NEW ENGLAND VS. FC DALLAS SERIES INFORMATION

• The Revolution leads the all-time, regular season series with FC Dallas (formerly the Dallas Burn), 22-10-1 … the Revs are 11-5-0 against Dallas at home, including a 6-1-0 mark at Gillette Stadium, while they are 11-5-1 on the road against the Hoops.
• Saturday night’s match is the first of two meetings between the Revs and Hoops this season … the teams will meet again on Sept. 22 at Pizza Hut Park.
• New England’s regular-season winning percentage against Dallas is .667, which is their best winning percentage against any team in MLS against whom they’ve played at least 10 matches.
• The Revolution split the two-game season series against FC Dallas in 2009 … the Revs earned a 2-1 victory over Dallas in their 2009 home opener and dropped a 1-0 decision to the Hoops at Pizza Hut Park on Sept. 30, 2009 … the loss was New England’s first since a 4-0 setback at FC Dallas on May 20, 2006.
• New England is 14-4-0 against Dallas under head coach Steve Nicol dating back to 2002 and holds a 10-2-0 advantage over the Hoops since 2004.
• New England has won six straight matches against FC Dallas at Gillette Stadium dating back to the 2004 .
• The Revs defeated Dallas, 3-2, to win his first-ever cup championship in the U.S. Open Cup Final on Oct. 3, 2007.

PLAYER NOTES VS. FC DALLAS

• Taylor Twellman is New England’s all-time leading scorer against Dallas with 14 goals, a figure that marks his greatest total against any MLS team … amazingly, Twellman has scored his 14 goals in just 13 appearances, and seven of those strikes have been game-winners.
• Cory Gibbs was a member of FC Dallas in 2004 (Dallas Burn at the time), played an MLS career-high 21 games and registered his only assist before transferring to Europe in the offseason … Gibbs spent three seasons in Europe before returning to MLS with Colorado in 2008.
• Sainey Nyassi scored one of his five career goals in the Revs’ last victory over Dallas on April 4, 2009 … Nyassi earned goal of the week honors for his left-footed strike from just outside the box.
• Preston Burpo holds a 3-3-0 career record against Dallas with a 1.17 goals against average with two shutouts … Burpo’s best stretch against FC Dallas came in 2008 when he went 2-0-0, posted a 0.50 goals against average by stopping eight of nine shots and recorded one shutout.
• Matt Reis is 9-3-0 in his New England career against Dallas, posting a 1.33 goals against average and five shutouts.

LAST MEETING

New England 0, Dallas 1
September 30, 2009 – Cotton Bowl (Dallas, Texas)
The Revolution lost its first game to FC Dallas since 2006, a streak of six consecutive victories was snapped in the wake of a 1-0 loss in the Revs’ first appearance at the Cotton Bowl since 2004. Jeff Cunningham tallied his league-leading 16th goal in the 71st minute and goalkeeper Dario Sala made two saves for the shutout.

NEWS & NOTES

REVS LOOK TO RIGHT THE SHIP AGAINST DALLAS
The Revolution is in the midst of its first losing streak of the 2010 season and may just be facing the perfect opponent to snap right out of it … FC Dallas (0-1-3) is the only winless team in the Western Conference and sits in last place among eight teams with three points … historically, the Revs have fared well against Dallas, posting a 22-10-1 all-time record against the Hoops, are 11-5-0 when facing Dallas in Foxborough, and have won six straight over FCD at Gillette.

MAY-BE THE BUSIEST MONTH OF THE SEASON
Starting with its game on Saturday, May 1 against FC Dallas, New England has a very active month of May, with eight games on the docket in 29 days … that averages out to a game every 3.625 days … the stretch includes six regular-season contests, one U.S. Open Cup game and one friendly against an international opponent (SL Benfica) … the games will be played in close proximity to home, however, as five of the eight games will be held at Gillette Stadium and the farthest the Revs will have to travel is Toronto (May 22) … May will tie for the busiest calendar month in franchise history, as the Revolution also played eight games in August 2008.

PEROVIC MAKES AN IMPACT
It took only three games, two starts and 129 minutes of play for recently-acquired Serbian midfielder Marko Perovi? to show why he is here in Foxborough … Perovi? scored the Revs’ lone goal in the 19th minute of a 2-1 loss to Colorado on Saturday night … the goal came on a curling 30-yard free kick, New England’s first from a set piece this season and was the Revs first first-half goal in 2010.

LINEUP WITH A DIFFERENT LOOK
After using identical starting lineups in the first two games of the season, head coach Steve Nicol has used three different starting lineups in the last three games … Kheli Dube returned to forward while Marko Perovic, in his second MLS start, slid back to midfield in place of Chris Tierney … additionally, both Nico Colaluca and Edgaras Jankauskas were active for their first games of the season, coming off leg injuries, and were among the 18-man gameday rosters … Colaluca did not see action, but Jankauskas came on for Zack Schilawski in the 62nd minute.

COUPLE OF CONNECTIONS WITH DALLAS
Matt Reis and FC Dallas backup goalkeeper Kevin Hartman were teammates at UCLA from 1994-96 … after returning from his first stint in Europe, Cory Gibbs spent his first MLS season with Dallas in 2004, when the club was known as the Dallas Burn … Gibbs played 21 games for Dallas in 2004, making 21 starts and registering his only career assist that season … Kevin Alston and Hoops’ midfielder Eric Alexander played together at Indiana from 2007-08 … FCD midfielder Daniel Hernandez spent parts of four seasons with the New England Revolution, from 2002-03 and 2005-06.

WESTERN CONFERENCE WOES
With the 2-1 loss last Saturday, New England is winless in its last five games with Western Conference teams, going 0-4-1 since the end of last season … the Revs last win over a Western Conference opponent came in a 2-1 victory over Seattle in Foxborough on Sept. 26, 2009 … since then, the Revolution has been outscored 7-2 in those four games … New England has two chances in the near future to end the winless streak, with home games against FC Dallas (May 1) and Chivas USA (May 5).

REVOLUTION TO FACE SL BENFICA ON MAY 19
The Revolution announced late last week that the team will play the legendary Portuguese club SL Benfica at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 19, at Gillette Stadium … founded in 1904, Benfica boasts a record 32 league titles (and is on the verge of its 33rd), 24 Portuguese Cup titles, and back-to-back Portuguese League Cups, including the 2009-10 championship … Benfica has also won two UEFA European Cups, which is now the UEFA Champions League, and earned a runner-up finish five other seasons.

JOSEPH ON LEAVE
Shalrie Joseph has been granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team to attend to personal matters … he left the team on Saturday, April 24, and will return at a later date … there is no timetable on his return to the club.

OPEN CUP DATE ANNOUNCED
As the top seed in the MLS play-in bracket for the 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the Revolution will travel on Wednesday, May 12 to play winner of the New York Red Bulls-Philadelphia Union play-in game, which his being played tomorrow, Tuesday, April 27 ... home venues for the first round of the play-in bracket were determined by coin flip on Tuesday, March 2 ... the No. 1 seeded Revs lost a coin toss and will therefore play the winner of the NYRB-PHI game on the road.

YOUTH UPDATE
The New England Revolution youth teams played a double header at Gillette Stadium on Saturday afternoon, preceding the Revs’ game on Saturday night … the Under-16s came back from a two-goal deficit to score the winner in added time and win, 4-3, over local rival FC Greater Boston … the U16s improved to 8-5-4 overall, 5-2-0 in the Northeast Division … the Under-18s also had a successful afternoon in a 2-1 win over FC Greater Boston … the U18s picked up their first win since March 20, improving to 8-8-1 overall, 4-2-1 in the Northeast Division.