosario and Craig Waibel. Corey Ashe added the insurance goal for the hosts, scoring off a pass from Brian Mullan in the 87th minute to secure Houston’s 2-0 victory.

After almost a month off from MLS action, Houston resumed play in its regular-season schedule on Saturday Aug. 2, earning a 2-0 victory against the Columbus Crew at Robertson Stadium. Brad Davis opened the scoring for the Dynamo in the 13th minute, finishing a feed from Mullan to give Houston an early 1-0 lead. Brian Ching scored Houston’s second goal, netting a pass from Nate Jaqua in the 43rd minute. With the win, Houston moved into second place in the Western Conference table with 26 points, trailing conference leader Real Salt Lake by just one point.

Despite having met only six times in the MLS regular season, New England and Houston have developed a bitter rivalry through their two postseason meetings. The Revs hold an undefeated 3-0-3 record against the Dynamo in the regular season, including a 1-0-2 mark at Gillette Stadium. The two clubs have also met twice outside of the regular-season series in the 2006 and 2007 MLS Cups, with the Houston emerging victorious in each. Last year, New England took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute courtesy of a Taylor Twellman header, but Houston fought back with second-half goals from Joseph Ngwenya and Dwayne De Rosario en route to a 2-1 triumph. In 2006, the Dynamo won the title behind a 4-3 victory in penalty kicks after the teams played a 1-1 draw after extra time. Twellman scored for the Revs in the 113th minute, but Houston’s Brian Ching responded in the 114th minute to force penalties.

New England and Houston have already met twice during the 2008 regular season, with the Revolution earning the victory in both matches. The two sides first met in the season opener for both teams on March 29 at Gillette Stadium, when goals by Steve Ralston, Adam Cristman and Sainey Nyassi lifted the Revolution to a 3-0 victory. The two teams then faced off on June 12 at Robertson Stadium, where Reis shut out the Dynamo for the second time and goals from Ralston and Kheli Dube helped the Revs secure a 2-0 victory.

The Revolution is making its first appearance in SuperLiga – a premier tournament that features the best club teams from the United States and Mexico – after qualifying for the second annual tournament by amassing one of the four highest point totals in the 2007 MLS regular season.

SuperLiga is the second of three in-season tournaments for the Revs this year. The club has already begun its defense of its U.S. Open Cup title in the 2008 U.S. Open Cup tournament, defeating the Richmond Kickers, 3-0, in the third round and Crystal Palace Baltimore on penalty kicks in the quarterfinal. New England is also slated to begin play in the CONCACAF Champions League in late August with a two-game play-in series against Joe Public FC of Trinidad & Tobago.

Heading into this week’s MLS action, the Revs (10-4-3, 33 pts.) are the top team in all of Major League Soccer, leading the Eastern Conference by two points despite not playing a regular-season match for over a month.

The Revolution’s most recent MLS match was Friday, July 4, against the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The Revs battled to a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy behind a pair of first-half goals by Adam Cristman, reaffirming their place as the top team in the league.

Cristman and Ralston are currently tied for the Revolution team lead with six goals in the regular-season, while Ralston’s four assists are a club-best mark. Reis has played every minute of every MLS regular-season match so far, recording five shutouts and a 1.12 goals against average.

The Revolution will return to MLS regular-season action on Aug. 9 when the team hosts the Chicago Fire at 7:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium.